Driveway electric slide gate fails close during rain

Factual Questions
1

Is it OK for me to request help here concerning diagnosis of the subject topic?
Thanks,
GMAK

2

Sure.

Sounds like a shorted limit switch to me.

3

I’d imagine it’s okay to ask questions about your gate here. More specifics about the symptoms might be useful.

4

yes you can.

i would suspect that a switch or cabling/wiring is making an electrical connection due to moisture.

provide more detail so that people could give a better answer.

5

OK…

My alley neighbor has one of those automated driveway gates that operates via RC.

Every time that the weather is rainy, I can see them leave without closing the gate. I asked about it a while back, and I was told it won’t close with rainy weather. Today I watched as the neighbor tried to get it to close by rubbing a small disc on the closing station of the structure.

Anyway, I then realized the thing has the same kind of a safety beam that city code dictates on an electric garage door. And this beam is being broken because it is more exposed to the elements than the similar unit for a garage door.

So, I thought I’d solicit ideas for how to fix or bypass the beam for rainy operation. It probably doesn’t need adjustment because it will work in dry weather. And, unlike the garage door, that has a beam emitter from both sides of the garage, the gate setup seems like it emits the beam from the motor area into a simple mirror near the close station. It looks like this mirror is the “disc” that the neighbor was trying to hand rub/clear.

Personally, I would simply mount a similar mirror very near the emitted beam. But, I guess there may be more appropriate solutions.

Thanks,

GMAK

6

Actually, it probably only needs adjustment.
The beam may be just barely hitting the reflector, which is OK in dry weather, but not good enough in wet. I’d put a piece of paper over the reflector, and use a video camera that can see IR to see where the beam is hitting it.

7

That’s a good idea, but I’m not sure if I have a video/camera that can detect infrared. I kinda’ thought that it was the improper image reflection due to the water droplets on the mirror. It sounds like this may be a job for the installation company. But, it also seems like a poor design, because less than 75 feet away is another gate with the same problem. Although they both are intermittent failures depending on the volume of rain.

Thank you for your suggestion.

GMAK

8

Well, it probably IS a bad design.
And, it may not work correctly even after being perfectly aligned, in which case you could “fix” it by defeating the interlock, but there are good reasons why doing that might not be advisable.

9

maybe a hood on the transmit/receive windows and the mirror might help. the beam might be getting scattered or blocked by rain/water drops directly on those parts.

10

The usual problem is cameras that are not fitted with an IR filter. Most are not, so the chances are that any digital camera - still or video - will be able to see the spot. The cheaper the better. You can test the camera by seeing if it can see the IR beam from a TV remote control.

Testing the gate will need to be done in the dark.

You might do better facing the camera at the source and moving the camera around to find the point where the beam is brightest - and iterating from there.

11

Yes, maybe a bad idea. They have small kids and dogs. But, I don’t think it has enough power to hurt anybody/anything.

Thanks again, for your ideas.

GMAK

12

Yes, maybe a bad idea. They have small kids and dogs. But, I don’t think it has enough power to hurt anybody/anything.

Thanks again, for your ideas.

GMAK

13

I considered that, but wasn’t sure that would still repel the rain. At a glance, the mirror appears about the right size to support the circumference of a Campbell’s soup can slid over it.

Thank you, for your help.

GMAK

14

I will suggest that we give that a try. That’s easy enough for experimentation, and we don’t have to tear into anything, initially.

Thank you, for your help.

GMAK

15

For anyone still interested in this topic, I did find a small device(reflector hood, as suggested earlier by “johnpost”(03/04/2015 @ 19:32)), at:

Once again, thanks to everyone for their advice, assistance, and suggestions. I will reference this dialog when passing this information to the neighbor.

Thanks,

GMAK

16

Gates that are manually handled are often subject to mishandling. On many occasions, they remain unlocked.