Gate warning device

[ukrkoz]

Hi all

Maybe not a right forum, but let me ask.

We have a long driveway, roughly 300 feet away from house, and gate at the end. The way it is, gate can be stopped open, by pressing and holding remote button for a few seconds. This disables auto-close feature (1 minute) and gate stays open.

Of course, we do have that gate left open now and then. I finally hammered this into my son, but it still happens, as other family members and some friends have remotes.

IS anyone aware of a device, that can be installed on the gate, to give me REMOTE warning that gate is open? A red light maybe?

Thank you

 

[85mcss]

Hi all

Maybe not a right forum, but let me ask.

We have a long driveway, roughly 300 feet away from house, and gate at the end. The way it is, gate can be stopped open, by pressing and holding remote button for a few seconds. This disables auto-close feature (1 minute) and gate stays open.

Of course, we do have that gate left open now and then. I finally hammered this into my son, but it still happens, as other family members and some friends have remotes.

IS anyone aware of a device, that can be installed on the gate, to give me REMOTE warning that gate is open? A red light maybe?

Thank you

It could be as easy as pulling a comm cable through the conduit run that feeds the gate and installing a little N.O. (or N.C.) limit switch that is hit when the gate is fully open. I would say to hook it into your alarm system but bypass that sensor for normal operation so that it would not trip the alarm when open or closed but it would still show up on the screen that sensor X was open (or closed).....

I always notice when i walk by one of my keypads and one of the sensors is activated (door open on other side of house. etc..)

just my .02

Come to think of it, I'm going to go home this afternoon and try it on my gate!

 

[ukrkoz]

It's powered by sun. Gods, forgot the name for the thing.. I simply need to know, when it's open. Sometimes we leave it open on purpose, sometimes it just happens. All I need is to know when it's open, as kid comes back sometimes late into night. Should I have that light in my bedroom, easy for me to step out and close it from remote, it reaches that far.
Any extensive wiring etc is beyond me. I need something like an alarm system sensor that sends remote signal to a device in my bedroom saying - gate is open. I sleep very light, something like this will catch my attention.

 

[Sureshot]

Put on a timer that starts counting down when the gate gets opened. When the desired time has passed and the gate is still open it will send a wireless signal to your house to turn on a light or alarm or what ever you want. You may have to marry products but it doesn't seem that difficult to do. Ebay has lots of wireless stuff to get ideas and magnetic switches and timers etc.

 

[85mcss]

Put on a timer that starts counting down when the gate gets opened. When the desired time has passed and the gate is still open it will send a wireless signal to your house to turn on a light or alarm or what ever you want. You may have to marry products but it doesn't seem that difficult to do. Ebay has lots of wireless stuff to get ideas and magnetic switches and timers etc.

True! A wireless switch w/indicator would be easy enough!

 

[ukrkoz]

sure. Dumm electrically. Ask me mechanical stuff - no sweat. There's Garage Butler, I even have one in a box, not sure how to rig it though. I can't have any wires running from there. Gost to be remote.

 

[Sureshot]

It is a series of swithces. Gate opens-switch closes and power goes to timer. After ?? amount of time the timer circuit closes and sends the power to the transmitter. Reciever gets signal and turns on radio, light, tv, ceiling fan, shower, or anything else you can imagine that can be turned on or off except maybe the wife or mistress. But that could likely be accomplished under the right circumstances.

 

[Cardboard Man]

I can't think of a way to rig a sensor that will fit your exact needs, but how about this as an alternative. Since it seems that someone holding the button on their remote too long will bypass the auto close feature, how about installing a keypad for them to use instead of a remote? I know it's not as handy because they will have to stop and enter the code, but it has the benefit of giving you some additional versatility. Each person could have a unique code that could be revoked if necessary, and you can also activate some 'throw-away' codes for times that you need to give one to a delivery driver or maintenance worker. Not what you were asking for but it's all I could think of.

 

[Sureshot]

Can you change the time to disable or disable the ability to disable the autoclose?
Then if you want it left open you could open it and disable the power to the opener or some other manual means that you control.

 

[drmarkr]

Here's what I did.....assuming you have line of sight to the gate.

I bought some adhesive backed reflectors. Put one on the moving part of the gate, and one at the fixed side. At night, I just shine a bright flashlight out there, and if the reflectors are "together", I know it's closed. If not, hit the remote and watch to see the reflector moving.

 

[Playwme]

Get a cheap laser pointer and mount it on top of the gate post. Point it right through your bedroom window and rig up a switch on the gate which will activate the laser pointer when the gate is open.

 

[AndyL]

For wireless... your a bit more difficult. 300' is a long way... I did one for a customer where I just used one of the lift master door position sensor - and mounted it on a stake with a pivot/return spring - gate open it trips indicates a red light... but that was a lot closer.

I can think of a few ways to do it, pair of arduinos with wifi shields, tied into the maglock circuit might be easiest. But there also could be an off the shelf part too.

My automatic answer would be increase your timer to close timing, obviously its a bit shorter than some need to get out...

 

[nehog]

Why not a 'dead-man' timer? This is a timer that after a certain (programmable) time has passed, activates a circuit. The circuit in this case would be the gate close.

So you set the dead-man for (say) ten minutes. If the gate is open it will close by itself. If it is closed, it should do nothing. Or a simple modification could test with a switch whether the gate is closed or not if there is only one open/close contact.

Another possible modification would be to only let this circuit work at night, so you can leave the gate open during the day if you wish.

Down side is that the gate will close unexpectedly once it times out, but with the proper safety setup that should not be a problem.