Cantilevered Gate, Remote Controlled

[GuglioLS]

This is a project I concocted with some spare parts and steel tube I had laying around.
We needed an automatic “Estate” gate to keep our Alaskan Malamutes in and the “un desirables” out. For many years my wife and I would stop the car get out, open the gate, get back in the car, drive through the gate, stop the car, get back out, close the gate, get back in the car then drive off, over and over again and again.

So one day I said to myself – self, enough is enough! So I built this automatic gate

Anyway here are the basic details:

40' long 5' tall gate made out of 2 & 1/2" steel pipe.
Reinforced with 5/8" rebar every 5 feet. The cantilever wheel support posts are 3" dia steel pipe. The holes for the support posts are 4' deep x 12" dia filled with concrete.
The pipe is suspended in the concrete so as to avoid rusting out from the bottom.


Overall picture of the gate.


This type of gate is called a Cantilevered gate I.E. suspended by wheels attached to posts and balanced by it’s own weight. The advantage is that it opens & closes no matter how deep the snow gets as it does not touch the ground. The disadvantage is that the gate must be twice a long as you want it to open + about 1-2 feet. And if purchased and installed costs about 7 grand. I was able to build mine for around 1 grand.

The remote control electronics are from an automatic garage door opener.
The real trick was to interface those electronics to a more powerful 1.5 hp reversible motor with an electric disk brake and 90* gear reducer to drive the whole thing. Being an Electronics Engineer with access to some “Spare” relays, & SCR’s etc sure helped.

Mechanical & Electronics Control Box cover – Fabricated by a duct work sheet metal shop in Albuquerque, NM. Inside is what moves the gate and is cemented into the ground four feet. You might notice the drive chain in the background and the conduit that houses the magnetic limit switches.



Larry

[GuglioLS]

Angle view of the gate, drive chain, tensioning turn buckle and Magnet for the limit switch.



View of my home made overhead Power Lines. I had to run power 600 feet from my barn to the gate. The wire came from a spool left over form when the electric company replaced all the power lines & poles out here. It was a trade for some blasting I did for them on a couple of pole holes in solid rock. This summer I will bury them underground.
Please, no questions or comments from the Power Police, NEC Police, Linemen, OSHA, ATF, etc. Unless you want to come out here and help me bury this!



Larry

[GuglioLS]

Close up of a Cantilever wheel – it has needle bearings that I grease.




Driveway Alert Transmitter

I work out of a home office and Esther is a full time homemaker. We need to know when Family, Friends, Neighbors UPS, FedEx & the “un-desirables” show up at our driveway. We installed a Driveway Alert Transmitter with a 1200 foot range. We also have a means of opening & closing the gate from the house as well as with any of our remote transmitters in our vehicles, tractors, ATV’s etc.


Larry

[GuglioLS]

One of the lower Cantilever support wheels with drive chain tensioning turnbuckles.



1.5 HP Motor, Disc Brake, 90* reducing gear and electronics.
One of the tricks was to get the disk break to disengage prior to starting the motor. I did this with an electronic time delay for the motor. The reason I used a disk break was to stop the gate INSTANTLY when commanded by any of the limit switches or the remote control. There is a large amount of inertia from the motor & the weight of the gate.



Larry

[GuglioLS]

Close up of the chain drive sprocket.


Details of how the drive chain is connected to the ends of the gate.



Larry

[GuglioLS]

Magnetic limit switch details.



Overall view of the drive mechanism & Electronics



Larry

[GuglioLS]

On the end of the motor shaft is a rotation sensor. Garage door openers have this to determine several things 1. Is the motor tuning when commanded? If not, stop and reverse if it is closing. Or 2. stop if trying to open. 3. How far has the motor traveled? (count’s revolutions) if the motor keeps going & going then there must be a problem – no limit switch or broken chain, if this happens then the motor is turned off.



Final view of the 600+ feet of home made overhead power lines



Larry

[GuglioLS]

Here’s a video of it opening:



Here’s one of it closing:


Larry

[GuglioLS]

And a close up of a cantilever wheel:


I have designed, built and installed three remote controlled gates. Mine, One for my neighbor Herman, and another for another neighbor Wayland. They are all different if enough are interested I will show some videos of them in action.

I hope you enjoyed my gate project.

Larry

[stumppuller]

Tell me more about the Driveway Alert Transmitter. I'll soon be making a powered gate & need to find out as mauch as possible.

Thanks, Bruce

[GuglioLS]

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for checking out my gate build and your interest in the remote driveway alert system. Here are a few links to the transceiver system system I have. It works amazingly well and has survived being outside exposed to the elements for at least 12 or more years.

www.drivewayalarmproducts.com/site/1313933/product/70-603

www.drivewayalarmproducts.com/site/1313933/product/70-604

www.drivewayalarmproducts.com/site/1313933/product/70-605

There are some systems available with two way voice communication and video. I saw your post of your remote Santa Cruz property. How many acres do you have? I presume you want to use the remote driveway transmitter at your property. About how far apart would the transmitter and receiver be?

Larry