How to make electric swing gates yourself

There was an idea to make the swing gates yourself, as usual because of laziness. No wonder they say "laziness is the engine of progress." I decided to equip my garage swing gates with automation. The main issue arose with the drive.

When I found out how much what they put, it was a shock. And I’ll tell you why. If you pay 300 euros for two drives, well, excuse me, for what? Since I myself am engaged in satellite television, I decided to think a little bit unconventionally and cross “a camel with a rhino”.

As you know, in the old rotary systems of satellite dishes, a worm gear motor was used to extend the rod that drives the antenna. The principle of operation is the same as in the standard swing gate operator. Moreover, it seems to me that it even has its advantages. The drive needs 220V, and this one is powered through a transformer with a constant voltage of 36V, which is better in terms of safety.

How to make the swing gates open a little faster? Voltage can be raised, for example up to 38V. The motor does not work for long and calmly withstands.

Now in order.

We need two of these drives. We take the largest. Drives that have the longest stem possible. At companies selling satellite dishes there are still such drives available. The cost of one drive is 35-50 dollars, depending on the greed of the company.

36-40 volt transformer.

And most importantly, the automation panel. A remote control with two remote controls, a range of 50 meters, we buy at a company that is engaged in security alarm. The price of such a thing is 30-50 dollars, also depends on the greed of the company. I bought from a very greedy company and paid as much as $ 31 for it. In fact, this is all that I bought. Found the rest at home. By the way, the remote control carries out two commands: the first I used to close-open the gate, and the second, so as not to disappear, to turn on / off the light in the garage.

It took half a day to do all the work, taking into account that the swing gates were already hanging in the garage for a long time.

Of the disadvantages is that this system would have to be further developed by the current relay.

In order that when a stone or some other obstacle gets under the gate leaf, the relay will operate and return the automatic gate back. Otherwise, the motor may burn out or even turn off, bend the gate.

Everything was born in order to try whether it would work, and for three years now it has been serving faithfully.