chansen1963
New Member
Hi, I have built an electric sliding gate opener based on a 4Wd remote controil winch motor and curcuit. The mechanical have been working fine for 12 months now, but the electronics remain problematic.
The gate and adjoining fence is made of colour-bond -sheet metal, and so it blocks the radio range a lot when on the opther side of the gate/fence.
I bought a 315mhz 4 channel relay unit, which has a coiled wire antenna on the Rx unit. which is about 25cm when stretched out.
I mounted the receiver atop the 6' high fence, in a weatherproof box, in order to get a good radio range.. however the main relays down at the motor seem to chatter ie switch on/off rapidly causing a slow and jerky gate movement.
I think the 4-ch relay unit is having problems with the voltage drop in getting the power and return signals from the remote unit back down the 6' cable to the main relays to switch the motor on/off..
Q. will the 315mhz antenna work best coiled or stretched out ??
Q. is there any other way to increase the range , or use a different remote servo unit that will penetrate the fence, and thus NOT neeed to be mounted on top ??
The units work fine as long as I stay within 20' of the receiver, with no metal between.. but this ispretty useless for a gate opener, as you want ot begin opening it when you are say 1/2 a block away !!
anyone got any suggestions to improve this system
or improve the method of re-locating the remote 4ch relay receiver, so that the voltage drop will be managable ?
The gate and adjoining fence is made of colour-bond -sheet metal, and so it blocks the radio range a lot when on the opther side of the gate/fence.
I bought a 315mhz 4 channel relay unit, which has a coiled wire antenna on the Rx unit. which is about 25cm when stretched out.
I mounted the receiver atop the 6' high fence, in a weatherproof box, in order to get a good radio range.. however the main relays down at the motor seem to chatter ie switch on/off rapidly causing a slow and jerky gate movement.
I think the 4-ch relay unit is having problems with the voltage drop in getting the power and return signals from the remote unit back down the 6' cable to the main relays to switch the motor on/off..
Q. will the 315mhz antenna work best coiled or stretched out ??
Q. is there any other way to increase the range , or use a different remote servo unit that will penetrate the fence, and thus NOT neeed to be mounted on top ??
The units work fine as long as I stay within 20' of the receiver, with no metal between.. but this ispretty useless for a gate opener, as you want ot begin opening it when you are say 1/2 a block away !!
anyone got any suggestions to improve this system
or improve the method of re-locating the remote 4ch relay receiver, so that the voltage drop will be managable ?
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