Michael Holigan: The owners of a ranch house needed to secure the perimeter of their property. They had a sturdy fence and gate and wanted an easy-to-install gate opener. They chose a solar powered Mighty Mule automatic gate opener system that is similar in design to a garage door opener. It allowed them to open and close the gate from the security and convenience of their car with a variety of remote control products.
Tracy Van Hook: Perimeter access control is no longer just for the rich and famous. It's now affordable. It's easy to install, easy to use and easy to find in home centers and hardware stores across the country.
Jay Payne: Prior to the installation of the gate operator, it's important to make sure that the gate is properly installed. The gate has to be level, plumb and swing freely on its hinges. We install the gate operator on the brackets and secure them with clevis pins and hairpin clips. And the post pivot bracket is the point that has to be secure. It has to be bolted completely through the gate post in order to handle the thrust of the gate operator itself.
Michael Holigan: Next, they install the points where the gate will stop in the open and close position. These formed the boundaries of the gate arc. The stops can be wood or metal posts secured in concrete.
Jay Payne: Once we have the opener installed on the gates themselves, we find a position for the control box close to the gate post itself and at least three feet above the ground. And then we will mount it. In this case, we'll mount it using wood furring strips and then mount the control box itself to those. Then we'll find a convenient location for the receiver itself, usually right on the gate post or the fence.
Michael Holigan: They connect the power cables to both the master and slave operator arms on the two gates to the control box.
Jay Paybe: The wires from the gate operators are color coded so it's easy to find out which terminal blocks they go into. It's important to get them all the way inside of the terminal block without letting them touch one of the other wires, so that they don't short out the system. The first operator of the master is wired in the control board in this terminal block right here. And the slave operator, or the second operator, is wired into this terminal block.
Michael Holigan: The power cable from the control box to the slave opener arm on the second gate is run under the driveway and is protected in PVC conduit. They pull the power cable from the control box and plug it into the gate operator.
One of the great things about this do-it-yourself gate opener kit is it comes with a solar power cell. Now we're not generating power that opens the gate. It doesn't have to be sunny every time we drive up. We're actually generating about five watts of the power whenever we're in the sunlight. That power is going into a battery and then the gate is actually controlled off of that battery so we're going to use the juice from the battery. All we're doing now is trickling that power in to keeping that battery charged. So even if we drive up at nighttime, it's going to open it up. By going with solar power, we don't need to put electrical line in the ground, we don't have to have an electrician come in. Very, very easy to install and it is something you can do yourself.
Taped a volt meter here on the bottom and you can see that even with some cloud cover and underneath the tree we are getting some power into our battery. Cover it up, this would be nighttime, see the power drop back down? But back out and it's good to go. Not only is it easy to install, but very, very low maintenance. All you've got is a photo cell and a battery.
Tracy Van Hook: The battery actually lasts three to five years and costs less than an automotive battery.
Michael Holigan: Solar panels are particularly suited for remote installations where the gate is too far from a power source. The solar panel needs to be installed facing south and where it can get as much direct sunlight as possible during the day.
Jay Paybe: You're bringing the wires from the solar panel into the control box and wire them directly into this terminal strip, it's marked solar, and that will provide the charge for the batteries during the daylight hours.
Tracy Van Hook: It's very easy to install. The average person can install a gate opener in two to three hours with basic handyman tools.
Michael Holigan: In case of a system failure, the gate can be opened manually by simply removing the hairpin clip and the clevis pin at either end of the opener arm.
Jay Paybe: At this point of installation, if you have other accessories, either entry or exit control devices that you want to add on, like key pads or exit ones, they would come into the control box and be wired directly into these terminals here.
Michael Holigan: If the gate hits something while opening or closing, it will stop and reverse for two seconds.
Tracy Van Hook: It works on just about any type of gate up to 16 feet in length per gate leaf and up to 350 pounds.
Michael Holigan: For more information on Easy to Install Mighty Mule gate openers, visit mightymule.com or contact GTO incorporated at 1-800-543-GATE.
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