#Diy automatic gate opener trial#

This paid off later as I took the motor assembly off multiple times to work on it.Īs you can see, I attached the motor to the motor assembly. Taking the motor off would have been very difficult especially because I was working in a tight space. I decided to make the motor assemble removable from the main gate base because I might want to work on it separately.

This was so I can mount my motor assembly on top, without having to worry about having a sturdy base. I first attached a steel sheet between the two angle iron pieces. So I decided to mount it on the bracket that was holding the gate in place. I had a near finger loosing incident when I was building the combat robot so I speak from experience.īased on that experience, I wanted the assembly to be as tucked away as possible. And if you get your finger in the sprocket, you can kiss it good buy. The electronics and control are whole different story and they will come later on.įrom a past accident, I knew that these motors are no joke. So I was confident it would have enough power to drive the gate.įor now I had all the plan that I needed. I remembered that this motor had a lot of torque and was very well built. I was shooting for low cost so I dug into my left over parts bin and found a car windshield wiper motor from my combat robot build. The mounting of the chain on the top edge worked well for me since I had a bracket on the top to mount the motor assembly so everything could sit neatly at the top of the gate. And their big sections mean minor misalignment will not matter much. I have used them before so I was familiar with their working. That got me thinking about using motorcycle chain. So whatever my translation method was going to be, would have to cater for that variation. I realized that my gate was not built very well and had some variations in its motion. For you it might mean something else and I would recommend you to first fully understand your system before settling on a strategy. For me this meant my heavy, all metal, sliding gate. The first thing I did was understand the existing system I was working with. There are many ways that such a project can be tackled, each with its own advantages and drawbacks.

I started thinking about how I would go about it.

_Īlso follow me on other platforms as I share my progress in between projects. If you like what I have made and explained, please consider giving me a vote.

Hopefully you will be able to get some insight and avoid the mistakes that I made. If you are looking into building something like this, I would encourage you to do so as I explain all the problems that I encountered during my build process.

#Diy automatic gate opener trial#

It took me a lot of trial and error, and a lot of hard work but I was able to set up a reliable system for a price point that no other system can beat. But then I took it as a challenge and started putting a rough plan together. I pretty much gave up on the idea of buying a complete system and looked into some DIY approaches.Īfter my initial research, I concluded that it will be very difficult and time consuming to build it from scratch. The systems on AliExpress were also pretty expensive, the cheapest one being $500 before taxes. These were Italian systems and were supposed to be very high quality. The local vendors were offering complete solutions including installation for > $1000. So I started my research and looked into package solutions on AliExpress and local vendors. Over the summer, my dad motivated me to look into buying a gate automation system and setting it up.