Best solution for driveway gate automation?

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1

I’ve tried doing some searching but I’m not sure what the best solution would be for controlling an automatic gate opener. I know I could do a wifi switch, but I’m just not sure the wifi signal will be all that reliable being that the opener is at the end of the driveway a good distance away from the house.

Is there some device that can learn and send the signal of the remote for the opener? I’m thinking that could work since it could just send the signal from my garage, which is close enough to wifi and power.

Any help appreciated!

2

Do you have ZWave in your setup? Would the signal reach the gate?

I posted my setup here using a ZWave Mimolite device hooking it right into the gate controller: Swing Gate sensor

3

The best solution would be to pay an employee to open the gate for you as you approach. Comes with non-artificial intelligence. Bit expensive though.

In terms of range, the lower the frequency the longer the range. So for easy IoT that pretty much means some form of 433MHz system.

Keep in mind that burying outdoor cat5 cables isn’t that hard either.

4

If you can get a spare RF remote for the the gate you could use the method described in the following link

It uses a Sonoff SV in isolated mode and works a treatl

5

I would not use 433mhz Rf stuff here. Although I am generally not that concerned about security, using (generally not encrypted) RF to open a door or gate is the Smart Home equivalent of „typing“ your password pin using a voice assistant in public :slight_smile:
Would be more straight forward to leave the gate open in the first place.

If you have already a system using a remote control you could shortcut the open/close button of this remote using a WiFi chip like esp8266 leaving the remote in the garage and „remote control the remote control“ with WiFi

6

I solved that challenge 5 years ago with a WEMO Maker. WiFi reaches all the way to my deck AP.
The Maker controls the gate and has a sensor to determine if Open or CLose. Works flawlessly.
Bad news is Belkin discontinued the Maker. I despise Belkin (the company) and as soon as I can find another WiFi solution with a temporary switch and sensor I will consider an alternative.

7

Thanks for the idea. This could work. I’m just not sure if the opener is close enough for the z-wave signal. It could be. My RbPi is only blocked by one wall until it’s open air to the gate opener, and I’m seeing online that zwave has a pretty far range when there is no obstructions.

Question though, how is the Mimolite powered?

8

This is more or less what I was looking to do. I might give it a shot! Thanks!

Have you worked out including a sensor to show if the gate is closed or open?

9

If you click my link above you can see that I bought a pack of cheap magnet home alarm window sensors.

The mimo essentially has three pairs of wires that it gets connected to:

  1. power from the gate battery
  2. alarm sensor to see if it’s open or closed
  3. trigger to the gate control panel board to trigger the open / close toggle
10

Gotcha thanks. I’m trying to make sense of how the mimo would connect with my opener. Perhaps you could help?

For the power, my opener has a 24VDC and a GND terminal. I assume I would connect a wire from the 24VDC to the + and the GND to the - ?

For the controls, my opener has COM, STP, CLS, OPN. Pretty sure I would connect COM to COM, NO to OPN, and NC to CLS?

11

I have got a Deconz/Conbee zigbee network and the gate us within range so I just used an Xiaomi Aqara battery powered door/window sensor.

12

How’d you go ted? Im about to start looking into the same.

13

Hijacking this thread for a similar question. I have a driveway gate that is solar powered and should have sufficient WiFi signal out there. Looking for a solution that can monitor the batteries of the gate opener as I’ve had some issues where the gate will not open and my assumption is the batteries are depleted.