Newbie post - so first off, Hi! Gate control

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Hi everyone,

FIrst post here, sort of new to Home Assistant, have been toying with this for a while, but the installation of a new electric gate has given me the push over here. I thought I could achieve what I wanted through Alexa and Google, but I realise their routines are just too basic.

So, to just set the scene, the gate installed has a basic remote with two buttons, one is a full gate open, the other is a partial gate open for pedestrian access. The pedestrial access will only operate for it’s when the gate is closed or in its own open state (so you cannot go from full gate open to pedestrial gate open with the pedestrial button - a limitation of the board I’m lead to believe). The gate open button works in all positions.

I have added a smart relay switch which performs the same function as the simple remote, so far, so good.

The issue is, there is no indicator from the board to say what state the gate is in, closed (C), open (O) or pedestrian (P). So say for instance I am out in the car, come home thinking the gate is C but for some reason it is P or O, if I give the verbal command to Alexa or Google to open it, the pulse through the relay will actually close it.

The reality is the smart relay will rarely be used through the app, it will be done through verbal commands, mostly through Alexa at home though we do have Android Auto (though my AA told me the other day that routines were not supported, despite a search saying it was from Feb this this year. Anyhoo), so my thought was to have commands of ‘gate/pedestrian gate open/close’, but where the system can log whether an ‘open’ command has already been given an will not allow a further one until a ‘close’ command had been given.

Apologies for the long-winded explanation, but thought it was worth it in case there was another word around. Just going back to my electronics days and logic gates and thinking ‘how would this play out in that situation?’. Happy days.

Thank you all for your help. Hopefully as I learn the system, I will be able to contribute too!

Stay safe and take care.

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Do you have zigbee and or zwave? As maybe a simple door contact would be enough for HA to know if gate is opened or closed, as you can’t go from open to pedestrian the this could work…maybe

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I don’t, happy to get one. I know they’re hubs (or believe they are), not sure how they will help though. Also, ‘HA’ - what is this sorry?

I’ve got a crude workaround for the gate open to pedestrian open, a routine that does gate closed - waits 1 min - open pedestrian gate

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Home Assistant :slight_smile:
If you spent much time on the forum, it gets boring typing it full out all the time.

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I think adding a sensor will be the best option. here you have a lot of choices so keep reading here to find the best option for you.
Zigbee/Zwave
also which integration to use with the chosen platform.

A workaround is hard to do in my opinion because you only have two inputs,
button A (open/close) and B(pedestrian open) where B doesn’t do anything when the gate is opened.

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Makes perfect sense, spot the newbie in the room.

So just chatting to the gate installer, there might be a way around this.

The gate is currently sent to its own latching function, i.e. it operates the gate based on an input pulse received. It can be changed to an ‘open only’ mode, in this mode, the input pulse operates to open the gate only, any additional pulses do nothing. There is then a timer built into the board to close it after a set time.

The switch I am using has a latching/inching function on it, which would prevent the timer from starting, I’m lead to believe. This way, if the gate was open and the ‘open gate’ command was given, could a check be done to see if the switch was latched and if it was, nothing would happen. The other issue is, the smart life app has a 1hr or 3600 second limit for the latch - is there any way to extend this in Home Assistant?

What do you think to this?