Commercial & residential Vehicular Gates
- Thread starter hugasohhh
- Start date
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I don't believe security wiring is specifically covered. It is mentioned several times in Article 708 Critical Operations Power Systems. For typical security wiring, I'd probably first look to Article 725 Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 Remote-Control, Signaling, and Power-Limited Circuits...
hurk27
Senior Member
- Location
- Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
Generally all the NEC applies to electrically controlled gate systems, plus there are many safety codes that must be followed, and there are local codes of things like EMG vehicle access either by key switch or push to open, here in Indiana push to open is required on any community gate, not on a private one, inverter backup, generator back up are all covered in the NEC, as was said low voltage and signaling is 725, and can include chapter 8, each will depend upon what is required locally, you will probably see allot of very shady work done by fence installers, I have had my share, like unsealed wire splices underground Etc...
Line voltage is the side that is more of a concern for me since it can get people killed, I have found everything from NM used to UF knifed in the ground about 2" and even one install where single conductor thhn buried to a controller.
From a safety side I have found the slip clutches over tightened, fuses on mother boards over sized or by passed, electronic over loads turned all the way up, no end reverse bumpers on sliding gates, photo eyes bypassed or never installed, to keep gates from closing on a vehicle or person, safety loops bypassed, these fence installers will do anything to get a gate back running, also watch out on hydraulic actuated gates, rare but did find a pressure relief blocked off so it would push through snow buildup, very dangerous, as the cylinder could explode, always test close/open pressure, stopping pressure should not be more then 3-4lb's back pressure at the end of the swing or edge of a slider, gate should always reverse back open or just shut down.
A lot to look at before I will ever commission one to be put into operation.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
I can understand access for emergency vehicles, but doesn't this otherwise defeat the purpose of why the community wanted a gate installed? They don't want unauthorized people entering at the times the gate is closed.
I guess additional security items such as a camera to let you know who opened the gate and when would be beneficial.
hurk27
Senior Member
- Location
- Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
Here most gates are not designed for total locked out security as most are just across the entrance with the rest of the community wide open with no fences, the idea is to limit trespassing of door to door sales people or any other kind of soliciting, for the most part the gates are controlled by a timer that keeps the gates open in the daytime for school busses, garbage trucks, news papers, mail, fed-X etc... type delivery's. then are timed to close after dark or what ever time they (POA) decide.
If you have a community that want total security with total lock out it is required to have a 24/7 guard shack that must be on station 24/7, then you can have non-push open gates that can be opened from the guard shack.
We have several of these community's around here where the rich and famous live, Ron Kettle (Chicago White Sox) Michael Jordan's Mother's house, and others who not only have a guard shack entrance to the community but an extra set of high security gates to their Cull a sack, with cameras alarms and everything you would expect for that level of security.
The link to photos below are a gate system I took over from a fence company for a POA I do work for, it started out as a service call to repair some LV lights at the entrance that was all but destroyed and basically not cost effective to repair (never should have been used for commercial anyways)
After talking them into a good quality RUUD round back 100 watt PS MH fixtures on 2" fitters mounted in the ground with concrete, and changing the existing pole light to MH from HPS, I asked them about why the gate never operated? well they said since it was installed (1999) it never worked correctly and was costing them over $12k a year to keep going, then it stopped working about 2 years ago and they were told by the fence company that it was hit by lightning and would cost $40k to replace everything, I simply ask them if I could look at it and see what I could do, and I offered this part for no cost if cant fix, while the president of the POA went to get me the books on the gate, I started checking the controllers out, found that the loop sensors were not getting a signal from the road sensor loops found where they use un-sealed connection in dirt, I did a temp fix, and had the gates operating in less then an hour, this amazed this guy, and I got the job
We put the gates in operation last march, and I have not had one failure call since.
some of the changes were eliminating the battery/inverter backup system and installing a small 8kw NG automatic backup generator, this eliminated the battery replacement every two years and or battery maintenance problem.
Installing a modem in the SES entrance control box for remote programing.
installing extra photo cells to prevent closure on vehicles on the exit side.
reinstall loop sensor loop wiring in PVC conduit underground removing the smurf tubing and open wire connections, and using all DB sealed wire nuts.
repaired parts of the transmissions, missing parts, adjusted clutches to safety specs, set electronic overloads to properly shut down the motor if the gate is blocked, installed new longer tubes from the controller pinion arm to the gate and adjusted the limits to allow the gates to be pushed open before the arms would knuckle in straight in line with the pinion arm and prevent the gate from being pushed open, also changed out all bolts and nuts from rusting steel to all stainless steel.
and to top it off I have landed many jobs from this one, from the property management company who over sees the billing for the POA, and they have hundreds of communities under them.
Here's a link to photos of this gate system:
Harrision West Gates
My camera is not great at taking photos at night so some of these are a little blury
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hurk27
Senior Member
- Location
- Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
It looks like they were (trying) using a pre-fab loop that obviuosly was not sealed. In the 20 years of doing access control and gates operators, I have seen my fair share of shoddy fence installers handywork.
I'll never forget the time I was asked to look over an apartment complex's system to see if we could take over the service on them. I saw a telephone unit getting 16.5vac 50va using two twisted CAT 5's. not like just the blue pairs twisted together...they stripped all 8 wires in one cat 5 and made "one" conductor of that and did the same to the other cat 5!:-? I thought this was some joke, maybe I was on camera or something....nope, the manager had the same thoughts as I did when I showed that to him. He said, "well wire is wire...right?"
Needless to say I gave him a price to bring the installation up to spec.. he was a little shocked.
I'll never forget the time I was asked to look over an apartment complex's system to see if we could take over the service on them. I saw a telephone unit getting 16.5vac 50va using two twisted CAT 5's. not like just the blue pairs twisted together...they stripped all 8 wires in one cat 5 and made "one" conductor of that and did the same to the other cat 5!:-? I thought this was some joke, maybe I was on camera or something....nope, the manager had the same thoughts as I did when I showed that to him. He said, "well wire is wire...right?"
Needless to say I gave him a price to bring the installation up to spec.. he was a little shocked.
hbiss
EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
- Location
- Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
- Occupation
- EC
I saw a telephone unit getting 16.5vac 50va using two twisted CAT 5's. not like just the blue pairs twisted together...they stripped all 8 wires in one cat 5 and made "one" conductor of that and did the same to the other cat 5! I thought this was some joke, maybe I was on camera or something...
I always think it's a joke when I see CAT5 used for anything but data. I don't know what everybody is going to do when networking goes to CAT7 then fiber or wireless and CAT5 disappears.
-Hal
I always think it's a joke when I see CAT5 used for anything but data. I don't know what everybody is going to do when networking goes to CAT7 then fiber or wireless and CAT5 disappears.
-Hal
hurk27
Senior Member
- Location
- Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
While it is common to use cat5 for phone lines something we have been doing for over 10 years, the above job also had cat5 feeding the 24 volts DC to the call box, funny you mention that, it was also used for the switch return to open the gate, both were replaced with a 2 conductor twister 16 awg.
Matter of fact you can see this cat 5 in the first and second photos in my link above, were they connected the cat 5 to some 18 awg cable. all that was removed after the new wire was pulled in.
I have seen everything from door bells to thermostats wired with cat5, the worst was someone used cat 3 to wire two 120 volt ceiling fans with lights, it was a miracle the place didn't burn down.
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