New, New Chat Thread

[Joe Wicked]

Fred, I went with mighty mule as well. You are right it could be faster but it does the job.

[Ron61]

Fred & Joe,

Could one of you post or email me a picture of your gate opener so I can see how it mounts? I have been trying to figure out a way to have one on my driveway gates and so far nothing seems to work with the way they are.

Ron

[Joe Wicked]

Originally Posted by Ron61

Fred & Joe,

Could one of you post or email me a picture of your gate opener so I can see how it mounts? I have been trying to figure out a way to have one on my driveway gates and so far nothing seems to work with the way they are.

Ron

Ron,
Here is mine.

Here is the link for some more pictures that you have been asking for. Not a whole lot, but here is what I have. I need to take more since the fence is almost done and the garden is ready to plant.
http://s298.photobucket.com/user/joe...d/library/Farm

[Ron61]

Joe,

That looks really good and the other pictures are really good too. You have came a long way since you started and it really shows. Thanks for letting me look at the pictures.

Ron

[392cobra]

Your gate opener looks just like mine except for the difference in aging from the elements.
Mine is mounted very much the same.

I see two solar panels. What is that mounted below the 1st one ? Keypad I'm guessing.
I only have 1 panel. Getting better results with 2?

That is great looking at your photos and being able to go back to the beginning. Y'all have come a long ways ! Lots of work and well thought out.

[Joe Wicked]

Fred, I went with 2 from the beginning to allow for faster charging. I also have 2 batteries in the control box to allow for more power storage. I wanted to be sure that even though long periods of cloudy days I would get enough power. The panel is a keypad. It is wireless to the same sensor that the remotes work off of. You program it to what codes you want up to 25 unique 4 digit codes. I wanted it for certain friends and certain service people like the septic maintenance guy.

Thanks for the complements on the work. Getting to where I want it.

[Ron61]

Joe,

Do you have a close idea to how long the batteries would last if you had a long period of cloudy weather where the panels couldn't charge them? My neighbor had a huge solar array put on the end of his garage to run his house and he had a convertor put in with no batteries and now I think he is kind of wishing he had put some batteries in as a back up. But for all the money he spent on that setup I would have bought a place in another state.

Fred, how about some pictures of your place?

Ron

[Joe Wicked]

Ron,
According to the paperwork (we all know how accurate that can be) 1 battery with 1 panel is good for 16 complete gate cycles per day on an average winter day. They will charge on a cloudy day, just at a much reduced rate. On the day I installed it, it was cloudy and the just 1 battery, but I was able to open and close at least 20 times that day while I was adjusting everything. That was 2 panels and 1 battery. I am betting that I can go 1 to 2 weeks with how few times I open and close without charging at all.

I am also looking at doing the solar and wind combo for power at my house. A friend of mine is the sales director for the largest and oldest solar company here in Dallas. He said it would be around $20-25,000 for a complete off grid system that would give me power to spare. The neat thing is the financing they offer puts the payment right at what my electric bill is anyway, so if I do it, my budget won't really be that impacted as the payment for electric goes away and that money goes here. After 5-6 years, I own my own power generation. That includes solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, inverters and charge controllers.

[Ron61]

Joe,

Does the solar setup that you are looking at for your house have just batteries or does it have the convertor where you don't need batteries? The neighbor that I told you about just has a converter and he paid about 2 1/2 times the price you quoted. I believe he can get a battery setup that can be hooked in as a back up but am not sure. He did tell me that since he uses so little electricity it would take about 60 years for the solar to break even and with our high electric rates I am looking at some options. Maybe a fixed in place bicycle to pedal and run a generator like they had in the military in the old days for some radios. But I am not sure I could even afford a bicycle here now.

Ron

[Joe Wicked]

That includes the batteries. I am not sure of your rates bit with what I use in electricity it would take less than 10 years to pay for itself.

[Ron61]

Joe,

Our electric rates are the 2nd highest in the nation and are going up again at least twice this year. I went over and talked to the electric department and can't get any real answer as to why they have to keep this 4 rate increase a year up. Also I don't have the $65K to put into a solar setup that would produce enough power to help me.

Ron

[Joe Wicked]

The solar companies are ripping you guys off. It is between 20 and 25k here.

[Ron61]

Joe,

Everything in this state is a rip off. Do you think the electric company needs a big rate increase every 3 to 4 months, especially when they do nothing to improve service. When they put the sewer lines in the charge was $17 a month. Now it is $51 and they never replace a broken line or do any maintenance.

Ron

[Joe Wicked]

That's one of the things that made it easier for me to leave San Diego to come to Texas 14 years ago.

[Ron61]

Joe,

I can give you 15 good reasons why I wish I could leave and only one reason why I can't. I think I would like to go to Belize.

Ron

[Ron61]

Joe,

We are supposed to have rain from this afternoon all the way through the weekend and some of it is supposed to be heavy. We can sure sure it if we get it but the last time they forecast this kind of rain it was just a heavy mist for 3 days mostly.

Ron

[392cobra]

Originally Posted by Ron61

Fred & Joe,

Could one of you post or email me a picture of your gate opener so I can see how it mounts? I have been trying to figure out a way to have one on my driveway gates and so far nothing seems to work with the way they are.

Ron

Got some pictures of mine for your. It's really mounted the same as Joe's with minor differences.






Key Pad

[Ron61]

Fred,

Those are great pictures and you have a nice looking setup there. What is the small square on the left top of the gate in the 1st picture.? Is that part of your solar setup?

Thanks for posting them.

Ron

[392cobra]

That piece is a stop. Something of a door stop.

The Blue Bonnets are blooming big time. Great time of year !

[Joe Wicked]

I didn't need to use it on mine since I didn't quite get my posts far enough apart to allow the gate to close inside the other post. The post itself is the stop. I didn't see any point in mounting it.