Electric Gates, Garage Door, Access Control, Smart Home & Security Forums

Hi,

Hoping for some help. We came back from holiday... The gate opened and then it wouldn't close. It displays Phot so I assumed it to be a photocell issue, which made sense as I wasn't hearing the usual relay click sound when something broke the beam. But... On removing the photocells and connecting them to a proper power supply they appear to work fine. The relays click happily and the output voltage from pin 5 on the Rx circuit changes as you'd expect. You can see the IR output on a mobile phone camera when connected to a separate power supply.

So, I started measuring voltage going to the photocells. There's just 3.7V going to the Tx photocell and 3.3V going to the Rx end. No happy relay clicking either, even when I hold tx and Rx ends next to each other with some extension wires.

Any ideas? Where do I go from here. Hopefully I've measured the right bits!

Thanks
Hatbat

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Forgot to say Bft 130 photocells.

Hi Hatbat,

There are a few thing i would check, first of all i would check that there is nothing covering the lens inside the photocell covers like insects or dust which could be blocking the beam. If these are clean and you are still having problems with the gates stopping in the open position i would do a continuity test of the cables from the board to the photocells to make sure there are no breaks. Hope this helps.

Tim

(04-07-2017, 09:30 AM)TimK Wrote: [ -> ]Hi Hatbat,

There are a few thing i would check, first of all i would check that there is nothing covering the lens inside the photocell covers like insects or dust which could be blocking the beam. If these are clean and you are still having problems with the gates stopping in the open position i would do a continuity test of the cables from the board to the photocells to make sure there are no breaks. Hope this helps.

Tim

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your reply. I have checked the photocell covers - all looks fine.

Is a power supply of 3.3V going to the Tx and Rx sufficient? The photocells work fine in the office connected to a power supply (relay toggles and output changes as expected) but not in situ - even if I put the Tx within 4" of the Rx to see if I can hear the relays work.

Hatbat

On further testing last night I have confirmed that the voltage available on pins 12/13 of the Ares controller is not the expected 24V, I have once measured it at 3.3V and once at 9V. This is confirmed as the separate keypad that is also powered off these pins doesn't work either and doesn't have it's usual courtesy light.

Wondering what the options are here - hoping not to have to replace the master board. Separate power supply to the accessories?

Thanks
Hatbat