Question:
My condo building has a gated underground garage. All owners have a
remote control to open/close the gate. We have been having an
intermittent problem with the gate opening repeatedly. That is, it
closes a couple of feet, the opens again. It will do this constantly,
for hours if we let it -- sometimes it will stop on its own, sometimes
someone will put a piece of tape over the beam so that it just stays
open.
The repairman tells us his theory is that someone's remote is "stuck".
If this is indeed the problem, he has not been much help in tracking it
down. One of our homeowners is eager to enact a plan where we take
turns monitoring the garage, note which cars are there, who comes and
goes when, and correlate this information to when the opening problem
occurs, thereby tracking down the offender. This seems overkill to me.
Surely there is an easier way to detect where a signal is coming
from?
Answer:
The intermittent problem you describe sounds like a stuck remote button
to me is a quite common occurance. The eyes won't tell the gate to
close & if they thought something was blocking them the gate would
simply stay fully open the same way as putting tape over them. The most
likely reasons it stops on its own sometimes is the stuck transmitter
leaves the bldg or because the transmitter battery will go dead quite
quickly when the button is stuck.
You stated that it is the repairman's "theory", which sounds like the
door works fine while he is there. If it wasn't he would be able to
prove whether it was fact or fiction. So if the gate works fine when he
is there, either the stuck transmitter isn't in the building or it has
a dead battery. Obviously a repairman (or anybody else) can't find a
transmitter that isn't in the building & the only way to find one w/ a
dead battery is to open every car and check every transmitter.
It's probably not going to matter which cars were in the building
before the problem occurs. When it occurs, the problem source will be
in the car that just entered the building. However, personally instead
of watching the comings & goings of your neighbors (infringing on
privacy) I would recommend that you put out a memo (as in newsletter,
email, etc that you normally use) or something to the owners stating
the problem & explain that if they are chaning their remote battery
quite often then their transmitter is probably causing the problem. You
should then ask them to bring in the remote so it can be checked to see
if it can be repaired or if it needs to be replaced.
