I've decided to create this website because one little incident i had with my apartment building gate.
For those of you who don't know me, I live in a small apartment at panama city, republic of Panama.
The automatic gate of the building parking was faulty... it opened when it wanted. Usually the concierge is around (at labor hours) to help you out with this little issue; but one night....
I just had enough of it a rainy day I came in and had to get off my car, enter into the building and open the gate; so I called the phone number the automatic gate motor has on a sticker conveniently attached if any event.
Well... the receiver of the automatic gate actuator was faulty. The guy made a test with a known good clicker and it didn't response. Then connected something on the equipment and did some other things; I heard. (I asked the concierge if “the guy” came to check on the door)
I asked for a spare remote control since there was a possibility that mine was broken. After maybe 15 minutes of bullshit they said $79 dollars.
$79 dollars?
Are you fucking kidding me?...
Later I saw on the monthly bulletin of the building that the automatic gate needed maintenance and they were charging around US $1200 for the complete workout since the gate needed some lube, the receiver need to be changed and other pile of crap.
US $1200 ?
Happens to be that I am an electronics engineer... so guess who's gonna pay 1200 for a piece of crap receiver.
Since I don't work within this niche I called some old college friends for insight.
Here we have several companies that install and offer maintenance services for automatic gates. The truth is that they all suck. Usually there is a blacksmith that do the gates... and they buy at “industrias KAME” (a local dealer for KAME branded stuff)... or was it CAME with “c” ?
These companies... all suck
why?
Call them and ask:
Can you quote me how much it will be for killing a shark with a punch in the nose while scuba diving?
Their answer:
Of course; it will be 200 dollars plus taxes; and if you require, we could use boxing gloves for the job. In that case a small extra fee apply. Hold on a second please; because I know about a promotion that may apply here and you can get a discount...
anyways... I took the time one weekend to find out if the equipment worth that much.. been who I am, I can easily say the receiver is just a radio controlled system with some code emended... and that I can use whatever clicker I want as long as I know the frequency and of course; if the receiver on the automatic gate motor was functional, but before that; I took the time to quote a couple of actuators just to know how much we were talking about in case I just wanted to swap pieces.
Well.. whatever I got in the quotes as a “normal customer” wasn't equipments at all. All I got was bullshit and 20 visits from sales people who were trying to push me their service.
I've found that whatever makes the system expensive is actually the zipper (we are talking about a sliding door here); the rotor of the engine latch on it and slide the door while rotates. Easy piece; I already have one so no
I just want the motor.
How come that a pice of crap 220/120 volts motor with no more than 1 hp worth over 800 dollars?
Are you fucking kidding me?
This piece of shit doesn't even have enough torque to lift me... wtf?
I've found industrial 3phase squirrel motors with 1.5 hp 120/208V operations at 200 dollars...
so I opened the damned box.
I've found we have a PRASTEL branded control unit. (why does it always have to be Italian?) and I've worked with this brand before on biometric stuff... good choice... but why does it always have to be italian?
This means I have to pay euros to bring something in.
this prastel unit had nothing whatsoever bad... the antenna... a small rounded thing that has a small cable hanging there.... who connects to the control unit was false connected... or in more common words..
the screw that holds the cable wasn't tight enough.
And they wanted 1200 bucks for changing the hole unit...
In the mean time; while I was researching where I was getting into; picking up suppliers in case something went wrong and stuff... I did just like anybody will do nowdays...
I googled about automatic gate openers and automatic gate remote controls and stuff..
found thousands of website offering products... pretty much no information available..
which is good because after all... you won't find the schematics for a dell motherboard.. or who the motherboard manufacturer really is..
or better...
the part number (from the manufacturer; in case you know who was) that correspond to your laptop mobo.
But hey... what if someone normal is just trying to get some more info about these stuff?
