It has been over 4 years in the making, but the new front gates on the farm are installed, wired, connected, and now I can open them from anywhere! Alright, let me rewind. In October 2018, we started thinking about rejuvenating the front street side of the farm, as it had a fence and gate from the 1970s, had never been maintained and was just neglected. I started my research with the gate itself, as that seemed to be the most complex due to my requirements, which included:
- Remote opening via a FOB, or remote control. This should work from as long a distance as possible. Driving up to the gate should be as seamless as possible with minimum time waiting at the gate for it to open, and the house itself is about 100 meters from the gate.
- Keypad entry with a PIN for guests, regular deliveries (such as gas trucks), and when we need to.
- Remote opening via Home Assistant, so I can both open from my phone and use it in automation scenarios.
- Powered via solar as that is all we have down near the road.
The journey took me through a lot of various companies and products, but I ended up deciding on the gate openers from BMGi in Queensland. Not only did they have a great product that could do all of the above (with slight modifications), but their support was amazing. All of my nerdy questions over a whole year were patiently answered. The gates themselves were custom made, but due to a perfect storm of Australian pandemic lockdowns, labour shortage, material shortages and more, it took almost two years to have them made. So, finally, a couple of months I could install it all (with help), and now it is amazing. It works perfectly as intended and I couldn’t be happier. And of course I made a video about the whole journey. Watch. Enjoy.