Do you think splicing 100' of wire onto a GTO exit wand would work?

[Elmo]

Once it's installed, they won't do that.

[Elmo]

Great idea! If it works for the telephone company, it should work here.

On the 3M web site, I found a splice kit for 3-conductor "armored" cable, but not 4 conductor (and it was for 10-14 AWG, not 16AWG).

Here's the product information from:

- 3M? 3/C Low Voltage Splice Kit 5730, 14-10 AWG (UPC 00054007431718).

- These kits are applicable for indoor and outdoor installations,

- including direct burial, aerial and submersible applications.

- This kit requires 1 roll of 3M? Armorcast? Structural Material.

Do you think I can find a 4-conductor shielded 16 AWG cable splice kit at ACE, OSH, or Home Depot? (I'll try later today.)

[Elmo]

I th- The Wand cable CANNOT be spliced.

- If you need more wire, contact the GTO Sales Department at 800-543-GATE.

When I called the GTO Sales Department, they said the only solution was to buy a new exit wand with a longer feed. They said all the exit wands are different (contrary to what the technicians told me at the support number).

[Elmo]

I did find 3M silicone tape for splicing cable here

So now the problem just is finding the 4-conductor 16AWG shielded cable and the 3M splice kit in a store somewhere around here.

[GregS]

I am familiar with only one setup. A sewage plant. The opperator controls gate open or close, and the pickup prevents the gate from ramming into the vehicle.

You must have many guests and visitors to warrent this setup you have,

greg

[Robert Macy]

You originally said 5 conductor, now you say 4 conductor. ??

[blueman]

HD has it in several locations in our local stores (plumbing and maybe also electrical areas) - may be hard to find cuz most people don't know about it.

[Elmo]

I think it's the "typical" setup to have a way for guests to leave.

You have to note that I considered wiring a push-button (doorbell type) switch in the house to open the gate for guests to leave but I can't even see the gate from the house since it's about 500 feet down a hill to the gate - so that would be a safety problem.

I guess I should walk everyone to the gate but that seems like a lot to ask of me. But I think most people have the following bare minimums and common electronics.

BARE MINIMUM ELECTRONICS:

- Keypad & remote open (with automatic close)

- Stall force setting so nobody gets crushed

EXTREMELY COMMON ELECTRONICS:

- Intercom for convenient entrance of guests

- Exit wand for automatic open upon exit

SPECIALTY ELECTRONICS:

- Telephone-operated gates (open/close from your cell phone)

- Video feeds on the gates (so you can see who is at the gate)

[mm]

I've only used the tape. I've never used, or even seen, the kit. Hadn't even heard of a kit with resin before.

[mm]

It seems we are talking about -- at least that's what's included in his kit -- "Scotch 23 High Voltage Tape"**, but when I search on that at the Home Depot site, I get 2 hits, regular vinyl electrical tape and packaging tape. When I search on "Scotch 23", I don't get anything.

Now HD and Lowes have the worst webpages I've come across, so maybe that doesn't mean anything.

The one easily visible thing I've noticed about this tape is that it is wound on a white plastic spool, instead of a cardboard spool. It's thick and has a backing layer that has to be removed to use a piece.

Are we talking about the same thing? Do they really have it at HD. I looked years ago but couldnt' find it.

It's expensive. I think I paid 11 or 12 dollars a roll, but it's great for special uses.

**Other listings for this tape call it self-fusing. That probably refers to what I said about merging into a big blob. Other descriptions make reference to the polyester liner, the backing layer.

But so far, I've found little reference to how it is to be applied. Just one line "Physical and electrical properties are unaffected by the degree of stretch." and I don't see how that is even true. OF course if it is stretched to thee times its length and it's 2/3rds thinner, it's going to have lower strength and electrical insulating qualities. They even have a chart about that on page 3 of the same data sheet.

Self-amalgamating they call it here.

BTW, if you don't stretch it, it won't stick to what's underneath it. There is no adhesive on the tape.

[Elmo]

There are actually 5 connections, but one of them is the shield which I don't think the 3M product handles.

The 5 connections are at the gate control box but only 4 insulated wires are inside the wire. The installation instructions for the exit wand tell you to twist the end of the fifth shield together and wire nut it to the battery.

The 4-conductor plus 1 shield wiring instructions are listed in this PDF.

In hind sight, I should have gone wireless. That way I could have put the sensor anywhere I like. :(

[Elmo]

I'll go to Home Depot today and let us know what I find.

In hind sight, I should have bought the WIRELESS vehicle exit sensor setup!

[George]

Or maybe you simply tell your departing guests "slow down when near the gate and wait for it to open"?

I have been to a number of places where the gate works as I described.

[George]

Why? They OP decided to buy the particular length and didn't indicate they were misled.

[mm]

So the wires aren't individually shielded, you're saying?

So now I'm thinking just about any four conductor wire, stranded so it will be sufficiently flexible, will be enough.

16 gauge would be nice, but I wouldnt' be too surprised if it worked with almost any gauge. What say you, techno guys?

Is the shielding foil or woven wires? Oh, it says, braided metal wire. Can't you solder new shielding to that>

Either way, for shielding, can't he just put the splice in some sort of metal tube, a little longer than the splice, connected at one or both ends to the shielding of the cable.

If they say this will work test it before you bury it. Wave the wand over a car, at the right distance, instead of making the car drive over it. Wait a while to see if tv or radio stations make the gate open when no one is there. That doesn't seem very likely to me.

check if someone with a metal wheelbarrow can open the gate, but I woudlnt' be too surprised if that would be true with a totally standard installation . Is there no sensitivity adjustment anywhere?

Yes, there is. It's called potentiometer (pot).

It also says "IMPORTANT: When the SENSOR is first powered up it must be undisturbed for 60 seconds to perform the self test and calibrations."

So, although there is a limit I'm sure to the range of whatever needs to be calibrated, adjusted for, this means there is a range. That's probably why they don't have to make all the cables of different lengths the same.

It also says this:

If the SENSOR is not working:

1. Make sure the Range Adjustment is set at maximum range.
2. Disconnect the power (battery) to the SENSOR.
3. Reconnect the power to the SENSOR and make sure that no metal object or vehicle is moving around the SENSOR for 60 seconds while it is calibrating.
4. Test the SENSOR to verify that it is working properly.
5. Check that push/pull DIP switches on Control Board are set correctly.

[mm]

Mine is similar to the one you know. It is residential, but guests have to bring some sewage to get in.

[mm]

When I read the 50 foot price, I thought it was 100 dollars, not 180.

I thought 125 for another 100 feet was much too much, but it's only a

45 dollar difference.

[William Sommerwerck]

True. But the cabling is not horribly expensive. The company should do this out of "common courtesy".

[mm]

Be sure to let us know how this turns out. You owe us.

More below.

No, it won't. Not if it's soldered correctly. Have you soldered much? Do you know how to solder well, to clean the wire first -- I just scrape four sides of the wire with a fairly sharp knife --, use flux core solder designed for electrical work, and make it hot enough to not get a cold solder joint?

Of course you'll know where it is. It will be 50 feet from where you buried the wand. And about 100 feet from where the controller is. Note how far from the driveway you bury it and measure how far from thecontroller it is, and write it down and tape it to the controller box.

The next owner might well be in that situation. Make sure you leave clear documentation for him. The guy who sold me my house spent an hour teling me things about it.

As I thought in some other post of mine.

Anything that works for high voltages works for low voltages. I'm not sure what the advantage of the kit is. Certainly if I couldn't find the kit, I'd just wrap the self-fusing tape around the wire, going an inch or more past the splice, past the part where the original insulation is still intact.

My neighbor had some semi-skilled guys putting in a small fence and they cut my phone line. Of course they "took repsonsibilty" and they were winding the wires together and taping them with standard electric tape. I came out and stopped them, and soldered the connections and wrapped them in this self-fusing tape, and even when I had dial-up internet, I got very good connection speeds.

Later, someone told me I should let the phone company repair it and indeed they would do it for free, but the guy on the phone said all they do is use those gel-filled connectors and what I did was better. Nothing beats solder, and no tape beats Scotch 23.

Now, if you don't have an connector on the end of the wire, you could use heat-shrink tubing, but though it looks real nice, it doesn't have much tension when shrinking or afterwareds, and I think the scotch 23, silicone tape will do a much better job.

BTW, are you near powerlines? Most places aren't but a few are.

[mm]

No. Soldering is better. The phone company doesn't want to spend the time it takes to solder each connection, up to hundreds a day, and it has a staff to go fix problems when they develop, as well as electronic tools to find the break in a wire, by injecting a signal at one end if necessary.

And if you plan to use the gel connectors they use, that might require practice too to learn to do them right, and maybe also a special pair of pliers. I'm not sure, but I know you've never done it before.

I don't know what "3M? Armorcast? Structural Material" is, but it's not for you. You also don't have armored cable.

I've never heard of a kit being designed for a certain number of conductors, unless maybe they're talking about some special way to splice all 3 conductors at the same time. There's no need to do that. For one thing, you'd need some machine costing thousands to solder more than one connection at the same time, and any other kind of connection is inferior. Just solder and tape each connection yourself, one at a time. By offsetting the splices, as I and one of the links you gave suggested, you won't have to wrap insulation around each separate solder joint. Just make sure that neither the soldered area or any of the bared wire is at the same position as any bare portion of any conductor. And make sure there are no sharp points in the solder of any conection. They could pierce the insulation. I think they only result when the solder isn't hot enough, (or maybe when there wasn't enough flux???). At any rate, you probably won't have that, or you can reheat, or cut them off with wire cutters, or wrap them separately with enough layers so it can't pierce through.

Then just wrap the whole thing at one time. If it turns out that two of the uninsulated parts could touch each other, wrap one of them seaparately first.

You're making this too complicated, partly because of what they told you when you first called. You need a soldering iron, solder, and tape, not a kit.

BTW, when some of these sites talk about low voltage, they're talking about 110 volts and 220 volts, as opposed to 10,000 volts, which is high voltage. They're talking about currents in the range of 10 or 20 amps or more. No, much more. Look at the wire gauges they deal with in the link you provide above. 14 to 10AWG, 8-4AWG, 2-1/0, 2-0. 14 gauge will carry 15 amps, 10 gauge will carry at least 25 amps. 8 gauge at least 30 amps (probably more but I don't recall) 2 gauge must carry 100 amps and zero gauge even more. Imagine how big those wires are. That's what these kits are for, not for little wires carrying tiny currents, like a few thousandths of an amp.

You otoh are dealing with much lower voltalge and much lower currents, and much lower maximum currents also. You can't even feel 12 volts and maybe you can barely feel a tingle with 24 volts, but I don't think so.