The Garibaldi Gate vehicle gate operators, barrier arm and battery backup system, were scheduled for refurbishment later this year. As is often true about “the best laid plans,” events on Memorial Weekend forced a change in these plans. On Monday, May 28, a staff holiday, the gate would not open or respond to the barcode reader (this never happens during normal working hours).
George was called in and later Tom answered the call to help trouble shoot the system. Turning off the power allowed the battery backup to open the gates. Problems with the dual-beam barcode reader were identified and a spare back up single-beam reader was temporarily installed. This fixed the immediate problem with the barcode reader. From there things went downhill.
When power was turned back on, the gate remained open and would not close. It appeared that memory had been lost to the DSX controller. The gate controller computer, located in the office, self-diagnosed indicating that a full download of all barcodes was needed. The download was completed. The gate still would not close. A suspect relay was identified.
Removing the relay allowed the gate to open and close with the barcode reader, but the emergency vehicle entry key switch and the telephone keypad were not working. Replacing the relay with a new spare relay did not resolve the problems. By now Maintenance had spent eleven hours on the system.
They left the gate open and went home. Royal Access, our gate contractor, was contacted on Tuesday the first working day after the holiday. Scot Stevens (owner/operator) arrived on Wednesday and with the assistance of George, they spent four hours diagnosing the remaining problems. Scot concluded that the suspected relay, along with something else in the battery backup system, was causing the backup and keypad not to work. Time to punt. No use spending more time and money trying to fix a system that was already scheduled for refurbishment.
Royal Access needed to reschedule their work plans and order the equipment, which had to be shipped from the distributor in New Mexico. We have an excellent relationship with Royal Access and they were able to get back on site the following Thursday, June 7, with all the necessary equipment. Four new gate operators and one new barrier arm assembly, all with state of the art battery backup, were installed. Parts also arrived, and the dual beam barcode reader was re-installed. By the weekend a new reliable system was up and working.
A painting contractor will paint this gate and fence as well as the Manta Gate and fence. The Manta Gate has been repaired, fixing the damage caused by a SDG&E truck.
Later this year we will replace the Garibaldi exit spike strip and the pressed brick at the entrance and exit gates.
– Jack Christiansen, Maintenance Committee Chair
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