Hormann gate opener loses remotes after power cut

[harveyzone]

Hi all,

I have recently fitted a set of Hormann RotaMatic PL gate openers to my drive gates. They work perfectly, however, whenever their is power loss to the openers it doesn't retain the transmitter information and I have to open up the control box and re-train the receiver to recognise the transmitters! It does not, however, need the open stop points re-programming, so it retains some information. This also does not happen to the Hormann SupraMatic garage door opener that uses the same transmitters. The receiver in the control box is a "Radio receiver ESE" (I think).

Any ideas why this might be, and how I can stop it from happening?

Cheers,
Tom.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Wouldn't the maker would be the best person to ask?

Also, are you sure that the equipment you installed, the risk assessments which you performed, and the way you carried out, commissioned and certified the installation were all compliant with the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008?

 

[securespark]

FFS... It's a DIY job. They're HIS gates he has installed the gate openers to.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Indeed it is, they are and he has.




And the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 apply, so it was his responsibility to choose, install, commission and certify the equipment in accordance with the requirements of the legislation, and to carry out the necessary risk assessments.

 

[securespark]

So you're going to vet everyone to see they have complied with all the rules and regulations relating to the job before you offer any advice?

Anyway, how does compliance or non-compliance help the OP iron out this problem?

 

[endecotp]

There have been some really horrific deaths involving electric gates and I really think it's something that should only be done by someone who knows how to evaluate and mitigate the risks. harveyzone, have you measured the crushing forces of your gates? Have you tested the various safety interlocks?

http://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/electricgates2.htm

Background:
Two recent, separate, incidents that both led to the deaths of young children have highlighted a risk of using automatic vehicle access gates. (These incidents are in addition to an earlier fatality, which also involved a young child in 2006, and other recent near misses). Whilst these recent fatalities involved automatic sliding gates, this Safety Notice applies to all powered access gates.
​

http://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/electricgates.htm

A pedestrian egress button had been placed on the rear of one of the two brick pillars, inside the development. This was intended to allow pedestrians within the development a simple means of activating the gates when leaving the site. The design of this installation meant that the button was within reach of persons on the outside of the development, effectively allowing an unsafe means of activating the gates.

On the day of the incident the child approached the gates in order to activate them without using the intercom system or keypad entry system that had been installed. The child reached through the gap between the gate and pillar to press the internal pedestrian egress button. As the gate opened the gap between the spine of the gate and the pillar reduced. As the gap reduced the child became trapped and crushed.

The motors on the gates were fitted with amperometric sensors to detect obstacles in the path of the gates once the gates were in motion. If the gates struck an obstacle and met resistance they would stop moving. In this instance the sensors were ineffective due to the forces involved at the spine of the gate.

The gates had also been fitted with a light beam sensor between the two pillars. This was intended to detect an obstacle between the pillars to prevent the gates from closing onto a vehicle. It was not designed to identify the presence of a person in the crushing zone nor prevent a person from activating the gates.​

 

[ericmark]

Some years back I will admit, maybe better now, her in doors wanted me to walk the dog, so I would take a handie and talk on the local repeater my transmit power was no more than 5 watts. The estate would spring to life during my walk with lights coming on as I approached them, it also worked one or two garage doors and odd car would flash indicators as I either locked or unlocked them while I passed, the 70 cm band is a shared frequency but most other users are within the milliwatt range.

I would guess today they have codes to stop them activating, however once activated there is a worry you may not be able to de-activate, using the RF link for central heating, and other wireless is all well and good, but for a gate or door it is very different, I do wonder about the stair lift, that is all RF linked. However although a large company can test all this, it is near impossible for individual installers to verify if safe. It is down to the gate design, for a gate sold as one unit, it is reasonable to expect the manufacturers to do all the testing and risk assessments. But where it is made up of individual parts then the installer needs to read all the health and safety data which is often placed with the adverts for the kits.

The question is does the remote not working mean there is a fault, or is it part of the fail safe system. We can't answer that.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

So you're going to vet everyone to see they have complied with all the rules and regulations relating to the job before you offer any advice?

Err.... no. Don't know why you thought that - I'd already offered advice before I asked, not conditional on any position on advice, if he'd done it all properly, as powered gates can, and do, kill. Getting it wrong can have tragic consequences.

Anyway, how does compliance or non-compliance help the OP iron out this problem?

See above.

 

[ericmark]

It does seem we had no need to worry! It does seem there are a number of options some have fixed code and other don't which could explain why door does not lose code and gates do, also there is a battery back-up system available so if garage doors are battery backed that would also explain why they don't lose code.

DIN EN 13241-1 is not the same as BS EN ISO 13857:2008 or BS EN ISO 13849-1:2008 etc. The problem is unlike electrical regulations where there is a need to update, and most of the installers offer a maintenance contract which ensures your gates are updated as laws and regulations change.

I had huge problems with batching plants imported from Germany, they did not comply with our rules, we were told they were made in a EU country and the free trade agreement means if it's OK in Germany we can also use it in the UK. We were not satisfied and looked further into it. We found we had an export version which did not comply with German regulations, it was made for export to middle east and we got it instead.

There was a whole host of problems, from simple things like safety switches were wrong colour to parts were too heavy to manual handle. I don't know outcome, the malfunction caused my forced retirement from the trade as it crushed my hand.

As a result I simple do not trust and imports from Germany. I am not saying the British stuff is any better, I did a crush test with a British stair lift, and found although the chair had loads of safety features, the arm which extended and retracted to allow passage at end of stairs had no safety switches.