Eagle 1000 in Davie: Gate Opening and Closing By Itself After a Lightning Strike

What the call sounded like

The customer was clear about what happened. Lightning hit a post roughly fifteen feet from his gate. He heard it, and a neighbor caught it on camera. From that moment the gate started behaving strangely, opening on its own and closing on its own with nobody touching anything.

He also mentioned the telephone entry had stopped working at the same time. He had decided to handle that himself.

What we found on arrival

The gate was sitting open. We closed it, and a few seconds later it opened again on its own.

That is the point where you stop guessing and start eliminating.

We disconnected everything capable of triggering an open: the receiver, the telephone entry, every accessory input. We confirmed there was no timer set. We checked the direction setting and corrected it.

Then we tried again, with nothing connected. At that point the only thing on the property that could move the gate was the button on the board.

The gate opened by itself anyway.

What the direction setting actually does

On an Eagle Diamond board, and on Viking and several other operators, you set the operator for open right or open left. That tells the machine which direction is closed.

It matters more than it sounds. If the operator does not know which direction is closed, it cannot know when to start the auto close timer. And the safety devices can end up reversed, which means a sensor meant to protect an area can instead drive the gate straight into it.

What it actually was

With every external input disconnected and the gate still moving on its own, the board was in control of itself.

The options, then the work

We gave the customer the price for a new board, plus two operator replacement options, and let him decide. He chose the board.

We replaced it the next day. While we were there we lubricated the rollers, added tension to the chain, and checked the safety sensors. None of that was billed separately. The gate has been under control since.

What a real gate tech knows

You do not diagnose a control board by looking at it. You diagnose it by taking everything else away.

Anything wired to that operator can send it an open command. The receiver, the telephone entry, a keypad, a loop, a timer. So they all come off, one at a time, until the only thing left on the property that can move the gate is the button on the board. If it still moves after that, you have your answer.

I found black marks on the board when I opened it. But marks on a board are not proof on their own. What made it clear was that everything else had already been ruled out.

The South Florida angle

The strike did not hit the gate. It hit a post fifteen feet away, and that was close enough to take out the control board and the telephone entry at the same time. Two separate devices on the same property failing in the same instant is the pattern, and it is why “the gate is possessed” calls in South Florida usually start with a storm.

Closing

Gate moving on its own, dead after a storm, or a board you are not sure about? Call Gate Core Automation at 954-310-6669. We service gate operators and control boards across Broward and Palm Beach.