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car park gate system

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win_832001

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Hello there..
Here I need some opinion or sugesstion from members from this forum. I am designing a car park gate system in a real application. So, I need suggestion about:
1) Motor that I can used to control the car park gate barrier.
- I have no idea about the motor that I have to used. whether needs to used DC motor or servo motor.What a advantage and disadvantage to used that motor that are suggested.

2) PIC or PLC
- The costing factor is main reason that I prefered to used PIC. But I also considered to used PLC.

3) The site that I can referred to proceed the studied about this project.

with that thank you...
 
The people who would have just the information you need are likely to be the manufacturers of commercially available systems. While you could reverse engineer to get some of the answers it is unlikely you'll get them to share all of it because it is the result of a lot of hard work/expense and what might give them a competitive advantage.

Reverse engineering refers to having a completed product on hand (or at least the plans for it) and looking in to it as a way of gaining insight to the kinds of things you've asked about. You might obtain sales or O/M manuals on various products to see if there is a common theme. Be careful though, the choice of motor, for example, may have more to do with what is the best choice for the manufacturer rather than the best choice for the application. An example - if ABC Parking Systems is owned by XYZ International - and XYZ owns 123 Motor Manufacturing then the choice might be driven by that more than by what is best for the application. Still, a review of available commercial products might be useful research.

If the information you've presented represents all that you have it is not enough for someone to even begin to answer the questions. What does the gate look like, how many cars, how will cars be detected, how many in/out lanes, etc ,etc.

If you are really doing this for real it is possible that time is money. If that is the case it would seem unlikely (though possible) that you could design and construct a reliable parking control system for less money than someone who has done it already. There may be other benefits to what you are doing - if only learning - so in your case, the project might make perfect sense.

Best of luck to you.
 
win_832001 said:
Hello there..
Here I need some opinion or sugesstion from members from this forum. I am designing a car park gate system in a real application. So, I need suggestion about:
1) Motor that I can used to control the car park gate barrier.
- I have no idea about the motor that I have to used. whether needs to used DC motor or servo motor.What a advantage and disadvantage to used that motor that are suggested.

2) PIC or PLC
- The costing factor is main reason that I prefered to used PIC. But I also considered to used PLC.

3) The site that I can referred to proceed the studied about this project.

with that thank you...
I'd use some normal 12V DC motor like those found in some wheelchairs and a H bridge or whatever for controling direction/speed. U can buy/obtain the motor/H bidge/controler as a spare part for the wheelchair:D
About PLC...hmm...It's wayyy simple to implement a lot of functions using a low cost PIC like 16F628 or newer versions.
For links...just google and search this forum.
It might be interesting if u post the resulting circuit. It might be useful (modified a bit) for other aplications also;)
 
I agree with what steve said. I'll take it a bit farther...

On the opener mechanism, the biggest issue for you is going to be reliablility. I'm sure you can put something together that will work but will it work day-in/day-out for years with out you having to fuss with it? Will you be able to weather proof it? Protect against jams, etc? (in general, these are questions you should ask yourself for any diy project).

A lot depends on the type of gate but the prices seem to start at about 600 USD and go up from there. That is just the opener mechanism. The ones I saw were all 24VDC. I doubt servos are used. Probably just a motor with limit switches.

You might be able to adapt garage door openers which are cheaper though maybe not weather tight. Unless you are well versed in the mechanical aspect of this sort of thing, I would not try to build one.

On the control logic, this is where you can save a lot. I agree something simple should do the job though I would use a self programmable chip like a 16F88 so you can easily update your firmware in the field with a laptop and serial (async or usb) connection. I would also build 2 units - one to install and one as a spare and test environment. You really don't want the system to be down while you build a new one. expect failures, they will happen. I would also make it modular - seperate motor control from opener logic. If the motor control burns out, quick swap and you are back up. My guess is that the motor control will fail more regularly.

On the firmware - I'd build in self-test and monitoring capability. I'd be tempted to make it communicating so you can monitor it with out being physically close.

And, yes, please let us know what you come up with.
 
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