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#186494 05/15/09 02:40 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
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A maintenance inspector sent these pics to me when he found the following at a gate motor for a homeowners association. 300.5 violation? Protected from physical harm?

Remember, this is a fairly heavy-vibration area when you factor in traffic and the operation of the motor itself.

Thoughts appreciated.
-Zapped

[Linked Image from electrical-photos.com]

[Linked Image from electrical-photos.com]

[Linked Image from electrical-photos.com]

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Joined: Apr 2002
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Based on the photos....
A 'bell end' or ta with bushings would be nice on the pvc. I'm guessing there is in fact PVC in the nice new cement patch...not just THHN/THWN.

I see three conductors spliced w/red nuts going to the 'hole' that's under the ring...and what looks like a wht/red going???

Nice water visable in the PVC @ 8 o'clock.

That said, physical damage from vibration? that may be a stretch, although a possibility. By 'eye' in the pic, that may be 2" of concrete.....but where's the PVC?

That looks like a 'non-electrician' did it.



John
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 939
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I will agree with John {Hotline1} that nonelectrician done this work and this is not a wise set up.

However I did spotted two conducts there IMO I know one for gate power the second one may be used for intercom { some area will use that } or sepertated feed for something else { just hope no one have a bright idea to throw low voltage system intermixed with line voltage in there.}

Merci,Marc


Pas de problme,il marche n'est-ce pas?"(No problem, it works doesn't it?)

Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 482
Z
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Yes, my initial guess would be that the gate-guys pulled this one.

I would guess that the hand-hole in the foreground of the first pic would be the comm wire.

An interesting addition to this mess is that, from what I'm told, the gate motors are tapped into a lighting circuit.

I'm also not too sure that the concrete hand-hole is listed for punching into the side like that, let alone that shallow.

I THINK I see the lip of a 1/2" PVC around that punch-in, but it should, at the very least, come into the hand-hole far enough to protect the wire from the abrasive concrete.

I may be called out to inspect this further, and if so I will post my findings.

Thanks for your responses, and further responses will be appreciated.

Joined: Jul 2004
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Is this 120v? Most gate operators I see are 12vdc and battery backed up. The question is whether the 120 > 12v conversion is done in this pedestal or in the control box.
The controller will have a lot more wires than a slave unit which only needs "open/close/common".


Greg Fretwell
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,233
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Greg,


Here in NJ, most of the gate openers are of the 120 volt style. As Frenchelectrician said, sometimes there are low voltage wires that run with the line voltage for the control wires. They would either have to be of the same caricaturisation or the would have to be run in a separate conduit.

Joined: Oct 2002
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Most, actually all, of the motors I've run across at communities are 120V in. They often have battery back-ups, which have enough juice to open the gates in the event of a power failure. All of the voltage adjustments for the control board, battery back-up, etc. are done within the motor/control housing.

I haven't been called out to personally inspect this installation yet. I imagine the community is uninterested in spending money on something "that works". This is usually the case, especially in this economy.


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