Maintenance Committee – Behind the Gates

Behind The Gates
Our “gated community” has five different entrances. They include Mariner Drive, Selva, Cabrillo Isle, Manta and Garibaldi. Each of these entrances has two or three vehicle gates for ingress and egress as well as pedestrian gates. Each has its own “computer” (a DSX Controller) that stores our fob and barcode number to allow us access.
There are two additional pedestrian gates that also have this controller to operate access—the Beach Bluff/Breakers Isle pedestrian gates and the Selva/Manta pedestrian gates. The maintenance on all of these gates is ongoing and monopolizes a great part of our maintenance staff’s time.
Just two recent examples:
On Nov. 11 the Selva gate DSX controller blew a fuse. The two pedestrian gates would not respond to a fob to unlock the magnet and the modem would not connect to the office to download barcodes and fobs. However, the barcode reader portion of the controller was working. The following day when a new DSX controller was installed to replace the old one, no fuse blew. Then on Nov. 20 the new controller blew a different fuse with all symptoms being the same. Finally on Nov. 24 a service technician found the
short and the controller was fixed.
On the afternoon of Nov. 25 the Cabrillo Isle vehicle gate DSX controller failed necessitating a 33 hour closure. On Nov. 26 the short was found that caused the failure. In order to keep the gate open for traffic, it was decided to remove the DSX controller from the Selva pedestrian gate and install it at Cabrillo Isle. A new DSX controller then had to be purchased and installed at the Selva pedestrian gate.
Are you totally confused by now? This is the sort of thing George and his crew have to deal with all the time.
The cost of a new DSX controller is about $1,000.00 so George has ordered several refurbished ones for backup use at a cost of $250.00 each.
—Suzanne Enis