DIY Cheap Remote Gate Access Control and GSM Intercom System

This video details my gate control and intercom system. This system is very inexpensive compared to commercially available gate intercoms / control systems for sale in the US. I have a Mighty Mule 350 gate opener. The keypad is also a mighty mule unit. The intercom is an Advent Controls GSM Phone Intercom. www.adventcontrols.co.uk/prod...
My long range gate opener is a Heddolf EX220-1K remote and Heddolf ER294-1K Long Range Gate and Garage Door Receiver. Both can be purchased on Amazon. Just make sure you get the transmitter and receiver with the same frequency. There is a 318mhz and 433mhz version. The Heddolf control easily opens my gate which is approximately 800 feet from the house, through a heavily wooded area and down a hill.
To use this intercom from Advent Controls you must have T-Mobile service in your area. AT&T has officially shut down its 2g system as of 12/31/2016. T-Mobile plans to keep its 2g system active until at least 2020. Advent Controls is working on a 3g intercom, which will be released soon according to an email correspondence with them, which will work on AT&T also. The Advent controls 2g intercom is a full featured gsm control and reporting solution that is fully programmable via sms messages.

[@joebloggs1155]

Thank you for this video! Very useful information provided.....will be setting something similar to this up!!! A little camera would have made this a perfect setup :)

[@chuck78]

Thanks...advent raised their price, but plan to try and order one shortly.

[@chadtaylor1148]

Fanvil i20s is a door phone that runs on SIP which can be powered VERY cheaply if you know what you are doing using a service like Twilio ($1.25 per month per phone number and $0.003 per minute of usage on the calls) you can pipe a connection to the Fanvil. If you run two Loco m2's from Ubiquiti it would provide internet access from the main house to the gate. At the moment I would not switch away from the current setup but in a year you might start looking into that type of solution. You already have 12v at the box and it could easily be switched over to this type of setup.

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

Thanks for the comment. I will check it out.

[@SundayBeastz]

I use a $35 wireless Vtech Baby Monitor from Walmart. The Baby Monitor has two way talk and a 1500 foot wireless range. Works great for my gate that is 300 feet away from house. So now I can talk to people at the gate and they can talk to me. For about $80 Walmart has a Vtech VIDEO Baby Monitor that can be used to see who is at your gate. It has the same 1500 foot range.

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

Any problems with the weather? How do you protect it from the elements?

[@SundayBeastz]

@@JackofAllMasterofNone Just mount the remote baby monitor inside of a small plastic or metal outdoor box. Cut out a 3 x 5 inch hole in the cover or drill a bunch holes in the box lid. Cover the holes with a thin black cloth or black plastic to keep out rain. Both baby monitors run on 6 volts DC and the 6 volt DC adapters are included. But if there is no 110 volt AC at the gate one could just connect to a 6 volt rechargeable battery. It's best to cut a DC plug off of an old 110 volt AC adapter that has a plug that is the right polarity and size. The monitors are quite sensitive to sound and very understandable when talking to someone. To talk to someone at the gate the inside unit has a button to press when talking. The outside unit doesn't need anyone to press any buttons. The person at the gate just talks and you can hear them. They really work great. At my gate there is a utility pole with a big AC power transformer on it that creates a lot of electrical noise. But these monitors are NOT affected by that transformer at all. The only issue is that you have to figure out the best way to protect the outside baby monitor. I think it could possibly work to just solidly mount the outside monitor in a small open faced plastic or metal box if the box was deep enough to keep rain from hitting the monitor. A box 6 or 8 inches deep might work.

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

@@SundayBeastz Thank you. Will keep this in mind

[@chrisleech1565]

This was very informative. I wish we had T-Mobile rates in Canada, You already got enough involved in that build without considering the 3G .certainly not a DIY type build even though you mix and match bits, there are many valid high end components. I was just about to begin with a real DIYers bent and start with a GSM dev board running an A6 GSM chip and first thing you begin to hear/read is the 2G systems "Sunsetting" ( i loved that term btw) So now what? Do I just simplify and go with RFI tags. Our drive is perhaps even longer than yours and the owner wants closed gate during the work day. So I wanted to make a xmas gift of a text gate opener solar/simple logic/ timed closure. But with a optical safety of course. Arduino and $7 GSM . And now it is all going to hell with 2G network vanishing

[@ciao614]

Nice! Wish you gave a demo.

[@no_handle_required]

man I want that driveway

[@cheneybros]

I am in the process of installing a MM502, however, I was trying to figure out a more secure way of storing the control box & the battery out of the weather and from vandals...I have thought about a plastic storage box or maybe building a box out of some scrap wood, but still haven't decided yet (though these ideas are not really that secure either)...I had to buy the extended arms for my gate too, as it opens toward the vehicles. I also thought the way MM wants you to bolt on the arms with the nuts facing outside of the fence, that's kinda a$$backwards, right? I mean, that leaves the vandals the ability to unscrew the arms from outside the gate and possibly steal them?? Maybe I am more security conscious than the engineers that work for MM company, idk. Great video btw. p.s. it appears MM has a wireless intercom/keypad, however, per the reviews it is horrible.

[@Skbowling2003]

I was curious on the mounting of your GSM system to the post along side the keypad. And also the wiring configuration to combine the use of both items. Thanks

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

Used a coated board to mount them both too, which is mounted to the pole. The keypad is wireless and battery powered. The gsm controller has 4 wires. Power and gate unlock.

[@Skbowling2003]

Jack of All Master of None My driveway is right at 900 feet so I've been looking at a BFT cellular intercom for 600 bucks. Just wasn't sure how many wires I needed to bury to my post. I just mounted my mule to the gate. You still having good luck with yours? Thanks

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

Yes it is still working good. I have had to replace the rev counter module about 3 or 4 times though. The reason is because water can easily get into the gate arm, even if it is level. My advice to you would be to make sure it is slightly slanted down towards the attachment of the arm at the gate, just enough to make sure moisture cant run down the ram arm into the unit. I finally figured it out and it has been working good ever since.

[@Real_Tim_S]

I'm wondering if a SIP-VoIP intercom and a WiFi bridge would have done the job too... A SIP-VoIP intercom will cost you about $150 new (retail) for a barebones call button with mic and speaker (if you want to go cheaper, get a RaspberryPi on each end). A cheap WiFi bridge goes for about $30 an end, and with the correct antennas you can focus your signal at a specific house to avoid interference and interception. Over the SIP-VoIP door phone you can do alarm inputs and gate control outputs which would have likely simplified the system, and you wouldn't have to worry about your local cell-carrier changing on you. For reliability, security, and maintenance; I would have just run a conduit to the house and pulled power and fiber to the gate box. You can keep your 12V battery as a backup (good to have), but use home power primarily. Fiber-Ethernet converters are just as cheap as wireless bridges nowadays, and there's no WiFi/Cellular jamming possible with fiber (I just picked up a set on ePlace for $31/end). With fiber down to the gate, you can put in an IP camera (or two or three) to watch over the gate as well at only the hardware cost of the IP camera (can be as low at $100 for a weatherproof 1080p dome). Sometimes I find that doing things "on the cheap" or "as cheap as possible" leads to shortcomings that have to be either reworked or worked around later. I've personally found it's better to find a reasonable point below the 80/20 point (where 20% of the work results in 80% of the outcome) that is likely to allow for additions and alterations later, and that often means walking away from standard limited commercial offerings. My 2cents.

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

+Tim S Good comment. I agree with you but this system hasnt failed me yet!

[@jerkster9114]

YOu could beam wifi down there using wifi bridge ($200) then use any video intercom which allows you to check to see if the door is closed or open anytime u want

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

That is exactly what I plan on doing when 2g is no longer supported or the intercom breaks. Im just trying to find a good video intercom with a relay output that will work over the internet and not just internally on the network, so if you have any suggestions, feel free. Thanks.

[@jerkster9114]

Why not the Nest Hello?

[@gavinwalsh5238]

I wonder if that 2g network could be set up with google voice since its free in the us

[@chrisleech1565]

Sound interesting, and in canada we get the last consideration from them :-)

[@josuemontalvan6141]

Can I get the links of everything u need to install it ?

[@jeffbaldwin9842]

Very interesting Jack. I am in a similar situation with my driveway gate build here in FL. ( gate is over 1000' from house) . Would like to come up with a gsm intercom that I can install myself and won't break the bank. All the reasonably priced offerings seem to be coming from overseas. I like the Advent Controls unit you used but am concerned about the 2G thing. I emailed them and was told I needed 4G and their unit wouldn't work here (obviously thats not 100% accurate). Another potential option is the Waferstar GSM-HOUSE or GSM-APARTMENT from China. Have you checked them out? I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to cellular networks and am unsure what will or won't work and why. Any input you have would be greatly appreciated.

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

+jeff baldwin I dont think the waferstar ones will work. They are also gsm intercoms and would only support tmobile here in the USA. You need a 3g compatible model that supports 850mhz and 1900mhz on 3g minimum to run on AT&T. They are a little harder to find and more expensive.

[@jeffbaldwin9842]

I think the waferstar gsm apartment will work at $200 and I see it being offered through one of the online gate suppliers rebranded at 3 times the price. I would prefer the gsm house as it doesn't require the person at the gate to enter in any numbers. Waferstar has indicated to me through limited and somewhat confusing terms that the gsm house is also offered in 3G at 850/1900 mhz. Looks like Advent Controls gave up on 3G and are having trouble with or don't want to mess with 4G. I'm probably gonna take a chance on one of the waferstars , I'll be darned if I'm going to spend 1000+ on a cell phone in a box and then possibly have to subscribe to a monthly service for it to work. In fact maybe I should just put a cheap cell phone in a box at the gate! Do you think a Cricket sim card would work with one of these things? I think they are a subsidiary of ATT and use the same network. Been checking out some of your other videos and see you have a lot of the same interests ad I do. I've spent my whole working life figuring out how to do things so I didn't have to pay somebody to do it for me. I've done everything from forming and pouring concrete to repairing transmissions, whatever needs to be done. It started out a necessity but I have really grown to love the challenge and doing something different all the time. Keep up the good work!

[@JoseBrache]

@@jeffbaldwin9842 did you end up trying the GSM-HOUSE from waferstar? How did it work for your situation?

[@jeffbaldwin9842]

@@JoseBrache No, I even cheaped out on that and instead went with a chinese $20 gsm switch (rtu5024) off ebay that works like a champ. I can open the gate from anywhere with a call from my cell when somebody is at the gate. Got a free sim card from us mobile (with promo code) to get it going and its costing me $4.25 a month to maintain an active line. You have to configure the switch via text and give it a list of approved numbers that it will recognize and activate when called (it doesn't use any minutes as it hangs up as soon as it sees the number calling) Can't believe how well it works (though a little clunky to configure) and my experience with it suggests that the waferstar gsm-house and others from China will work just as well. Just be prepared to fiddle with it, Your mileage may vary. Good Luck!

[@JoseBrache]

@@jeffbaldwin9842 Great, thanks for the information!

[@jennycruz7859]

Around how much did it cost for gate and gate opener? I’m thinking about getting one and dont know if it’s cheaper to do it ourselves or pay someone.

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

+jenny cruz Way cheaper to do it yourself. Gate opener is around 500 dollars with the accesories. The farm gate is around 100-150 dollars depending.

[@patrickwalsh2842]

@@JackofAllMasterofNone Hey Brother can you tell me what the range is on the remote all the videos I've seen nobody tells you how much distance the remote will cover I want this for a chicken coop gate and the coop is about 75 yards from my house thank you for your help

[@southernprecisiongunworksl5597]

Was that a camera up in a tree back towards the road? If so, what kind? I have been researching different cameras to use at my gate. I have Arlo's all around my house but with my gate being ~415 feet from by Arlo base station, I don't know of a way to use an Arlo camera out there unless i go with their LTE camera which is $$$. Thanks in advance.

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

Wired regular old hd-tvi. It's a pita but wired is the only maintenance free way

[@zdf84]

Why did you set the gate up to open towards the road?

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

Because its uphill towards the house and the gate cannot open that way unfortunately.

[@jerkster9114]

Why not a sliding gate then?

[@wasafunga1]

The gate will be braced against the post making an attempt to ram the gate open a difficult task.

[@gojoeyr]

RING OR KNOCKOFF VIDEO DOORBELL

[@johnnym5564]

Hi, are you still happy with your intercom system? Thank you sir.

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

Yes. Still working good on TMobile. For how much longer is unknown

[@DJ_Megahertz]

You sure it still works? GSM is shutting down today.

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

luvencl As I explained in the video, AT&T is shutting down its system, not T-mobile. And yes it works great. Just use T-mobile.

[@chuck78]

Advent Controls expects to have their US version out in about 6 weeks.....according to an email I received yesterday.

[@teacstudents]

Sir are you in Louisiana?

[@JackofAllMasterofNone]

No