Modern Vespa

That's some fancy PORT-al

here all week.
don't forget to tip your waiter
try the codfish.

🙂

Things starting to take shape here.
Gates are HEAVY - but pilasters haven't tilted - and epoxied bolts remain epoxied.
So far.

You can see the exteria panels - fancy outside MDF - are routed to make em look like T&G.
This is one of two identical sets for a U turn driveway.
Gonna start automation process on Wednesday.
Then paint on Thursday - if everything aligns.
TBD...

Ready to get back to turning wrenches.
Have an idea for my next sidecar - and a wide body frame calling my name.
May be a while yet - but looking forward.

hell yeah! looking good!

but before that... *cough* *cough* wanna do some barrel machine work?


*tugs collar*

*presents bottle of mezcal*

Anticipating some upgrades to the engine…

Red plastic skateboards!

Seriously... looks amazing.

And just think how much more amazing it would look with red skateboards!

With Road Rider Six wheels - trick!

But seriously, that gate is magnificent!

Everyone in the neighborhood would know who you were too--the guy whose gates shred the empty swimming pools.

I kind of like the look with the top panel open that you've got on the left of that picture. Bottom panel needs to be filled, looks correct. But the top could go either way and will weigh less open.

I'm with john on that. It looks "lighter" without the top panel.

Maybe throw some type of expanded metal or punched out aluminum in there to break it up? That would look slicker than deer guts on a door knob.

Built/hung/& painted - which sounds like a Village People The Movie title - but refers instead to the gates now adorning my house.

Moving to the wiring now.
This will be interesting...
More on "Ring" and their disfunction at another time - but let's just say - they are making Malossi instructions and customer service look good.
If you call them - you can eventually get a wiring diagram.
But it doesn't include the doorbell portion - because thats "a different group"...
Gracious.

Pleased with how the gates came out.
Painted them my favorite Vespa color.
Off to install motors and start wiring debacle.

Those look fantastic!

They look like they're just itchin to get tagged. Dooohhhh!

Better Holmes and Garden.
(…and sidecar)

Taged, or chained up and dragged down to San Diego to socal

I just showed them to my wife - "WOW, those are beautiful!"

Sounds like I better get crackin' before they head north to Oregon!

Nice, on time and under budget. Those will look great at Casa SoCal. The color's a little off, but I've got an extra gallon of Sherwin Williams trim.

So when you planning to be out of town Ned?

At least wait until he gets the automatic motors rigged up. You don't want to incur that expense!

Oh god - this could end ugly.
Alright sleuths.
Need some lectronic's support here something' fierce.

Situation:
Ring sells a kit.
It has the word "Pro" and "X Elite" in it - so I figured it had to be good.
The kit has a fancy version of the ring doorbell you all know - only this one fits flush in a box rather than clunky on the wall.
It also has a "cellular" controller box - that tells things to open.

I have an electronic strike the control box needs to open.
After some searching and calling - I have come to understand - the control box can't handle an electronic strike.
Too many amps I suppose.

I will just pause here for everyone to consider, why did they combine a DOOR BELL, and an OPENER CONTROL BOX, in a kit, if the opener control box doesnt have the power to open a DOOR strike.

Anyway - the solution is to buy a relay - that the controller tells to activate - and in turn activates the strike.
Pausing again to point out that even the f*cking horn makers ship a relay with their HORN - because they expect the button you push to honk it.
I digest.

Ok - so back to my sitee-a-shion.
The "customer service" guy sent me a wiring diagram (below) - not on their web site, not in the box... - and you can see how it gets wired.
They kindly even gave me a brand that works.
"Many people have told me they use..." says the customer service guy.
Oh... I bet they have. ITS A KIT FOR A DOORBELL! WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU THINK THEY ARE USING THE CONTROLLER to CONTROL, AFTER THEY RING THAT BELL?

You can see they recommend an ALTRONICS RB5.
Think is - I don't wanna wait the week - for one of them thingys - so I figured maybe another relay of similar nature might work.
Found one and posted it below.
Anyone have any insights on the likelihood of success, fire, etc?

Bonus question: how could I wire in a momentary button so some pour sole that just wants to LEAVE my property can push the button to release the lock on the way out?

That relay should work. As an added bonus, it has an opto-electric coupler, so even if someone tried to so something evil like hit the door strike with a tazer to disable it, your system will be protected from it.

and if it doesn't work, you're only out $8 and a day of delay.

hello,

the "Ring Access Controller Pro 2" doesn`t have the switchable amperage because thats not the intended purpose of the device.
the relay of the control box is rated for 32V / 2 Amp

the control box is just to send a pulse to another control box that operates the gates or doors or....

i can`t seem to find anything about configuring the duration that the control box will send a signal

so the schematic should work, i attached a simplified schematic with pushbutton.
the thing with the pushbutton is that it has no off-delay so if your striker does not have any logic you need to keep pressing the button to be able to open the door.

the relay that you chose should work but i would take or choose a more industrial or known brand.

Nasimavoy,
Much appreciated. Thanks for taking a look!
Will be interested to see if this is something that I have control of in the app.
I suspect they bought multiple devices/companies - and tried to integrate it all in the app.
Thanks again for jumping in.
Helpful.
-CM

Isn't there a magnetic switch or optical input that says I'm fully open or closed? What about safety interrupts if it hits something unexpected? Using a relay, that system Motor current is isolated and can't monitor motor current and shut off by a spike in current draw. What tells it I opened and hit an obstacle and have to stop? Wouldn't want it banging on front of car endlessly until motor burns out and beats a big dent in something.

Ok - since I have Tom Sawyer'ed the cognoscenti into my escapades - lemme give a brief overview and run down to see if anyone has further input.
I do love a crowd with an opion.
editors note: if Greasy and Chandlerman are seen in my neighborhood with walkie talkies - I expect it means these gates are going south.

Here is the overview.
- There are two driveway openings - each with their own set of swing gates operated by two motors, and held closed with a mag lock. (see editors note above...)
- Christopher - these have both a photo eye, and a sending loop buried that, that in tandem tell the gates not to open or close on my vespa should it be in their path.
- Ea. of these sets of driveway swing gates have their own control box. Diagram below. Inside the box is a "lock" set up that can be NC or NO depending on how you set it. I need these for the mag locks which need to be set to be on all the time unless gate motors activated (opposite of electronic strike so cant use them together).
- Down the middle is a pedestrian gate - with an electronic strike activated by a Ring "access controller pro cellular". This is the unit that sends the signal when told by the App (or an added button) to open the strike (but needs a higher amp relay).

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037202512-Ring-Access-Controller-Pro-Installer-Instructions

After a number of calls - have learned the following.
Access controller has a 2.5 second timer when activated to hold strike open. Great.
Unfortunately... there is no delay if I add the button as Nasimovy had postulated.

So... the question. what kinda board do I need that would give me a delay between button and relay for strike? What y'all got?!?

Thanks!!!

You want some sort of Timer Relay. You trigger it and then it will stay on for some configurable amount of time after the trigger ends.

So if you wanted a ten second window where the strike is disabled and have 2.5 seconds by default from your controller, then you'd set the relay to 7.5 seconds and be good-to go.

Gents, and lady,
Been some time.
Not a reflection of my love for the crowd of course.
More just a challenge of the times.
Checking in as often as possible for a bit of oxygen y'all are providing.

Orange unicorn is running like a bat outa hell.
Which of course sparks joy every time I twist the throttle.
Each time it peaks around 9K, side car bouncing off to my right, clutch only half pulled to slip into next gear, I think to myself: did I really epoxy the main bearing seat and rotary pad into this thing?!
Hahahahahahaha.
This absolutely should not be working so well!

Celebrate the wins as much as we focus on the fails.
Nothing risked, nothing gained.

Made a hardware store run t'day - and shot a 'lil video for a laugh as I came back in.
Haven't put a remote mount on the handlebars... yet...
Neighbors viewing from the one finger blind lift, have no idea how to fit me in their box.
Just fine by me.

The gates are thick/heavy/& beautiful.
The scooter is loud and thumpy.
The owner has been seen welding in the driveway, fitting and refitting, and rocking' a spectacular farmer's tan

It's symbiotic.
The more perplexed the neighbors are - the more pleased I am.

Chandlerman - your offline help on understanding relays was a huge help.
Discovered a whole new world of programable ones.
Have this gate system running crazy good.
All sorts of delays created through use of timer relays that allow smooth operation.
Had to chuckle when the Ring customer service guy asked me to shoot a pic of how I had it set up.
🙂

To close the loop on this adventure - positing my crappy video here - to give an idea.
Nothing like the joy of accomplishment.
Not so bad for homemade.
https://youtu.be/k5uOM4NKNSU

Well that doesn't suck!

Fantastic work my man. Truly.

Well done.

Now we'd like to know what it did add up to.

How far from 60 G?

Right on Brother! Great Job!

Gotta love the forum.

Where else can a bunch of guys figure out how to make old Italian scooters go fast and build automatic electric gates from scratch?

And garage/shop organization motivation!

Appreciate the cheering on!
Built this shack with a lot of sweat equity.
Skills certainly honed here.

Gates operating system is fancy eye-talian.
Super subtle.
Fast.
Soft close features.
None of that of course was in the original quote. Quote was actually for $70K and spec'd some basic operators.
Nothing as fancy.
No paint.
No fancy adjustable hydraulic soft close hinges for the pedestrian gate (oh man - the hinges I sourced are crazy nice).

This thing all wet cost me about ~$13K.
I just kept hammering the credit card guilt free.
That includes about $1000 of Milwaukee M18 cordless tools I justified purchasing to "get the job done honey".
🙂

Ok - so let's talk about some scooters!
Front shock on the Unicorn is completely worn out.
It takes an incredible beating with my set up (disc brake, side car, etc.)
Im going to have to go to page twenty-I have no f*cking idea - of my thread to revisit all the mods I made to the existing shock to fit it under the stock mudguard.

Looks like BGM still sells the one I have (195mm)
It's been good - but I had to do some crazy things to get it to desired length.
SIP offers one at 185mm (perfect!) but it's " in-arrival", which is German for; check's in the mail/ I won't ...mouth.
No telling when that will be back.
Stage 6 offers one for just $658.00. The words - you must be kidding me - comes to mind.

Any other known contenders in that 185, 195mm range y'all have some experience with?
So looking forward to a little scooter upgrading.

-CM

I've got a SIP Performance on two of my scoots. Nice shock.

https://www.sip-scootershop.com/en/product/shock-absorber-sip-performance-front_78000FBM

Well they do have to cover the cost of shipping from Aliexpress. And putting their stickers on it. Seem perfectly reasonable to me. What's with the "175-210mm" in the description of that shock Mike?

Gates look great! Glad I could be of assistance.

I'm guessing it's the length, from fully compressed to fully extended.

hahahaha. Uh huh. Wish I could find my PK style one on there! Where is PP?! (that man could find your car keys if they were lost on that site). So mine is different style - I have a converted PK fork with disk. Shock looks like one of these (below). They list them at 195mm. SIP claims to sell one at 185mm. Both have a second number (like 205mm) but that is how much you can adjust its stock length by turning a threaded collar.

Somewhere in my thread - I showed how I took it apart and flipped the components to give myself an extra 10mm shorter shock - without taking away travel.
Alas - I have been verbose - and my thread has grown longer than Gandolff's beard.

I will have to dig through and find.

Oops, yeah my bad. I forgot you switched forks.

Take a look at this one:

https://www.sip-scootershop.com/en/product/shock-absorber-sip-performance-20-front_76005FBB

Didn't you do a table of contents for it at some point? Or did you leave it buried in the pages and not put it up front where it belongs?

Tks.
That's the one I wanted!
Unfortunately- It's "in arrival"…
Have book
Armed for next year.
I suspect I will wear out the SC 195mm in nearly that time.

Kind of suspect: sip is selling the SC one basically with the same mod I made (which is about 10 mm).

I'll post the details here when I do the swap out