GateSmartifier

This instructable is a brief overview of a smartifier for automated gate. It is connected in parallel with the original gate driver board made by Italian company called Nice. My board is integrated into Home Assistant and it is based on ESP32-C6.

The whole gate system is made by Italian company called Nice. The main board type is Mindy A400. There is a 230Vac motor for each of the gate wings. There is also a key switch used to control the gate manually (normally you operate it with RF remote).

The wiring of the Nice driver board is shown in the image. We are interested in the SCA 24Vac pin (signalizes if the gate is open - its output), STOP (blocks the gate from moving), STEP-BY-STEP and AUX are connected to the key switches (opens and closes the gate). All those pins work at 24Vac.

The GateSmartifier board connects directly to the Mindy A400 pins as mentioned above. The STEP-BY-STEP and AUX pins are connected in parallel with the key. On the GateSmartifier the pins are driven by normally open relays. The STOP pin is driven by normally closed relay, since it is better to keep the gate running even if the Smartifier stops working. Currently there is no usage for this pin. I have plans to get a camera vision that will detect cars and then the STOP will be used.

The SCA 24Vac pin is for the Smartifier an input. Since it is AC, it is rectified with diode full wave rectifier and a capacitor. Then the voltage is dropped across 6kΩ of resistors (4x1k5Ω in series) and then connected to ESP via optocoupler.

The Smartifier is physically mounted with one M3 screw on to a 3D printed bracket (it has imprinted nut). The bracket is screwed onto the lid of the original Nice case with 2 self tapping screws. The model can be found on the Google Drive linked at the end.

The board is powered from 230Vac. It is transformed to 5V via MeanWell IRM-10-5 SMPS. Those 5V are used for driving the relays. The 3.3V for the ESP32-C6 which this board is based on are dropped from the 5V using linear LD1117S33 regulator.

As mentoied the board is running on ESP32-C6 WROOM. It can be programmed directly via USB-C. It does have built in WiFi, which is used for the communication. There is also an option for RS485 communication, but it isn't used and have not been tested yet.

As for the physical UI, there are three LEDs that signalize presence of power on the board, WiFi connection and in the state of the gate. There are also 2 user buttons (one is shared for setting the boot mode).

You can find the KiCad project along with the gerber files for ordering the board online on the Google Drive linked at the end.

It can be programmed as any usual ESP. Most likely in Arduino or via ESP-IDF.

In my case I am using it with Home Assistant, so I have programmed it using ESPHome. Since I can't upload yaml files there it is again on the Google Drive.

Since Instructables doesn't allow me to upload KiCad files, here is link a to my Google Drive where all the files are uploaded.

This project is shared under Creative Commons 4.0 International - Attribution Noncommercial - Share Alike so it can be remixed and shared with attribution.