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A few
years ago, I designed a control circuit for a client’s
nifty security gate which lifted vertically, instead of
the usual horizontal motion. The act of moving the
gate vertically and folding up was ideal for mountain
homes, where narrow roads and heavy snow depths were
common.
Instead of using a battery to store the needed
energy, so I opted for a supercapacitor bank. I sized the capacitor bank so it could
operate the gate motor four times, without help from the solar panel.
The solar panel would be able to quickly charge up the capacitor between gate activations during sun lit days but much more slowly during cloudy days. Once fully charged, the unit performed flawlessly. The high quality capacitor bank should last for at least 10 years.
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