MM gate opener 350, short stroking on close?

Soundguy · Jan 24, 2013

Got a mighty mule 350 gate opener. It's hooked to a 16' tube gate on a wheel. good balance. virtually no weight.. flat ground., have it set for the cyl extended to close, retract to open. Takes about 95% of the stroke to colse the gate. Been running a couple years fine. setup corectly, I have the travel stop programmed to stop just as the motor starts to load for about 1/2 second at full closure.

as of yesterday morning, it is stopping short stroke on close. It is not stopping in error and beeping, like if it hits an obstacle. it is just stopping like that was it's full stroke.. or it's programemd stop point. currently that short stroke is only about half way closed.

any ideas of the issue? you can hit the remote and open it again.. but when it closes.. it stops halfway.

does this use a manual stop sensor/eye / pin switch to tell it it has finished full stroke? could that switch be tripping for some reason?

aside from that only thing I can thik of is programming for stop stroke has changed?

ideas of what to look for when I open her up.

I realize it's a small control board on top of some sort of linear actuator screw/post setup. are the stops / in the motor or farther out on the swing arm.. just trying to get an idea of what to look for before surgery.

I have an olde rone that suffered a circuit board death previous to this one.. I believe I still have it, and as I recall.. it's motor and arm / frame were good. this was when they were grey.. not like the black one I have.

these are the self contained arms.. not the one with the outboard control box.. like the 200 or the 550 / double swing kits.. etc.

troubleshooting section for opens, but stops on close only mentions looking for binding at hing, or a low stall setting.

this is not a stall. you can disconnect the arm from the gate and it stops at that set spot. no error beeps.

Soundguy · Jan 24, 2013

wll,issue may be solved.. for now anyway.

got home from work.. tested unit again.. still short stroking.

flipped her over took off cover.. got manual out.

opened her to full open, erased the 'closed position', and then hit the button to make her close. she went past the short stroke and i stopepd her at my intended stop, then saved the setting, then re-ran it to test.

works flawlessly????

how did it CHANGE a preprogramemd stop?

to do so requires opening the unit up and pressing and holding a button a couple times and using a remote. I safety tape my gate closers and caulk the edge to prevent water coming in. .so i know it has not been opened.

weird hardware / nvram / memory glitch i guess.

will see if it does it again.. if so.. board may be going flakey?

anywho.. i guess it wasn't all waisted time... I noticed that on the motor side, underside of the cast aluminum hinge bracket, that thesteel hinge anchor plate on the fence corener posts has woorn a depression intot he underside of the gate closer aluminum bracket.. and it could be riding up over that lip at near full open.. thus causing some resistance.. I had noticed it stop on error at near full open a couple times.. had though bat was low or something as i didn't see a stall obstacle .. but that lip may have been it.

i added some flat washers under the the bracket and arm and that should aleviate it.

will see..

skylarkguy · Jan 24, 2013

Glad you got it worked out for now. When I used to commute I tried to work a gate opener into the budget, now that my wife does she has one...for now it's called "the hubby"...a push button would sure be nice.

DJ54 · Jan 24, 2013

Did you try their tech online support..?? Mighty Mule Technical Support

CNC Dan · Jan 24, 2013

Last MM opener I had to mess with had its brains fried by a lightning storm. Wouldn't respond to the wireless remote, but would work OK with a hardwired key pad, and the burried car sensor.

Soundguy · Jan 24, 2013

DJ54 said:
Did you try their tech online support..?? Mighty Mule Technical Support

next to useless.

unit is out of it's measly 12m warranty period.. and the troubleshooting section for my type of error only views the issue as a stall. ( IE.. add more stall setting, and check hinges for binding, and check travel path. )

soundguy

Jerry/MT · Jan 25, 2013

Soundguy said:
wll,issue may be solved.. for now anyway.

got home from work.. tested unit again.. still short stroking.

flipped her over took off cover.. got manual out.

opened her to full open, erased the 'closed position', and then hit the button to make her close. she went past the short stroke and i stopepd her at my intended stop, then saved the setting, then re-ran it to test.

works flawlessly????

how did it CHANGE a preprogramemd stop?

to do so requires opening the unit up and pressing and holding a button a couple times and using a remote. I safety tape my gate closers and caulk the edge to prevent water coming in. .so i know it has not been opened.

weird hardware / nvram / memory glitch i guess.

will see if it does it again.. if so.. board may be going flakey?

anywho.. i guess it wasn't all waisted time... I noticed that on the motor side, underside of the cast aluminum hinge bracket, that thesteel hinge anchor plate on the fence corener posts has woorn a depression intot he underside of the gate closer aluminum bracket.. and it could be riding up over that lip at near full open.. thus causing some resistance.. I had noticed it stop on error at near full open a couple times.. had though bat was low or something as i didn't see a stall obstacle .. but that lip may have been it.

i added some flat washers under the the bracket and arm and that should aleviate it.

will see..

Any high magnetic fields get near the microchip that controls the gate? they can cause problems like you're describing?

Gary Fowler · Jan 25, 2013

My brother in law has one of those and it worked pretty good for a couple years then lately it is constantly screwing up. At least once a week he is out there working on it, calling the tech etc for a problem. Just from his experience alone, no way would I ever buy one of those.
PS his gate doest the same thing, looses the position for opening. Apparently you cant set the closing position, it extends to fully open (screw cylinder fully extended) to that position and you have to set the hook up points on the gate to where it is closed properly, then you open it to where you want it to stop and save that setting. That is the setting that is always getting lost. I believe that is the way he has to do it. I have only watched him fret with it a few times and it is a PIA. Lately he has been getting the low battery alarm also even though the battery is fully charged and voltage is correct. Luckily I cant hear the beeping from my house, but the wife can. It would drive me nuts. The gate will still work with the beeping though, but to make it stop, it has to be reset and or sometimes charge the battery. Its on a solar charger and worked perfect for 2 years,now regardless of battery on it, it has problems.

Spikes · Jan 25, 2013

I have the MM 600ET PRO. It's a POS and I hate it. Mighty Mule support is useless too. I had to have a machine shop make a new delrin bushing for the screw threaded rod inside - I have extras if anyone needs one.