One’s entrance gate represents the first line of defense against intrusion and other breaches of the perimeter, making it critically important that this access point is sufficiently secured.

When CENTURION product specialist Louis Groenewald was recently approached to design a working intruder-detection system for a client whose home had suffered a spate of break-ins, Louis knew he would have to get creative.

“The client had multiple break-ins during which the perpetrators lifted the gate [from the rail], thereby gaining entry to the property,” explains Louis.

“[The homeowner does have] safety beams installed at the gate but, for their own reasons, they didn’t want to connect the beams as safety devices.

This automatically eliminated the use of the built in beam alarm function as an option. They also wanted a two-stage warning system,  whereby the first activation would be a ‘softer’ sound bomb and, should the would-be intruder continue to tamper, a ‘louder’ sound bomb would activate.

Being an entry way, one wouldn’t want the alarm to activate while the gate is open. That is where the external relay linked to the gate status by means of the XIO output comes in.”

Louis stresses, however, that it is entirely possible to use the CENTURION D-Series’ built-in Intruder-detection Alarm feature-set to achieve exactly the same results.

“This is merely an alternative to using beam alarms, especially where the beams aren’t being used for safety purposes – in other words, not connected to the safety close input on a D-Series controller – and for gate perimeter monitoring for tampering purposes.

The safety beams will still ‘click’ when they are obstructed, creating the illusion of standard safety beams”.

Check out Louis’ innovative solution here.