Health of the Fence & Gate Industry

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All right. Today's a special special episode. We have Mr. Brooks himself here live from Las Vegas. What are you doing all the way out here in Las Vegas? Uh, that's a good question. Dallas sounds so much better right about now. But I guess your team did beat us in the little playoffs. So, we didn't do that good. Yeah. 110 degrees. I love it. 120 degrees. Yeah, it was 112 today. But I think what was it? You came uh you came out here uh last August. I don't think you've left. Have you left since then? Been here quite a bit. Um yeah, once you decided to pull the trigger on the fence university and start educating small businesses, I was all in. Yeah. So, um, you know, we we were debating, remember, because I know we're going every two weeks on the show now. So, we were debating, uh, do we go live this week or not? But there's been so much going on. If you were around, um, the FWA offices, it was just, it was just packed full of stuff. Um, and exciting stuff because we did expand the, uh, university out, didn't we? Tell us a little bit about that. Uh, so the biggest problem that we had, if you will, it's a good problem to have, is that, uh, the classroom was limited in size. So, we uh uh have about almost the same size classroom here, just a little bit bigger. Um, so there's a little bit more room, but the outside is just uh unbelievably 10 times bigger. So, we're going to have gate operators and and access control and chain link and all that stuff set up. So, yes, we moved to a new facility and uh class starting on Monday will be in the new facility. Yeah. So, tell tell us about the new class. This it was kind of exciting. It's our first time. Uh normally it's a two-day class we've been doing. So, this one's going to five. Are you ready for that? Are you ready for five days of uh intense training? Well, um intense teaching um and training, too, because I'll learn quite a bit uh at these classes as well, too. But, uh the uh so, no, I'm not ready. Um not ready because this man right here just said just a few weeks ago, hey, you know what I'll do? Let's do a fiveday class instead of two. So luckily we've got some great strategic partners with Cellgate and uh uh Automatic and AES and BD Loops and SAS and they're all going to come in and and share their expertise and we're going to do live actually live installation of this equipment. We're cutting the loop and putting it in the ground and we're going to use the BD loop uh loop saw blade and loop sealant from start to finish. It will be all BD loop. So uh yeah, I'm pretty excited. I'm pretty excited about the new courseware and I finally get to do some of the stuff that I hadn't done in the past which is we are literally going to break a relay apart physically push it together open and close and have somebody put their meter on it and test it and all the individual students will be able to do that. It's actually going to be part of the test when when you uh get your certificate at the end of the end of the class to to know how to work a relay and a switch. Um, so there's things like that that we hadn't had time to do in the past and in this class, uh, we'll we'll do in the ongoing series of, uh, developing this education courseware. That's cool. I mean, I was lucky enough to help on, uh, a lot of the last three classes we had with the two-day uh, quick start. So, what what are we adding be beyond the quick start? I know it's going to be the is it going to be the same quick start class as the last three? And then you're going to add something else. What's the what's the the third, fourth, and fifth day? What exactly is it? So, it's actually going to be just a little bit more on the installation side of gate operators. So, we're going to talk about we're going to actually dive into a little bit more theory in the classroom, which is always tough because sometimes it gets boring. Um, but we're going to be doing uh intermediate stuff with uh the gate operator, which is not just physically just laying it down and setting it left to right. We're going to bolt it to a stand. We're going to hook it up to an actual gate op gate uh the gate operator with it. We're going to connect power to it and then uh we'll be able to connect some of the wireless loops together and then we'll also be able to connect some of the access control stuff together. Um and then one of the biggest markets I think right now in the automatic gate and access control world is this um the access control part of it and creating a

Reoccurring monthly revenue plan. So, we've got two um great operators in the industry, Cellgate and AES, that are going to come talk about their products, allow us to actually set up a database in the cloud, set up a user, set up a PIN code, set up a credential, and connect a reader to it. Sellgate, I believe they bought brought five different call boxes. So, we're going to do that across all of them uh in the cloud, set up the database from start to finish, and then we're going to talk about uh building your reoccurring monthly revenue plan. Um so, I think that's an exciting opportunity for us, and that's going to be a day and a half, and the rest will be intermediate gate operators. So, you know what? You know what I like about the um access controls and teaching fencers to install gate operators. And I think I' I've talked to you about this is half the country, it feels like, shuts down for the winter time. And it's the one thing that just seems to continue on no matter what. when the weather gets bad, an apartment complex or something has an automatic gate. That thing goes down, they got to fix it. Uh, you know, it's no matter what where wherever you're at, an automatic gate doesn't just stop. They don't just let it stop working for three months out of the year. You got to keep it up. So, I'm hoping that as we get um some of the fencers more into access controls or door controls, stuff beyond just the fencing, um we can actually help them make money during those offseason time when when it does slow down to keep that revenue coming. So hopefully some of these classes will get people, you know, get people in interested in some other areas of it. But um before I get into this, I got this in the mail today. What is it? It came from uh Ra Well, Rachel, I was talking to Rachel. She was getting my address for this and I didn't know what they were sending, but uh I'm sure Matt Warner and Rachel are behind this thing, so I blocked the address out there. But uh I'm going to I'm going to open this thing up live and show everybody what's inside this thing. I mean, it's it's rattling around. It's not making any weird sounds, but uh it's got a thunk thunk. You hear that? That's pretty weird, right? No ticking. I don't know what it is. I think it's like a gate hinge or something, which is kind of odd. So, we're going to open this right unhinged. Unhinged page, you know. So, we're going to open that thing up live in a second here. So, um and you know, all that all the stuff you're talking about is kind of boring. So, let's go show this for a second.

How about that? There we go. There we go. We're back on this camera. I guess that camera didn't have any audio, man. So, what do you guys think's in this thing right here? ever let everybody take a guess. Susan, I know you're watching. Has anybody seen these things opened yet? Okay, so um I saw like two or three people that have it. Um let's see see what's inside. It says unhinged. You've been selected to help solve a fence mystery. Now, top secret, so I don't know if I'm supposed to open this thing up. So, mad if I wasn't supposed to open this up for everybody to see it, I'm sorry. I'm opening it up anyway. I cracked the seal on it. Okay, so what do we got here? We got a picture. It looks like I see some of these characters I recognized. What can everybody see if we get this on the right camera here? Bend it a little bit. I'll post a good picture of this thing so everybody can see it. And there's a QR code on the back. I don't know if we're everybody's supposed to see that or not. It says it's a scan me uh for a sneak peek. So um I will take a look at this and see what that's about. Unhinged. It's kind of cool. And looks like we got a coffee mug. I'll be using this mug for sure. My salesman crazier than the mug. Top notch. It wasn't a hinge. It was a mug. That it. That's it. And then some blue stuff in there. Just some confetti. So, um I'm going to listen to that and see. I don't know what the mystery is. I don't know if anybody's figured out what the mystery is. We're going to find out. I know. Well, while you're talking, it doesn't say anything on there, man. mysterious all the way to the end. It's the on the QR code. Yeah, it's on the QR code. So, we're gonna we're gonna watch that. So, hey, I'm not the only one that got some stuff in the mail, though. Am I? Well, two geniuses over here trying to figure out how to work QR code. I'm not the only one. What did uh what did you get in the mail? So, thank you to everybody that's been sending us stuff, by the way, for the Fence University. This is just uh tip of the Oh, this is that Fence University stuff. What are we going to do with that? This is the Fence University. Check out this bad boy right here. All right. Uh oh, there we So anyway, so see this this is a planner that goes on a um vinyl post it appears. So it looks like it hooks onto a vinyl post if you can see it. We got a couple of these in the mail. Who makes these? Um let's let's see that. Uh Christian Bario. Yeah, let's see if we can get that up on the camera. I don't think we can get it on there easily. I don't know. I think you got We're gonna rip it off. I think you have Okay, so uh it looks like it's fence pot. I don't know, man. You say that to the wrong person, right? But anyway, that's what it is. We'll take a look. Um I I haven't ticked these things out of the box yet. So, we're going to get a vinyl post in here and see what this thing looks like. So, it's made to fit a standard 6 foot po fence post. That's all it says. I'm assuming it's made in America. I'm assuming it's vinyl. It's got a picture of a vinyl fence, but if you could see it, it's kind of hard to see on this thing with the light. It's got flowers inside of it. Inside of it's hanging off of a post. It's made in America, so um fits most standard six foot fences. So, we're gonna we're gonna take a look. Maybe we'll see them with the fence shell. We got to have something a little more techy than that, though, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, uh people have been helping out uh with the Finch University. Quite a few manufacturers have been help sending us products. So, Northstar sent us a bunch of uh loops today. That glare is bad. Um this is one of the cooler things that I've seen for all you access control and automatic gate installers out there. What this actually is is it looks like a loop rack, but this little gray device on the middle actually is three loop detectors built in. So, what you're able to do is actually take a Viking or an automatic

Uh loop rack and literally just take the take the Phoenix connectors out, which is generally what these are called generically. Um, you take the Phoenix connectors out on both sides and you put this in place and your three loop detectors already right there. You just set your frequencies and that's it. So, thank you Northstar for sending us uh that stuff. So, is that is that the loop detector? This is the detector and the rack all in one, excuse me. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, each one This is the three loop detectors actually in there. Wow. So, you pull those two wires off, which would be uh there's six conductors on one side. That's the three loops that you have. And then there's five conductors on the other side. That's the power and the communication to the gate operator. And uh you just slap slip that right in its place. You don't have to do any unwiring if you don't want to. And then just set your frequency of your loop detector. Well, Northstar sent us a lot more stuff than this, so we'll have to take a look at that whole box full of things. Yeah, individual loop detectors. Um, so we'll have one in our US Automatic Patriot and then this one will get put on an automatic SL90. Um, so basically for you students that are out there, uh, you're going to be able to mess with these and let's break them in class before we break them out in the field. Okay. Um and then uh this week we also got in uh Pro Data Key sent us basically a full access control system. So there's two parts that they sent us. One of them is uh basically what connects to your network and um glare. That is a horrible glare, huh? Let's open it up, though. Let's open it up, man. We don't need to be looking at the boxes. Let's open it up. Do we PDK? Is anybody familiar with PDK? I've done uh well I honestly I've never really I don't think installed it but I mean I I thought they were just for like a storage complexes and stuff. You said they they do them in other places. No, you put them anywhere. This is a full access control system. I set up the database and I actually put Susan, myself, and you in there and just gave us full rights 24 hours, 7 days a week. Let's open up the man. Well, I put the all the card readers in there, too. This is like Johnny Carson, man. All right. So un any anyways uh they did send us some credentials too. And in case you guys are wondering what credentials are, they're basically just tags. Basically something that's a unique identifier that we can actually use as uh an individual identifier that we can actually scan. Proximity cards. Proximity cards. Uh prox tags branded PDK. And then it looks like this one's actually a swipe card because it actually has a has a a particular uh direction that it goes. Is this the first time you've opened this box? Yes, it is. So, basically, this connects to your network. Um, this little white box will come out of there. Um, this is the power supply uh that's sitting in there. You take that out and uh run your wires directly to this. And then what this will do is actually sit on your network and um allow other uh wireless devices to connect to this, use the database that's in there, and then validate the credential, meaning allow access to the actual door. So, you'll basically sit this right right next to your network server and connect it to the network and uh your So, is that is it cellular then? To be honest with you, I think it's cellular. I think it'sable maybe. No, I think it's uh it's you connect direct. Okay. And these are to connect the different door. It looks like for Windows doors. Yeah. So, any type of device. What we're probably going to do is going to we're going to hook this up to a uh RFID reader uh for a vehicle detection and have it actually open a gate. But this will be sitting inside the building and the next device that I show you will be sitting outside with the wireless reader connected. You're going to be showing people how to hook these up. Yes. As a matter of fact, um I'm going to be showing you the technical part of it and along with the manufacturers, they're going to be showing you the uh

The practical part of it, setting up the database and um how that works actually out in the field. Uh but I'll be showing you the practical part of it because you still have to connect a network connection cable to it. That's an important thing to do because most likely you're going to be making a custom cable for it and um you're going to be connecting wires to it. When you say custom, you're talking about network like a internet Ethernet like you'd normally plug into your computer. What we would call Ethernet cable. So it's a RJ45, but it is a a Cat 5 cable. Ethernet's the protocol. Cat 5 is actually real quick. Where would a fencer use that? What's an application where they where a fence company not a you know where we were out in the field and what kind of customer would would ask us to use one of those? So from a fence perspective, you would have to most likely have an access control component to your business, but you could use it anywhere from agricultural to commercial to a residential. Most likely in this type of in this type of uh uh cost level, you're you're probably in a commercial or agriculture. So you could be literally letting people in on the farm via vehicle tags. You could let uh your vendors into your commercial property via these hand tags. Um, and then you can set all kinds of credentials. As an example, um, you don't want UPS in your facility on Saturday, you can actually block them out Saturdays and Sundays and only allow them from 8 to 5. So, there's a lot of applications anywhere where you think you can use access control to limit access to a property or to something of value, that's where this stuff would come in handy. And although you think it's complicated, it really isn't. If you can connect a computer to the network inside your house, that's exactly what these are. Um, and by the way, PDK has a really great training system um that they ask you to take in order to learn not only how to install this stuff. It's all online, so it's really easy to do, but also how to sell this stuff. So, if you're new, if you are a fencer, um, this might be a good opportunity for you to get into it because they teach you how to sell it, too. Will they be at next week here? They won't be here next week. We we just connected with them. Susan uh got in contact with them just recently and we just uh formed a relationship here just recently. So uh but uh they were at last year's show and I think I saw a booth this year. So Susan would have to be able to check it. But um by the way, she did check and fence pot will be at the fence show. So those pots that they will they will be. So you're going to be able to come you'll be able to come see them at the fence show and uh touch and feel and I'm sure maybe we'll get some plants in them hanging off of a vinyl. I do not believe that. Yep. So, if anybody's anybody's bringing vinyl fence to the fence show and wants to get one of those, let us know. We'll reach out to them. Yeah. And and we need to find out whether it's actually just specifically for vinyl fence. It's just based on this cap, right? It's it's standard 5inch post, a vinyl vinyl fence post. So, yeah. So, we'll um we're going to put on one here and check it out. But that's cool. So, uh thank you if you're watching for being there. And Susan did just confirm that PDK will also be at the fence show in Security Expo in Las Vegas. So, that's cool. Yeah. Well, hopefully that's a good start of a good relationship, but they have a good product. And again, I think for you fencers, this is a no-brainer as far as having a reoccurring monthly revenue. And if you guys don't understand what I mean, I'm talking about mailbox money. Literally one after you install it, you're getting a small check in the mail for every door that you have actually out there. So, it's a good opportunity. Yeah. So, um you got what else you PDK? So, PDK. So, so the device I just showed you is actually what connects to the network in order for you to interface with the cloud, but it doesn't actually connect to the individual doors or gates. And this is where this would actually come into handy come into handy come in handy. So, this uh this outdoor controller, what it's designed to do is basically be in a weatherproof housing that's lockable. And you would install that next to a pedestrian gate, a door, a vehicle gate, or anywhere that you would put access to. And uh and then

That just takes a a couple screws to mount this. It's got an antenna just like the other system. And then it communicates wirelessly to that node. And the nodes node is just a point in uh in the network. It communicates wirelessly to that. And then uh it validates their credentials and says, "Hey, these guys are good to go at this time in this place." And opens the opens the vehicle gate for you. So I packed all these up. Have you opened this one yet? You haven't seen this one yet? I haven't I haven't seen here. Oh, great. All right. So, keys somewhere. Um, so that's what happens when you move from one place to the other. I'm sure everybody knows that. Oh, man. This one's locked up. We can't leave it. No. So, basically what's in here is just another circuit board with uh with an antenna port on it that you actually plug into the top and and it's just that simple. It actually might not even have an antenna. Sometimes with these devices that are in these plastic housings, you can actually incorporate the antenna into the circuit board, so you don't have to have something sticking out. But this will actually sit by the gate or sit by the door on inside or outside. And then you run your wires from what's called the card reader, which is the device that recognizes one of these cards. It sends a wireless communication to that card reader and then a wired communication over to this device. And then that sends a wired communication to get the credential validated, meaning is this person actually allowed inside this building at this time through this door. So that's what PDK said and I think we had a couple other things. Yeah, PDK great product. I've seen them everywhere. So you're So you have a fence business, right? So how did you make the leap from the fence business into the access control business? I've always loved gate operators. You know, it was back uh God, this going back 20 years ago. Um about when I started selling these things, believe it or not, online. Um everybody says, "You're crazy. No one's going to buy gate operators online." And I go watch I sat there at my uh I have my old I think I have still have this old laptop sitting there. It was a little tiny laptop about this big and built my first uh website selling gate operators, access controls. And every day I would drive over to the the wholesaler and I'd pick up some operators. And back then it was like Miracle Twos, Miracle Ones, you know, a lot of those like anything I could fit in my car and access controls. and I take it back and I box it up and stick it off to um UPS and FedEx. Next thing you know, I just really got into it and we started installing them. But uh and I remember I had a guy work for me for a while and he made it sound so complicated. He'd just come in and just install gate operators for me one at a time. One at a time. And um I I was paying all this money, which is great because there's good money in it. But um every time I went out there, I just saw this uh it was the old SL3000s, the Elites, right? It was just pretty much all we installed, 1812s and SL3000s. I'm pretty sure that's was most of the operators going in back then. But um anyway, so we uh would go out and look at inside him, have to open it up when he wasn't there, and he had that plastic, clear plastic, and behind it, it would just be wires everywhere. So finally, one weekend he was out of town or something, and there was a problem in an apartment complex, but you lose your sign. Yeah. But I taped I go out there. I go out there and um I unscrew the cover because I figured I had to turn this thing off and get in there. And um next thing you know, I started pulling wires out of it and it's just all these loose wires. He just cut a bunch of wires and put them in there. So, all you could see was a a uh just a cobweb of of wires that weren't even attached to anything. Then I go, "Wait a minute. I can do these." Yes. Yeah. And and you guys are already doing the fence guys are already doing the hard work. Yeah. Digging holes is a lot harder than installing a gate operator. And some of the um the u disciplines that you guys have such as welding and um mechanical understanding pivot points and leverage on on fences. Um it's perfect for gate

Operators and gates. So would you like would you if you had to do it all over again? You were going to start a fence company today knowing what you knew. Um from all the all that experience um would you actually get back in to access control if you were just to start fresh? Yeah, that's a tough question. Um because I think I think that's part of what we have a challenge at at Spence University like every class is like are we trying to talk these people into this or are we trying to talk them out of it because it doubles the complication of the business. Yeah. I think um I'm we're trying to talk people into it but then I feel like half the time our industry is trying to scare them out of it as well, you know, away from it. So we gota um you know, but I think it's it's a great it's a great way for fence companies to um grow their business because you're already even out there. I find it baffling. You're out there for two weeks doing all the hard work, digging the holes, building the fence, and uh sometime half the time you're even digging the the the holes for the operator pads and and digging the the track out and pouring the concrete for the track. You're doing all the hard work and then um a gate operator guy comes in like four hours and makes almost this this guy right here and makes almost the same as you made all week or the last two weeks. Um, and and not that not that they don't earn it, the experience you gain doing this and the knowledge if you spent the time and learn this and you do take a risk because you're married to that project. Um, any any issues that go wrong with it. So, you have to charge enough for it. So, it's not that they're making that much more. When you walk away from a fence, your warranty and service calls are probably a lot less sometimes than a gate operator because they want it six months to a year. And six months to a year warranty on a gate operator could be a lot more costly sometimes than the fence. So, more they're going to they're definitely going to call you back if there's a problem because the gate operator is not working. On offense, they may or may not call back if there's something wrong or maybe it's, you know, they'll just fix it themselves or something. But, um, anyway, so I think it's great. I would do it again. And I think I would if I Yeah, if I had to start over, I would definitely I probably would focus more on the access controls. Would you uh would you look for a sub to start out with or would you actually hire an employee? I would train. If I if I had to go back, it would be it would be training. I would I would I would take the time. I would slow down and not chase everything. I would I would I would take the time to learn um and and learn it to do it right because if you put the photo eye in correctly, you get less um you know, you get you get less issues. You could put a photo eye you put the wrong kind of photo eye in or photo in incorrectly and you're going to be out there every week for the next four months before you end up fixing it or replacing it correctly. So, I think I would I would go if I had to go back and start over now, I would I would take the time to learn how to install it correctly. Gotcha. Just to alleviate the the warranty calls and I would lower my war my warranty down to six months. So, here. And I I'd be real clear and real detailed about um hey, if I go out there and you say something's wrong with your gate operator, um I'd be real clear saying if I do go out there and it turns out it's your phone line or it's something else that's not related to me, you're going to get you're going to get charged whatever it is. You know what I mean for that that service call as if I had to go out and fix it. So, I think I think I would just be a lot more detailed on on this on the warranty stuff. Uh, yeah, warranty stuff is is tough. Um, and if you're not doing it every day, it's a lot tougher because if you're doing service every single day and your truck's already set up for it, um, do pulling a warranty call and and giving somebody credit for that um, is a whole lot easier than if you're just going out there once a week trying to fix something that you installed a month ago. What do we got on the on the on the Yeah, we got some comments over here. Billy Grove, he's correct. If the gate doesn't work, then the whole fence is considered junk in the uh client's mind. So, you could build this whole fence, go

Through all this work and and and also the gate if you're not careful and use the wrong either the wrong sub or your wrong guys, they can, you know, they can ruin the whole project for you by not getting it in in time or if it's not working or if or if it just keeps having non-stop problems with it. And I think that also comes in with it's weird because you know sometimes you'll use an operator or something that a brand or something you may not like but because you know that it's going to it's going to it has a good name. It's got a strong name. You get parts and you can get stuff like that. So I think it's important to pick operators um not just on operators because you think they're going to um last the longest, but you got to be able to service them as well and find people that can service them. And I think that's a big factor on it. But but Billy is right. Um, you know, a customer, it can ruin a job if the gate goes gate operator goes astray in the very end. So, yeah, keep up on that. Uh, what did, uh, Susan say? We've come a long ways. I saw that a second ago. Oh, no, that was Rowdy. What's up, Rowdy? Things sure have come a long ways from the days of owning a mean junkyard dog. I don't think you can have those anymore. I Oh, yeah. I get I get it now. A little I'm from Texas. A little slow on that. Uh, but Susan had that said PDK is Americanmade. That's pretty cool. I think she was talking about um the fence pot. Oh, the fence pot American made. Yeah, I think that's what she was talking about. But um another good product was Cartel. I saw you got some Cartel over there. And that was some pretty cool stuff. So uh if you're interested the on more information on the PDK or the cartel stuff, I did a little mailbox uh in depth with uh this stuff um on the gate industry only forum. So, if you're not a member and you are interested, I do exclusive videos uh specific to that um that for the most part you can't find anywhere else and I just leave them on there. So, if you're not part of that Facebook forum, it's a Gate Industry is the Nick group, but it's gate industry only. So, Cartel, basically what these guys do is they make um wireless u or wired and wireless vehicle detection systems. So, these can be anything from alerting a homeowner to that to that a that a vehicle is in their driveway to actually controlling the gate. They could do or turn on lights. So, they could do a lot of different things because ultimately at the end of the day, it's just a command device. But what they really have done great here recently is actually their wireless vehicle detection. Look at this, man. This is a cool looking box. Hang on. Look at this. No, but I can I can see it. Thank you. I know you care. Other people want to see it. Look at that. I don't even know what all that is, but it looks pretty cool. Whatever came in that thing. So, let's pull it out and tell them what it is. Okay, great. So, you're having your Why don't we have the Is this your like your own little show over there for yourself, right? There's other people out here trying to watch this. That sign falling down and everything. This is really professional. There's at least five people on there. We got two hearts and everything. At least show them. At least show them what this stuff is. One heart for one. All right. So, basically there's there's really just two main components to uh this vehicle detection system. And again, what this is designed to do is alert a homeowner that a vehicle is there. Um so, especially if you're on agriculture or on a farm, having letting letting you know somebody is at the front gate is is really helpful. But where we you mainly use this in the gate operator world is actually as an exit device. So if a vehicle is detected by pulling up close or over this particular device, it will send a wireless signal to this receiver and open and give a command to open the gate. So this is uh what Jonathan over at Cartel would lovingly call the puck. And this device actually goes underground or at grade level uh dep well it's it's technically at grade level but know sometimes there's a little bit of dirt over it but when you're cing into the ground and putting this in there you want it flat because you need to be able to access it so you can actually change the battery. So this goes in in in the ground and if you are doing it uh other than concrete they

Sell they or they it comes with these little pins these little stakes and that actually gets twisted down on the side here and holds it down. Oh, lift it up. Just dab it and actually holds it down. So there's actually two of those. Again, this is battery powered. I think the battery is good. Three to five year uh that's a that's a chunk in there. I think what it is is actually just a big coil of of wire that creates that magnetic field that detects that detect. You can feel that. It feels like a gallon of milk or something right there. I mean, yeah, it's pretty heavy. Heavy. Almost feels like a solid solid chunk of steel. Um, and then this is the device that actually goes inside the uh the gate operator um or in your home and it and it turns on alarm. But for our purposes, we're using it as an exit device. And it's got a couple of relays on it and um just a power input. Um and then it allows you to uh to set the sensitivity from here. And you can actually if if the gate is really far away from where you want this device, uh you can actually put a couple of these in series and actually have one as a repeater. So if you find that range is an issue, you can add another uh receiver and actually use it as a as a repeater. But it's relatively simple. It's a four-wire installation. Done deal. Just mount it with some uh double-sided tape or a couple of screws in there and you're good to go. Yeah. Let's take a break for a second and watch um this.

I just like to watch any kind of auger dig a hole. and you got a sneeze or something, you just play that video. Take a drink. Yeah, there you go. Scratch my nose, you know. So, um, this, uh, they also sent us their wired version as well, too. I'll let you look at this one. Oh, snap. So, this is their wired version of the exit device. Now, with the wired version and with wired products in general. Yeah. Vanna, can you help me? Um, with the wired products just in general, yes, you may have some installation costs that are a little bit higher, um, but you don't have the, uh, issue of a battery dying or anything like that. Uh, the biggest thing with these is obviously um, you're somewhat limited by the length of the wire that it comes with, which is about 100 ft. You can extend it a little bit further. It's not recommended, but the key thing with this is half inch PVC needs to go into the end of this. Um, and uh, that will help you with your warranty. Why is that? Um, because not the whole way, just like how far? Well, me personally, I do it the whole way. Okay. But they, to be honest with you, I don't know if they recommend just this, you know, 10 feet, but I think they recommend having it um, quite a bit uh, the distance. So, I don't know if that's be just to protect that that edge so it's not jiggling around where the pressure point is on that, but you have to run PVC directly into that. And I think that may affect your warranty as well, too. So, what's the difference between this and just a standard exit probe? I mean, or is there? No, for the most part there's not. Um, you have the same functionality, same cost of installation. Um, and for the most part, you have the same pickup range. Um, Cartel, uh, is one of those, uh, companies in the industry that's just known for reliability. Um, and then you may wonder why there actually is a cover that's on top of this if there's no battery to replace sensitivity settings and it's still heavy. So, that other one wasn't just all battery. No, no, not battery. I was think coil wire actually to create to create and you can open this up. I mean, I don't know if you could see that, but there's some u Phillips head screws in there. So you is it would there be a reason to open this up for maintenance or anything? No, not for maintenance, but just for sensitivity settings. Okay. Okay. So they have some settings in there. So that's a big difference. Between the standard exop probe. So we got our standard uh looks like our standard five wires power. And then that's just your common normally open, normally closed. Yeah. I'm assuming that the other one is normally closed, but uh uh you might have one of those might be a ground. Just normally open and ground. Sometimes they have a shield on those, sometimes they don't. So, uh, but it's easy enough to go to cartel. I believe it's cartel.com. Yeah, cartel.com and they'll it'll give you the, uh, instructions. All right. I know. I know. We, man, we've just had tons and tons of other stuff. So, I think we got to start pulling some of those out here and let people see them. So, um, only if people are interested. Do you guys like us doing these product reviews? Do you want to see more product reviews? Um, I I I like them, but you know, at the end of the day, um, if you don't, it don't matter. We like to talk access. We like to talk access controls around here. We get excited when we get a uh a box with goodies inside of it. So, we have boxes we haven't even opened yet. So, Fence University, um, next week there's can can they still get seats to that? So, you can still get seats to that. Uh, go to fenceuniversity.comtraining. There's actually three different packages that you can get. um which is Monday and Tuesday is one price, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday is another price or you can buy them all together for a substantial discount. Um so yes, all of that stuff, all the links on there and for the most part, you don't need to uh you don't need to worry about bringing anything. If you got gloves and and eye protection and a multimeter, that would be great. And the last I checked, right down here at the Orleans, which is a block the Orleans, we call it the Orleans around here, but

The Orleans Nevada is where Nevada. So apparently it's Nevada and New and the Orleans over here at the Orleans. Last time I checked, uh, uh, hotels were less than $50 a night. So it's not that big of an expense. And these will be the cheapest that you ever see these prices. We will not be doing this. Actually, again, this is the least expensive because it's a five-day class. It's our first one. So we wanted to uh to try it out on a small group of people and invite some of the people that we like to uh to uh to help us train. New Orleans. Cool little hotel, too. Hey, it's fencer friendly because that's where all the fencers go after work. So, uh there's one of those what a cocktail bar or something. It's just surrounded with fencers every night after work. Um I want but I want to talk for a second about FWA health. It is really picking up steam. So, if uh you don't have any health coverage or if you're looking for health coverage, uh you don't have to have five employees to get on this. You can put one employee on it. Um go to fwaalth.com. We're not we don't sell health insurance. I can't get into the details on that myself, but we did go through a lot of work to arrange this. So, um, really, really reasonable, um, fees for what it takes to get health insurance. So, there's no reason not to get some for your employees from $50 to $200, I think, depending on the family. I don't know. Go on there and and and take a look at it. It's been, um, it's been really getting popular um, a lot lately. We've been seeing more and more people reaching out to us, thanking us um, for setting it up. And I know Susan, reach out to Susan. She's used it a ton of times. So, um, don't be afraid to reach out to her or somebody from FWA if you have a question on it. That's um, Take a look at that. I just wanted to get on here. here. I know it wasn't going to be a regular scheduled um show, but um we're happy for everybody that tuned into this. We will see you next Wednesday. We'll be going live from your class. Oh, will we? All right, cool. Are you going to do some exclusive interviews? Yeah, we'll do some interviews with um pretty much everybody you got coming. Give us a quick rundown again of who's going to be helping you um do these classes or coming in for presentations on it. So, Brian Dixon from BD Loops is going to do his everything you need to know about loops class. We got uh Troy from Sellgate. We got Matthew from AES Global U. Sellgate's relatively simple. He's going to bring all his call boxes. We're going to go through each one of them. Matthew uh from AES is going to do his uh wireless loop and their call boxes. And then we got Ron Hines from SAS is going to tell you all the benefits of picking a great distributor as a strategic partner. And um and he's going to give us some ideas about layout and then you and I. Yep. So, I'm excited. So, uh stay tuned. Next week there should be jam-packed full of people coming on the show. So, we will u probably do some updates till then. Thanks again, Brooks, for saying and uh doing this. Yes, appreciate. No problem. Have a have a great rest of the week, everybody. We'll talk to you later.