Do we have any automated gate technicians on the forum at all?

I had a motor recently start to blow the main fuse in the control box, so I’ve replaced the motor. 
now it’s not tripping the fuse (was only 4 wires to fit the motor) but it’s tripping the controller and sparking in the breaker circled in the pic. 

next move (when the rain stops) is to replace the length of 4 core from the controller to the motor incase I’ve an issue there due to the motor going. 
normally sort this sort of thing myself but diagnosed a while back with a TBI and it’s not making things as easy as they used to be. 
Any help greatly appreciated. 
do I need to replace the control unit as well?

 

Personally I'd be checking the connections under the breaker first as I don't like the way the cores are exposed beyond the connection block.  You'd only need one stray strand contacting or near another core the cause an issue

Get the old multimeter out, disconnect the motor and check for shorts between all the wires. You may have a dead short and its causing the arcing. Also, looks like a capacitor (the white cylinder) this could be there to take up any arcing or voltage dips, check the capacitor hasnt blown as well.

13 minutes ago, skomaz said:

Personally I'd be checking the connections under the breaker first as I don't like the way the cores are exposed beyond the connection block.  You'd only need one stray strand contacting or near another core the cause an issue

Thanks.  Had checked them already to be sure. That’s a pic I took before replacing the motor as I’d otherwise have no hope of replacing in the correct order from memory. They are replaced now much neater than they originally were by the fitters. 

15 minutes ago, ApertureS said:

Get the old multimeter out, disconnect the motor and check for shorts between all the wires. You may have a dead short and its causing the arcing. Also, looks like a capacitor (the white cylinder) this could be there to take up any arcing or voltage dips, check the capacitor hasnt blown as well.

Thank you. I’m working on the theory that there a dead wire in the cable run from the controller to the motor caused maybe by the motor burning or shorting out in the first place. It’s about a 14ft run from one to the other, so after quite a few years it’s probably good practise to pull the underground cable out and replace it anyway. 
the capacitor has been replaced as a new one came with the replacement motor. 
Just need a rest before looking at it again, as even simple stuff is getting hard to think straight when doing recently. 

4 minutes ago, UndertheRadar said:

Thank you. I’m working on the theory that there a dead wire in the cable run from the controller to the motor caused maybe by the motor burning or shorting out in the first place. It’s about a 14ft run from one to the other, so after quite a few years it’s probably good practise to pull the underground cable out and replace it anyway. 
the capacitor has been replaced as a new one came with the replacement motor. 
Just need a rest before looking at it again, as even simple stuff is getting hard to think straight when doing recently. 

Maybe put the old capacitor back in? Just to make sure its not that causing the fault?

So, check all the wires for faults. No problems found. Ran a new core to the new motor just to be sure. Still the same tripping issue. Isolated the motors individually, still the same issue. 
I would have thought if a motor was causing an issue at least one of the gates would cycle individually. 
looks like it’s a control unit issue. 

As risk of possibly mentioning the obvious but are you the trip in question is sound?  It is not unknown for trips to false-trigger.

4 hours ago, MikeTheThinker said:

As risk of possibly mentioning the obvious but are you the trip in question is sound?  It is not unknown for trips to false-trigger.

Thanks. Looked at that earlier but it’s part of the board and can’t be removed quickly. I’ll get a better look when fresh tomorrow, but possibly just as handy to fit a new controller so nothing else goes faulty as well. (Hopefully)