Instruction: Output yes if the supporting document can answer the given question. Otherwise, output no.

Input:
Question: If you buy this gate opener and you want to use the solar panel, you have to buy battery AND soloar panel separately?
Document: I live on a rural property, and you can't drive down my road without seeing 6 or 7 gate openers unhooked and hanging flaccid next to their gates. I didn't want to fork over several hundred dollars (plus the hours it takes to install) if I didn't have confidence the product would last. After 7 months I am happy to say that I made a great decision. This gate opener works superbly, and when coupled with the solar panel makes for a hassle free product. The only issue I have had was one of the attachment points started to slip (I anchored the hinge to a round steel pole) which was solved by placing in a quick spotweld.
The Sentry manual gives a formula for the battery charging cycle. Once I read this I figured there was a reason for this to be in the manual and then realized my battery amp size was a bit higher than the scale of the chart. I fixed the problem by using a trickle charger to the battery directly. This defeats having the solar panel but I do often allow the solar to do the charging by just disconnecting the trickle charger power. I already had AC power at the gate for the Lockmaster gates so I plug the trickle charger into the old gate power supply.
I did a bit of research and concluded this was the product for me. My gate is a little on the heavy side. Aluminium farm gate with ceader boards connected to it, 10 feet long.-Pluses -1) Easy set up2) there are a lot of different opening options like keyless, keypads, detectors, push buttons ect.3) very reliable-Negatives -1)it was a lot more expensive than other brands, but that's always the case for good quality products.2)you have to provide your own battery.-Tips for your instllation.1)If you are going have this always hooked up to AC power (not the solar panel type installations) you don't need as large of a battery as the manual says.
The battery I take out gets put on a battery maintainer and then a month later it gets swapped for the other one. Eventually I am going to install a proper solar charging circuit using a 15 watt panel and a 45ah sealed battery instead of the deep cycle batteries and I shouldn't have to do any battery swapping after that.
You can install a manual OPEN switch but you can't close the gate, you left with the delay close setting. You can use the remote to manually close it. If you happen to be on foot without a remote and want to bump the gate open to get out and close it behind you, you can't do it. This is a pain when you have livestock and animals.
I installed this gate opener in November 2012, over 1 year ago. It worked perfect right out of the box. Was simple to install and setup. Thought I might have trouble with the solar panel not getting enough sunlight through the trees, panel charges great in overcast/poor sun light.
I bought this to replace my 1 year old double gate Lockmaster opener that was purchased from Wholesale Gates. The Lockmaster was junk from the begining. I bought this unit with the 300 D opener and the 5 watt solar panel. I spent over $1200.00 for the package but it is well worth it. The USAutomatic Sentry is heavy and heavy duty. I am only using them on a pair of aluminum driveway swing gates so its certainly no chore for the openers. I had to modify a few things to get the openers to fit since the Sentry is a little longer than the Lockmaster.The control box is different than pictured, for the better.
I had a Mighty Mule for two or three years before it died. I replaced it with a USAutomatic Patriot opener and it has worked fine for about ten years without significant issues. It gets cycled between four and eight times a day normally.I am running it off of marine deep cycle batteries with a 5 watt solar panel to help keep it topped off but I think in my installation the solar panel doesn't really do much since I am in the Pacific Northwest and the panel is shaded most of the time. I have two marine grade deep cycle batteries and I swap them out every month since the gate is about 900 feet from my house.
I now have a mighty mule 500 gate operator for sale if anyone needs parts or a trot line weight.UPDATE:4/9/12I have had this opener for about a year & a half now. The only problem I have had was when I tried to push snow with it in one of the rare snow storms we have in Texas. I had to unplug the battery and let it reset, and clear the snow from its path. It has not give me any more problems. I use the remote from the house (about 300 feet) it works every time in one location, but from the drive or another location in th house it is hit or miss.
It required a few holes for the actuator mounting bracket, a few holes for the gate bracket, bolting it all together, securing the control box to the fence and pulling the power cable through some conduit that I had already run. I installed the battery, plugged in a few cables, set the open and close limits, set the sensitivity and it was done. Overall it was about 4 hours not including some the extra steps I took which are described below.I would very much buy and install another one of these gate openers.
Answer: yes