Garage door opener

Has anyone ever bypassed the electric eye in a garage door opener? Some value resistor should simulate a properly adjusted eye.

Hank

Reply to
Hank
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It usually works like this, Hank. The person who disables a safety device is caught in the contraption within ten days. That has always been my observation.

STeve

Reply to
SteveB

My sole advice is to dismount both the light source and the receiver, move them back to the motor unit, wind them up with the power cord, and duct tape all three together tightly.

Reply to
Fred R

We're gona' read about your mother-in-law's accident in a few days...aren't we?

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Why do that?

I mounted mine high enough that it could see my 4x4. Don't have kids so protecting them wasn't an issue.

Wish I had a way to check if my ham radio antenna was erected before I drove in. :)

Wes

Reply to
clutch

I don't like those photo-eyes either... it's not too risky a proposition to get rid of them. I guess until the neighborhood kid gets stuck under it. Anyhow, here's my 2cents, FWIW:

I'm familiar with digital electronics, but not garage door openers, so I am making some educated guesses:

You'll want to limit the current to about 20mA max (typical of digital circuits)....

So, let's assume the input on the garage controller is a sinking-type input (ie it looks for positive voltage). The photoeye most likely is a Normally Closed type (so if you were to cut the wire, it would default to the emergency state, ie something in the way of the beam)... it most likely uses a low-voltage source, maybe 24V, maybe 12V, or even 5V. You'll have to check into this. Using Ohm's law we can figure out the right resistor based on the current we want (20mA)... V=IR; R=V/I. For

24 V, R=24/.020=1.2KOhm.... 12V, R=.6KOhm... 5V, R=250 Ohm.

So, try tying the input to Voltage with the corresponding resistor in series.

Good luck.

Reply to
Adam

All well and good if it's just a logic circuit, but.....

I don't have any first hand knowledge of this, but it wouldn't suprise me if they use a chopped or modulated light source and look for an ac signal frm the photodetector, just so steady light like sunlight reflecting off something won't fool them.

I suppose you'd find that out fast if substituting a passive load didn't do the trick.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Wisnia

I had to do this on my barn. I took both the send and receiver and taped them to a 1 x 2 board about 1 foot long. Set the assembly on top of the opener. If something breaks the path on top the opener, the door won't close

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

On Sat, 10 Dec 2005 20:22:38 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, snipped-for-privacy@lycos.com quickly quoth:

Your 4x4 gets erections?

Install a little phosphor bronze rubbing strip which connects a red (yellow, blue?) dash light to ground when the antenna is up, Hank.

-------------------------------------------- Proud (occasional) maker of Hungarian Paper Towels.

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

On mine you simply disconnect the wires at the control box attached to the motor and put a jumper wire across the contacts.

In some areas this is forbidden since you need the safety feature to meet the building codes.

Reply to
marks542004

Mine used to get a 92" erection all the time - 24/7/365.25

Unless I had the Hustler "Beer Can" mast on it, then they were a little shorter but a whole lot thicker, and had a big knot in the middle...

Now it's put away for special occasions like long out of town trips. On 11 Meters, there's no intelligent life out there - I could slide it down to the top end of 10 Meters, but without a proper ticket "Uncle Charlie" might get a tad annoyed...

But before doing that, consider the effects of several tens of watts of RF (or several hundreds) at various frequencies running through the contact strip and dash warning light circuit - even with the antenna up and no direct contact. And if someone keys the mike with the antenna down and in direct contact with the alarm contact strip, consider the effects of a really oddball load on the finals of the transceiver, too. (Magic Smoke, dontchaknow.)

A "Remove Before Flight" banner tag might be more effective. Hang it from the inside rear-view mirror whenever the mast is up.

Or make a small "Antenna Is Up" box that the garage door remote gets closed up in, perhaps with a simple combination lock. If they go to hit the door clicker and drive into the garage but the remote is 'locked away', it will remind people why.

That, or there's always the Rube Goldberg R.C.M method: ;-)

Two wires stretched horizontally across the wall in front of the garage door opening, one about two inches above the other, both spring tensioned to allow for minor temperature swings. Put the supports on arms a foot or two out from the outside garage wall to allow some slack for reaction time...

Put a low voltage potential across the wires for safety, and when the catch wires are shorted by the mast (contact closure) or stretched by contact (tension switch) or snapped by to vigorous a contact (NC loop monitor circuit or a pin-pull) they close a latching or time delay relay (so a momentary closure and then the wire snaps will still trigger the alert) attached to whatever flashing lights and noisemakers you have handy to get the driver to stop. NOW.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:10:10 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Bruce L. Bergman quickly quoth:

Knot? You dog you! ;)

Um, OK, an insulated roller which grounded the light. The Magic Smoke should stay in the box, fer sher.

There ya go.

- They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it. -Confucius ---

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

I mounted them on the wall, facing each other, about a foot apart. Works fine, but confuses the shit out of my mom when she stacks heaps of junk in the garage and suddenly can't close the door. (: I'll have to move it higher one of these days.

Reply to
B.B.

The problem with the high version - won't pass safety inspection if you sell the house. If you need to disconnect it - there is something wrong going on. You don't want a door falling on you or your car....

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

snipped-for-privacy@lycos.com wrote:

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

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