clawhammer

I was at my buddies house yesterday and I wanted him to hard-wire my garage door opener into my high-beams, since he's really good at electronics. We printed off the directions from Modifry's website, and went to buy the supplies. Radio Shack wasn't open yet, so we went to Fry's. Here's the relevant part:

The voltage regulator:

Vo - 6V
Pd - 15W
Io - 1A
Vin - 35V Max

We ended up buying the rest of the things that Modifry listed, but we didn't use them. When we got back to his house, he looked at the voltage regulator, and he told me that he thinks he can get it working with just that. He connected it up to his car's battery, and using a volt meter, we measured the output to be exactly 6 volts. So we decided that we were going to do it his way, rather than follow Modifry's directions.

He soldiered the circuit for the garage door opener shut, and tapped into the car's wiring for the electrical current. After everything was said and done, whenever I'd flash the high beams, I'd see the red light on the remote light up, and we measured the volts to be exactly 6 volts across the jumper.

Last night I got back at almost midnight and I had to flash my high beams maybe 5 or 6 times before the garage door would open. I though everything was fine, and I just needed to find the sweet spot, and it would open every time. Today when I got back from work, I decided to play around with it a bit more. I could not get it to close the garage door from any distance, while an identical garage door opener would work every time. What could be the problem?

Slows2k

Moving to Electronics forum, the EJ's can help you.

Doug0716

"since he's really good at electronics. We printed off the directions from Modifry's website"

Yet you didn't use them (and you already had them). My guess would be that there is a reason those other parts are on the list.

Also where did you mount the opener? The signal may be blocked because of where it's mounted.

clawhammer

The garage door opener is mounted just above the clutch pedal. The signal isn't blocked, because I put an identical garage door opener next to it, and it worked.

What I was kind of hoping for is that if someone would be able to see a problem with the voltage regulator, like not enough amps, or too many watts, etc. If it doesn't work, then I might just start from scratch.

an_other

I'd suggest you make sure the garage door opener is synched with your garage door.

I've had issues keeping all my Chamberlain openers synched at the same time.

Sometimes it can be the most obvious thing!

clawhammer

I tried reprogramming, but the main unit never received a signal from my remote.

I also tried putting the batteries back in, but that didn't work either.

Tomorrow I'm going to rip it out and play around a bit more.

Avernus

mitafryed it when you were modifrying it. i donno maybe the circuit was active for too long when you were holding on the highs and there was some kind of surge that fried that particular circuit and not the others. May also be the codes like as suggested before.

SC_Highlander

how long are you flashing your brights? When I had mine wired up like this, I would need to hold the brights on for at least 2-3 seconds. I eventually just wired up a switch to the side of the radio console instead. Now, I don't have to 'bright' oncoming traffic to open my garage door.

2slow

A couple thoughts:

1) Are you sure your remote requires 6V? What kind of battery does it take? The specs of your voltage regulator are more than sufficient assuming you do in fact require a 6V regulator.

2) Try adding C1 and C2 (from Modifry's schematic). They are there to absorb any transients and prevent oscillation. i.e. It will clean up your power source to your transmitter.

2slow

...hmm, didn't see this comment when I posted my last one. Did you try unsoldering the switch in the remote and then retesting it with a battery?

Maybe the remote doesn't like it's switch shorted. In other words, maybe it won't work right when the power isn't applied prior to switching the switch.