Remote Control Garage Door Opener

[shokobennett]

I am a TOTAL electronic novice. The remote control for my garage door opener does not work until my car is about 10 feet from my garage door. The battery is new, the system is new. How can I enhance the power of the remote control or the ability of the antenna? Thank you,
bill bennett

 

[Russlk]

Is the receiver shielded by metal - a metal garage door, metal building? There is sometimes a wire hanging out of the receiver that is the antenna, if it is missing or too short that would have an effect. My opener works from about 50 feet, you should not expect it do better than that.

 

[shokobennett]

Yes, the garage door is metal and yes, there is a 12" long metal antenna wire hanging off the back of the door opener reciever/motor. What I want to know is: is there any way of boosting the system, like buying a stock car and adding hot rod parts to make it faster? I want my garage door opener to start working while I am pulling into the courtyard, not after I arrive at the door....

 

[Dean Huster]

Buck shifting

If you bought that opener from a company who installed it for you, tell them to get their rear ends out there and get it working right. If you installed it, see if the manufacturer has a Web site with tips on increasing range. At the rate that foil-back foam board and steel garage doors are being installed, garages are getting pretty good shielding. Ultimately, for best range, you might have to pull the receiver board from the opener, extend all the wires so the board can be mounted against the front garage wall so that antenna can be poked through a hole out the front. That's a last ditch effort, but I'll bet it'll give you the best range of all.

Dean

 

[ljcox]

I have a garage door opener that works from about 400 metres around the corner, so there are houses in the way. It operates at about 300 MHz. It has a wire about 25 cm long as the antenna, so I suspended it in the roof space. The door is steel and the walls are brick.

Len

 

[dingo]

Yes, the garage door is metal and yes, there is a 12" long metal antenna wire hanging off the back of the door opener reciever/motor. What I want to know is: is there any way of boosting the system, like buying a stock car and adding hot rod parts to make it faster? I want my garage door opener to start working while I am pulling into the courtyard, not after I arrive at the door....

It is possible but may be illegal to boost the power of the transmitter, this will not be easy to do and may not inprove your range much depending on what is causing the problem in the first place.

I'll start from the most simple solution and work up from there. As Dean said if someone installed it call them back otherwise....

1) Your battery may be new from the shop but might be flat try it in another device.

2) Your location may have blead over from another transmitter, who knows your next door nieghbor might have aluminum ladder postitioned exactly to reflect signals of the local FM radio station back at your reciever and your remote has to get close enough to burn though this interference. So many chance things affect radio signals and moving the reciever a foot to the left might work wonders. One easy test is to get a cheap transistor radio and see if you can tune into FM radio stations ok from the reciever location (FM radio is close to your operating Feq).

3) Radio waves can produce some funny results, the waves are discribed in "wave lengths" the arial you have sticking out is exactly the correct length to recieve on the frequency it uses. Now if there are other pieces of metal the same length they will interfere with your reception, have a look around you might have a pile of tent pegs of just that length stored in the rafters.

4) The transmiter and reciver may not be in tune. These devices are cheap and do not use crystals to set the frequency and over time drift out or have never been tuned correctly. Open up your transmitter and look for a small coloured object that has a screw on the top (veriable capactor) often but not always blue or red in colour. Now you need a non conducting screwdriver, stand at your maximum range and slightly turn the screw if the remote stops working turn it the other way. Keep doing this until you cannot get any more range by adjusting the screw.

 

[shokobennett]

You folks are being helpful.. I see that the antenna wire is the length it is supposed to be, so lengthening it will not work. What about running the remote controller on 12 volts? Will that make it anymore powerful? There are steel I beams in the garage ceiling, so moving the entire receiving unit away from the motor and onto the top of the front garage wall may be the answer, yes?

 

[ljcox]

I would be dubious about increasing the remote supply to 12 V. You may damage it. You would need to examine its circuit to determine whether it can operate at 12V.

Moving the receiving unit away from the motor and any other metal and making it as high as possible would improve the reception. But it may not be enough.

A better antenna (ie. one with some gain) would be a better option. I'm not an antenna expert, but someone else in the forum is sure to be.

Len

 

[shokobennett]

An antenna with gain??!! That sounds like what I need. Anybody got any ideas?

 

[Russlk]

A set of television "rabbit ears" mounted on the wall facing the drive would help. The "rabbit ears" are tunable, adjust so each side is the same length as the wire antenna. You could use a TV antenna amp if needed.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

From what I can gather, your aerial wire is dangling down behind a metal door?. Simply moving the wire to the outside of the door will drastically improve your range.

 

[Dean Huster]

Repositioning the antenna wire of the receiver may be all it takes. Most simply drop down from the back of the opener (and aren't any too straight, either), so maybe pulling it up and suspending it with a string attached to the ceiling will help. Or extending it out to the side of the opener. Attaching a longer wire to the antenna may help -- or hinder -- depending upon whether or not the antenna is truly cut to the proper wavelength or if it's simply a short piece of wire that's attached to do the job.

Dean

 

[BlackBart]

Garage door opener

I am inclined to go along with relocating the antenna, install a bnc connector to the top of the receiver and connect a peice of rg58u cable
and run it to the front wall just above the door .

Then strip 12in of the outer cover and shield from the cable and I think
you will see a big difference in the operation.

 

[Sebi]

And solder to shield three 30cm wires:the ground-plane aerial is ready...

 

[ljcox]

Re: Garage door opener

I am inclined to go along with relocating the antenna, install a bnc connector to the top of the receiver and connect a peice of rg58u cable
and run it to the front wall just above the door .

Then strip 12in of the outer cover and shield from the cable and I think
you will see a big difference in the operation.

What about matching the antenna to the cable and the cable to the receiver? Will there be significant mismatches?

Len

 

[BlackBart]

Garage door opener

If the exposed portion of the cable is the same length as the wire that is on the receiver now there should be little or no mismatch. Also one other
thing , some openers that I have the occasion to work on had a jack to
connect a vom to and had adjustments to tune the receiver to the transmitter signal.