Garage door alert

[Ed]

I'm in need of a garage door alert so there is a small red light in
the house indicating it's open.
I bought one made by LiftMaster, but it's not quite right for my
situation. It consists of a battery
powered RF sender that you stick on the garage door and a receiver
that you stick on the wall inside.
There are two problems with it. First, the sender will report it the
door closed when it reaches about 50-60
degrees off horizontal. This would work OK for a roll-up door if
mounted on the uppermost segment, but
for a one-piece tilt-open door like mine it will report it closed when
the door is still partially open, such as
I sometimes leave it while my car is cooling down. The second problem
is the receiver is not what you would
call a decorator piece. It is a black plastic case about 3"x4" with a
floppy little 8" wire for an antenna and
a wall-wart power supply. If I put it out of prominence it won't be in
clear view and thus will not meet the basic need.

I'm thinking about building one. I could easily mount a limit switch
of some kind that opens or closes when the door
is really closed. Lead wires would connect to a small circuit project
box mounted on the garage wall, the other side of which is
the living room. I would drill through the wall and mount a tiny LED
on the inside wall. If done well, it would not
be conspicuous, except when it was on.

So, has anyone done something like this? Seems like it could be done
with a transistor (or relay), a resistor or two,
and a battery holder.

BTW, the LiftMAster 915LM is for sale!

TIA

Ed

 

[Ed]

"ehsjr" <ehsjr@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message
newsTTPj.3520$nb4.1260@trnddc08...

Ed wrote:
I'm in need of a garage door alert so there is a small red light in
the house indicating it's open.
I bought one made by LiftMaster, but it's not quite right for my
situation. It consists of a battery
powered RF sender that you stick on the garage door and a receiver
that you stick on the wall inside.
There are two problems with it. First, the sender will report it
the door closed when it reaches about 50-60
degrees off horizontal. This would work OK for a roll-up door if
mounted on the uppermost segment, but
for a one-piece tilt-open door like mine it will report it closed
when the door is still partially open, such as
I sometimes leave it while my car is cooling down. The second
problem is the receiver is not what you would
call a decorator piece. It is a black plastic case about 3"x4" with
a floppy little 8" wire for an antenna and
a wall-wart power supply. If I put it out of prominence it won't be
in clear view and thus will not meet the basic need.

I'm thinking about building one. I could easily mount a limit
switch of some kind that opens or closes when the door
is really closed. Lead wires would connect to a small circuit
project box mounted on the garage wall, the other side of which is
the living room. I would drill through the wall and mount a tiny
LED on the inside wall. If done well, it would not
be conspicuous, except when it was on.

So, has anyone done something like this? Seems like it could be
done with a transistor (or relay), a resistor or two,
and a battery holder.

BTW, the LiftMAster 915LM is for sale!

TIA

Ed




It is a workable (and clever) plan.
All you need is the switch, a 9 or 12 volt DC wall wart
power supply, 1K resistor and the LED. No transistors
or relays needed. Put the switch, resistor and LED
in series with the DC supply, observing proper polarity.

Pay a lot of attention to how you mount and actuate the
switch, so that it stands up to the repeated use.

Ed

Thanks, Ed. I see your point about no need for transistor or relay,
provided I can find a limit switch
with normally closed contacts. I'll start looking.

Ed

 

[Ed]

"Stephen J. Rush" <sjrush@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:bLqdnWIqKrNBiYzVnZ2dnUVZ_hKdnZ2d@comcast.com...

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:18:42 -0700, Ed wrote:

Thanks, Ed. I see your point about no need for transistor or relay,
provided I can find a limit switch
with normally closed contacts. I'll start looking.

Just look for "microswitches." MicroSwitch was the name of the
original
manufacturer, but, like "zipper", it has become a generic name.
Most of
these little switches are SPDT. A good free source is old
machinery.
Old copiers, VCRs and printers usually contain microswitches, but
newer
ones may have photosensor limit detectors instead.

Thanks, Stephen. I had thought about a microswitch, but wondered about
how to gently engage it.
Perhaps a strip of stiff but flexible material, metal of plastic,
mounted to the door?

Ed

 

[Ed]

"ehsjr" <ehsjr@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message
news:uqbQj.11555$aq4.3152@trnddc02...

Ed wrote:

You can use either normally open or normally closed
contacts by wiring the circuit accordingly.

Normally open:

/ LED
V+ ---o o--->|----+
|
[1K]
|
Gnd ---------------+

Normally Closed:

+---o->o---+
| |
| LED |
V+ -----+---->|----+
|
[1K]
|
Gnd ---------------+

The most important thing is the mechanical arrangement
to operate the switch. You want to make sure that the
switch is positively actuated in both directions, but
you don't want mechanical stress placed on it. Garage
door motion is not the most gentle - so you may need to
mechanically buffer the switch so that it is not unduly
stressed.

Ed

Thanks, Ed. I had thought about a microswitch, but wondered about
how to gently engage it.
Perhaps a strip of stiff but flexible material, metal or , mounted to
the door?

Ed

 

[John G]

"Ed" <jag_manR__EM*-0_V_E653@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2F0Qj.11840$GE1.5666@nlpi061.nbdc.sbc.com...

"ehsjr" <ehsjr@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message
newsTTPj.3520$nb4.1260@trnddc08...
Ed wrote:
I'm in need of a garage door alert so there is a small red light in the
house indicating it's open.
I bought one made by LiftMaster, but it's not quite right for my
situation. It consists of a battery
powered RF sender that you stick on the garage door and a receiver that
you stick on the wall inside.
There are two problems with it. First, the sender will report it the
door closed when it reaches about 50-60
degrees off horizontal. This would work OK for a roll-up door if mounted
on the uppermost segment, but
for a one-piece tilt-open door like mine it will report it closed when
the door is still partially open, such as
I sometimes leave it while my car is cooling down. The second problem is
the receiver is not what you would
call a decorator piece. It is a black plastic case about 3"x4" with a
floppy little 8" wire for an antenna and
a wall-wart power supply. If I put it out of prominence it won't be in
clear view and thus will not meet the basic need.

I'm thinking about building one. I could easily mount a limit switch of
some kind that opens or closes when the door
is really closed. Lead wires would connect to a small circuit project
box mounted on the garage wall, the other side of which is
the living room. I would drill through the wall and mount a tiny LED on
the inside wall. If done well, it would not
be conspicuous, except when it was on.

So, has anyone done something like this? Seems like it could be done
with a transistor (or relay), a resistor or two,
and a battery holder.

BTW, the LiftMAster 915LM is for sale!

TIA

Ed




It is a workable (and clever) plan.
All you need is the switch, a 9 or 12 volt DC wall wart
power supply, 1K resistor and the LED. No transistors
or relays needed. Put the switch, resistor and LED
in series with the DC supply, observing proper polarity.

Pay a lot of attention to how you mount and actuate the
switch, so that it stands up to the repeated use.

Ed

Thanks, Ed. I see your point about no need for transistor or relay,
provided I can find a limit switch
with normally closed contacts. I'll start looking.

Ed
Wot's wrong with a reed switch like an alarm system would use?

These are available in N/O, N/C and change over.

The circuit would be easy and the mounting simple.

They are available at places like Bunnings. (Home Depot to you Americans)

John G.

 

[Ed]

"John G" <green@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
news:481276ce$0$1645$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...

Wot's wrong with a reed switch like an alarm system would use?

These are available in N/O, N/C and change over.

The circuit would be easy and the mounting simple.

They are available at places like Bunnings. (Home Depot to you
Americans)

John G.

Thanks, John.

As I recall a "reed switch" is a magnetically activated proximity
switch. I have a 1976 Jaguar which originally was fitted with
an ignition triggering system that used a reed switch in a little
circuit board inside the distributor. A magnet in the rotor
triggered it. Jaguar later replaced it with a board that uses a Hall
effect transistor. But, if the one you refer to is at HD it's probably
not
the same technology.

A proximity switch of some kind would work, having the advantage of no
physical contact and hence not subject to damage
due to getting thumped by an ill-fitting, wobbly, garage door.
However, an active circuit would be required. A micro switch
doesn't need an active circuit, as the other Ed points out.

Ed

 

[Ed]

"ehsjr" <e.h.s.j.r.removethespampunctuation@bellatlantic.net> wrote in
message news:CtyQj.3745$E77.1973@trnddc05...

Here's one idea:

| <--door
|
|| _
|| | | <--weight
|o--------- <--hinge
| o------.
| | | <--micro switch
| -----

A cheap strap hinge that can pivot to a 90 degree angle mounted
to the inside of the door. A small weight on the end of the hinge.
When the door comes down, the hinge contacts the roller on the
microswitch and the switch transfers due to the small weight.

Because the hinge can pivot, the herky-jerky door motion does
not transfer to the switch, nor can the assembly drive the
switch too hard if the door goes a little bit farther.
Also, you can install it such that the micrtoswitch transfers
when the door is within say 1 inch of fully closed. That way,
if the door stops a little bit shy of fully closed, the
switch still transfers.

There's nothing critical about dimensions - the hinge need
not be at a perfect 90 degree angle when in contact with the
switch. The weight can probably be a #10 machine screw
with two nuts. (Two nuts so that it locks - but I'd also use
locktite or nail polish or paint on the threads.)

There are undoubtedly many other ways you can do it.

Ed

I must not be thinking clearly, as I can't quite see how this would
work. The free side of the
hinge would be hanging vertically, perpendicular to the door, when
open. It would still be
hanging vertically, but parallel to the door, when closed. But unless
the switch was also mounted on the
door I don't see how the hinge would operate the switch.

Anyway, I looked at the door more carefully and see I may not have as
much of a problem
as I thought. The top edge of the door is stopped firmly by the beam
forming the top of the doorway.
Since it is pressed tightly against the beam when closed, if I mount
the switch carefully it can't
get damage. I think I'll give that a try. After all, the switch cost
me only about $5.00.


Ed

 

[Ed]

Got it working! To neatify things I used a small project box with a
connector to the PS and another
to the wire pair leading to the LED. The switch wire pair enters the
box w/o connector since it is
mounted close to the switch. I added a green LED on the box cover to
show when there is power to the circuit.
All I have to do now is to poke a hole through the wall to get the
red LED into the living room. This is a little
tricky since we have plaster walls, and drilling a neat 1/4" hole is
virtually impossible. I think I'll drill and then
insert a 1/4" steel dowell and fill around it with a hard plaster...
unsanded tile grout perhaps. Then pull out the dowell
and insert the LED. All that will be seen is the little red spot with
black ring. This will be near a desk with
other things around so attention will not be drawn to it, except when
it's flashing red.

Thanks for all your help.

Ed

 

[Ed]

Just want to show off the finished project!

http://www.efsowell.us/ed/projects/garagedooralert/GarageDoorAlert.pdf

Thanks for all the help!

Ed

 

[Ed]

Just want to show off the finished project!

http://www.efsowell.us/ed/projects/garagedooralert/GarageDoorAlert.pdf

Thanks for all the help!

Ed

 

[Ed]

"ehsjr" <e.h.s.j.r.removethespampunctuation@bellatlantic.net> wrote in
message news:QjxSj.16744$E77.892@trnddc05...

Nice! Good idea making the red LED a flashing type.
The resistor you mention in your writeup is 1000 ohm
or 1K - not 1000K as the writeup says..

What? You must be mistaken. Look again to see if maybe you misread it.


Thanks.

Ed

 

[Ed]

"ehsjr" <e.h.s.j.r.removethespampunctuation@bellatlantic.net> wrote in
message news:QjxSj.16744$E77.892@trnddc05...

Nice! Good idea making the red LED a flashing type.
The resistor you mention in your writeup is 1000 ohm
or 1K - not 1000K as the writeup says..

What? You must be mistaken. Look again to see if maybe you misread it.


Thanks.

Ed

 

[Jonathan Herr]

Rich Grise wrote:

On Thu, 08 May 2008 10:50:30 -0700, jjdkcnjs wrote:

A friend of ours bought a garage door sensor that has two LEDs and a
beeper that goes off when the door is first opened. An electrician
installed it in about 2 hours so he doesn't know too much about
it,but seems to be happy with it.

He found it at garage-alert.com.

If anyone is familiar with this device please advice.

I've got some advice - tell us what it is you want to know about it
that you can't find out from the website or calling or emailing them
and asking them?

Good Luck!
Rich

Don't wish the spammer good luck. He's gotta be a scammer. Why would he
mention a website (and TRY to make it look like it's casual conversation)
and have a quasi-random email address? Plus the 'please advice' sounds like
a bit of jangrish or chinrish (e.g. foreign spammers trying to speak
english)

--
The domain expired, for one thing. I moved it to another one. I didn't
feel like updating the .sig.

The 2-Belo on how he can't pay a $7.00 domain registration fee

But they spend 90% of their time standing there looking stupid and (in
your case) eyeballing everyone and wondering how they look naked.
gregvk on what he thinks WalMart greeters do.

In the immortal words of §ńühw¤Łf:
This is you not giving a shit?
HA HA I MADE YUO POST!
I win & stuff.

"Over the years, I've seen many jerks come and go. The latest crop is
not as smart. They're less ass and more hole or is it the other way
around? <snicker>" The Daring Dufas

How do he produce so much doo-doo so fast? It's amazing!
The Daring Dufas

Yeah, UPS, Usenet Performance Stupidity. ^_^
Onideus Mad Hatter

Golly Wiggle!
Uncle Monster

 

[Jonathan Herr]

Rich Grise wrote:

On Thu, 08 May 2008 10:50:30 -0700, jjdkcnjs wrote:

A friend of ours bought a garage door sensor that has two LEDs and a
beeper that goes off when the door is first opened. An electrician
installed it in about 2 hours so he doesn't know too much about
it,but seems to be happy with it.

He found it at garage-alert.com.

If anyone is familiar with this device please advice.

I've got some advice - tell us what it is you want to know about it
that you can't find out from the website or calling or emailing them
and asking them?

Good Luck!
Rich

Don't wish the spammer good luck. He's gotta be a scammer. Why would he
mention a website (and TRY to make it look like it's casual conversation)
and have a quasi-random email address? Plus the 'please advice' sounds like
a bit of jangrish or chinrish (e.g. foreign spammers trying to speak
english)

--
The domain expired, for one thing. I moved it to another one. I didn't
feel like updating the .sig.

The 2-Belo on how he can't pay a $7.00 domain registration fee

But they spend 90% of their time standing there looking stupid and (in
your case) eyeballing everyone and wondering how they look naked.
gregvk on what he thinks WalMart greeters do.

In the immortal words of §ńühw¤Łf:
This is you not giving a shit?
HA HA I MADE YUO POST!
I win & stuff.

"Over the years, I've seen many jerks come and go. The latest crop is
not as smart. They're less ass and more hole or is it the other way
around? <snicker>" The Daring Dufas

How do he produce so much doo-doo so fast? It's amazing!
The Daring Dufas

Yeah, UPS, Usenet Performance Stupidity. ^_^
Onideus Mad Hatter

Golly Wiggle!
Uncle Monster

 

[ehsjr]

Ed wrote:

I'm in need of a garage door alert so there is a small red light in
the house indicating it's open.
I bought one made by LiftMaster, but it's not quite right for my
situation. It consists of a battery
powered RF sender that you stick on the garage door and a receiver
that you stick on the wall inside.
There are two problems with it. First, the sender will report it the
door closed when it reaches about 50-60
degrees off horizontal. This would work OK for a roll-up door if
mounted on the uppermost segment, but
for a one-piece tilt-open door like mine it will report it closed when
the door is still partially open, such as
I sometimes leave it while my car is cooling down. The second problem
is the receiver is not what you would
call a decorator piece. It is a black plastic case about 3"x4" with a
floppy little 8" wire for an antenna and
a wall-wart power supply. If I put it out of prominence it won't be in
clear view and thus will not meet the basic need.

I'm thinking about building one. I could easily mount a limit switch
of some kind that opens or closes when the door
is really closed. Lead wires would connect to a small circuit project
box mounted on the garage wall, the other side of which is
the living room. I would drill through the wall and mount a tiny LED
on the inside wall. If done well, it would not
be conspicuous, except when it was on.

So, has anyone done something like this? Seems like it could be done
with a transistor (or relay), a resistor or two,
and a battery holder.

BTW, the LiftMAster 915LM is for sale!

TIA

Ed

It is a workable (and clever) plan.
All you need is the switch, a 9 or 12 volt DC wall wart
power supply, 1K resistor and the LED. No transistors
or relays needed. Put the switch, resistor and LED
in series with the DC supply, observing proper polarity.

Pay a lot of attention to how you mount and actuate the
switch, so that it stands up to the repeated use.

Ed

 

[Rich Grise]

On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:41:54 -0700, Ed wrote:

I'm in need of a garage door alert so there is a small red light in
the house indicating it's open.
I bought one made by LiftMaster, but it's not quite right for my
situation. It consists of a battery
powered RF sender that you stick on the garage door and a receiver
that you stick on the wall inside.
There are two problems with it. First, the sender will report it the
door closed when it reaches about 50-60
degrees off horizontal. This would work OK for a roll-up door if
mounted on the uppermost segment, but
for a one-piece tilt-open door like mine it will report it closed when
the door is still partially open, such as
I sometimes leave it while my car is cooling down. The second problem
is the receiver is not what you would
call a decorator piece. It is a black plastic case about 3"x4" with a
floppy little 8" wire for an antenna and
a wall-wart power supply. If I put it out of prominence it won't be in
clear view and thus will not meet the basic need.

I'm thinking about building one. I could easily mount a limit switch
of some kind that opens or closes when the door
is really closed. Lead wires would connect to a small circuit project
box mounted on the garage wall, the other side of which is
the living room. I would drill through the wall and mount a tiny LED
on the inside wall. If done well, it would not
be conspicuous, except when it was on.

So, has anyone done something like this? Seems like it could be done
with a transistor (or relay), a resistor or two,
and a battery holder.

Just mount your limit switch next to the top of the door, and use the NC

contacts, such that when the door is fully closed, it opens the switch.
Then all you'd need is the battery (or wall-wart) and LED & its resistor.

If you want 'up', 'down', and 'in between', you'd need another switch
(or full up) and some logic.

Have Fun!
Rich

 

[Stephen J. Rush]

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:18:42 -0700, Ed wrote:

Thanks, Ed. I see your point about no need for transistor or relay,
provided I can find a limit switch
with normally closed contacts. I'll start looking.

Just look for "microswitches." MicroSwitch was the name of the original
manufacturer, but, like "zipper", it has become a generic name. Most of
these little switches are SPDT. A good free source is old machinery.
Old copiers, VCRs and printers usually contain microswitches, but newer
ones may have photosensor limit detectors instead.

 

[ehsjr]

Ed wrote:

"ehsjr" <ehsjr@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message
newsTTPj.3520$nb4.1260@trnddc08...

Ed wrote:

I'm in need of a garage door alert so there is a small red light in
the house indicating it's open.
I bought one made by LiftMaster, but it's not quite right for my
situation. It consists of a battery
powered RF sender that you stick on the garage door and a receiver
that you stick on the wall inside.
There are two problems with it. First, the sender will report it
the door closed when it reaches about 50-60
degrees off horizontal. This would work OK for a roll-up door if
mounted on the uppermost segment, but
for a one-piece tilt-open door like mine it will report it closed
when the door is still partially open, such as
I sometimes leave it while my car is cooling down. The second
problem is the receiver is not what you would
call a decorator piece. It is a black plastic case about 3"x4" with
a floppy little 8" wire for an antenna and
a wall-wart power supply. If I put it out of prominence it won't be
in clear view and thus will not meet the basic need.

I'm thinking about building one. I could easily mount a limit
switch of some kind that opens or closes when the door
is really closed. Lead wires would connect to a small circuit
project box mounted on the garage wall, the other side of which is
the living room. I would drill through the wall and mount a tiny
LED on the inside wall. If done well, it would not
be conspicuous, except when it was on.

So, has anyone done something like this? Seems like it could be
done with a transistor (or relay), a resistor or two,
and a battery holder.

BTW, the LiftMAster 915LM is for sale!

TIA

Ed




It is a workable (and clever) plan.
All you need is the switch, a 9 or 12 volt DC wall wart
power supply, 1K resistor and the LED. No transistors
or relays needed. Put the switch, resistor and LED
in series with the DC supply, observing proper polarity.

Pay a lot of attention to how you mount and actuate the
switch, so that it stands up to the repeated use.

Ed


Thanks, Ed. I see your point about no need for transistor or relay,
provided I can find a limit switch
with normally closed contacts. I'll start looking.

Ed

You can use either normally open or normally closed
contacts by wiring the circuit accordingly.

Normally open:

/ LED
V+ ---o o--->|----+
|
[1K]
|
Gnd ---------------+

Normally Closed:

+---o->o---+
| |
| LED |
V+ -----+---->|----+
|
[1K]
|
Gnd ---------------+

The most important thing is the mechanical arrangement
to operate the switch. You want to make sure that the
switch is positively actuated in both directions, but
you don't want mechanical stress placed on it. Garage
door motion is not the most gentle - so you may need to
mechanically buffer the switch so that it is not unduly
stressed.

Ed

 

[Robert Barr]

Thanks, Stephen. I had thought about a microswitch, but wondered about
how to gently engage it.
Perhaps a strip of stiff but flexible material, metal of plastic,
mounted to the door?

Ed

Also called 'snap switch'. Here's one suggestion:

http://cgi.ebay.com/10pcs-5A-Micro-Switches-with-12mm-Roller-lever_W0QQitemZ380019939123QQihZ025QQcategoryZ55834QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It could be mounted so that the little roller projects just slightly
beyond the contact face of the door frame. When the door shuts
completely, it pushes in the little roller. You're looking at maybe 3
mm of switch arm travel, so it'll be kind of a tight fit, but hardly
anything of extreme precision.

Since you'll be dealing with low voltage, there's no concern for serious
insulation or shock protection.

These little guys usually last almost forever.

I have such a creature at my home, and it automatically turns on my
pantry light when I open the door, and turns it off when the door's
closed (like a refrigerator).

If searching on ebay, you can find snap switches more easily by
filtering out the 'HO train' listings. Also search on micro switch.
Sooner or later you'll see a shape that causes the mounting idea to pop
into your head.

They're also pretty inexpensive, so you might wind up buying a lot of 8
or something just to get one, but that's OK -- they're cheap. Cheaper
than someone walking off with your items because you left the garage
door open!

 

[Rich Grise]

On Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:33:35 -0700, Ed wrote:

"ehsjr" <ehsjr@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message
Ed wrote:

You can use either normally open or normally closed
contacts by wiring the circuit accordingly.

Normally open:

/ LED
V+ ---o o--->|----+
|
[1K]
|
Gnd ---------------+

Normally Closed:

+---o->o---+
| |
| LED |
V+ -----+---->|----+
|
[1K]
|
Gnd ---------------+

The most important thing is the mechanical arrangement
to operate the switch. You want to make sure that the
switch is positively actuated in both directions, but
you don't want mechanical stress placed on it. Garage
door motion is not the most gentle - so you may need to
mechanically buffer the switch so that it is not unduly
stressed.

Thanks, Ed. I had thought about a microswitch, but wondered about
how to gently engage it.
Perhaps a strip of stiff but flexible material, metal or , mounted to
the door?

Well, you can get industrial-strength limit switches - they're like
a microswitch on steroids. They're like the size of your thumb, but
fatter and rectangular. You can get them with either a blade or a
cat-whisker. I already have a picture in my head of the switch
screwed to the door header, with this leaf sticking out where when
the door opens, even a little, it releases the leaf and closes
the switch.

These guys have a lot of compliance built in, so as long as you
hang the leaf (or catwhisker) such that the clicking range is
within maybe half an inch or so of the top threshold, it should
last forever.

I thought I'd do a quick google on "limit switches" with the quotes,
and got "about 707,000" hits:

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22limit+switches%22

Have Fun!
Rich