Electric Eye - Garage Door Opener

[BOB OLINGER]

I replaced our Genie garage door opener (after about 35 yrs) last summer with a Chamberlain. The new opener has the double electric eyes (one on each side) that if obstructed prevents the door from closing. After 35 yrs of not having them previously, these are proving to be a pain in the butt. Seems like they're always getting bumped , causing misalignment, and the door won't close. Has anyone just short wired these (I assume it can be done) to eliminate them from causing this hassle?

[Richard McComas]

Move the sensors up above the door.

[Roger Feeley]

ours get out of alignment from time to time but it's no big deal to nudge them back. I might build a little box around them if it gets to be a bother.

I just moved and the new house has them mounted about 18" off the ground. That's kind of a weird place for them. I will be moving them down where they belong.

[Lee Schierer]

Build some protection to keep them from getting bumped. I've had my new opener with the sensors for over a year and the only time they have been noticed is when something did get in the way of the door closing.

[Kev Williams]

Not very PC, but I've never felt the need for such a safety device so I just mounted my sensors on the wall above the opener switch. :)

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/sensors.jpg

[Richard McComas]

Not very PC, but I've never felt the need for such a safety device so I just mounted my sensors on the wall above the opener switch. :)

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/sensors.jpgExactly!

This message is to short!

[Mike Henderson]

I've had sensors for many years and they provide a safety advantage if you have pets or small children.

I've not had any problems with them.

Mike

[Barry McFadden]

There is NO WAY to disable them and have the garage door still work.....have checked into it many times....as said, the best way is to mount them somewhere very close together and forget about them.

[Erik Loza]

Not very PC, but I've never felt the need for such a safety device so I just mounted my sensors on the wall above the opener switch. :)

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/sensors.jpg

I really need to do this as well.

Erik

[BOB OLINGER]

Not very PC, but I've never felt the need for such a safety device so I just mounted my sensors on the wall above the opener switch. :)




http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/sensors.jpg



Ingenious !!!

Thanks

[Jerome Stanek]

I have had those eyes for over 20 years with no troubles. I like how on mine if the door is up and you walk into the garage the light comes on

[Jason Roehl]

I have had those eyes for over 20 years with no troubles. I like how on mine if the door is up and you walk into the garage the light comes on


I've seen a few like that--I wish mine would do it!

[BOB OLINGER]

I've seen a few like that--I wish mine would do it!

The light on ours (Chamberlain) comes on when it senses motion regardless of the position of the door. It's a nice feature.

[Nick Decker]

Speaking of garage door lights, I'll post in this old thread for lack of a better place. With apologies, if this is common knowledge to people other than me.

My garage door opener has been a PITA for me since I moved into this place a couple years ago. Very erratic, sometimes it would work fine, other times you had to be standing right under the unit for it to work. It was particularly bad about closing remotely. After backing out on a cold morning, I'd often have to get out of the car and walk back through the garage to hit the wall switch, then come out the front
door.

I rent, so this was up to the owner to fix. He sent a repair guy over twice, the second time being yesterday. Installed a new circuit board in the ceiling unit, and still it wasn't working right. We went all over the place, trying to think what wireless device might be the culprit. He finally gave up and just said well, that's just how it is with this wireless world.

After he left, I started searching the net and found out it was the LED lightbulb I had put in the unit when I moved in. They operate on about the same freq. range as the door opener. Made sense that I always had trouble closing the door; when I would back the car out the garage light would come on and stay on while I was sitting in the driveway cussing at it. Works fine now, good range, etc., after replacing the bulb with an evil old incandescent.

Sorry to bore you with my rambling but it was one of life's little victories that I needed to share. :)

[Myk Rian]

Call the repair guy and let him know what you found. It's the decent thing to do.

[Nick Decker]

Already did. He was amazed.

[John K Jordan]

...and found out it was the LED lightbulb...

I had one LED bulb play havoc within 3' of one of my digital calipers. It was so electrically noisy it caused the numbers to jump wildly. I put that bulb in the barn.

JKJ

[Doug Garson]

I've had very little trouble with mine. One issue I have occasionally on a sunny day in late afternoon the sun shines directly on one of the sensors and the door won't close. I have to prop a piece of cardboard against the door frame to shade the sensor and then it will close. Only happened a couple of times.

[Ronald Blue]

Speaking of garage door lights, I'll post in this old thread for lack of a better place. With apologies, if this is common knowledge to people other than me.

My garage door opener has been a PITA for me since I moved into this place a couple years ago. Very erratic, sometimes it would work fine, other times you had to be standing right under the unit for it to work. It was particularly bad about closing remotely. After backing out on a cold morning, I'd often have to get out of the car and walk back through the garage to hit the wall switch, then come out the front
door.

I rent, so this was up to the owner to fix. He sent a repair guy over twice, the second time being yesterday. Installed a new circuit board in the ceiling unit, and still it wasn't working right. We went all over the place, trying to think what wireless device might be the culprit. He finally gave up and just said well, that's just how it is with this wireless world.

After he left, I started searching the net and found out it was the LED lightbulb I had put in the unit when I moved in. They operate on about the same freq. range as the door opener. Made sense that I always had trouble closing the door; when I would back the car out the garage light would come on and stay on while I was sitting in the driveway cussing at it. Works fine now, good range, etc., after replacing the bulb with an evil old incandescent.

Sorry to bore you with my rambling but it was one of life's little victories that I needed to share. :)

It must be the bulb brand you used. Liftmaster has a whole list of LED bulbs that they tested and have approved for their units.

[Ronald Blue]

As for setting the electric eye in a location where it can't function, well I guess that is something you have to decide yourself. In the 12 years I have lived in my current home I have never had an issue with either door electric eye. I enjoy my grandkids and I could never live with myself if something happened because of my bypassing a safety feature for my convenience.

[Tom Stenzel]

I've had very little trouble with mine. One issue I have occasionally on a sunny day in late afternoon the sun shines directly on one of the sensors and the door won't close. I have to prop a piece of cardboard against the door frame to shade the sensor and then it will close. Only happened a couple of times.

My Genie Accelerator did the same thing. I fixed it by shading the sensor with a 3/4" copper pipe union. Cut a slit on one end to make it a bit bigger and slipped it on the sensor 'snout'. Spray painted the inside of the fitting black to make sure there were no reflections.

The only time it would mess up was in the winter when the sun was low in the South sky. Trying to get the door to close when it's 5 degrees and blowing got really annoying.

-Tom

[Nick Decker]

It must be the bulb brand you used. Liftmaster has a whole list of LED bulbs that they tested and have approved for their units.

You're probably right. The one I had put in there was Great Value (Wal Mart). The article I read mentioned that some of the cheaper foreign-made brands are all over the place in freq. range and signal strength and don't adhere to FCC guidelines. Obviously part of the Chinese conspiracy of garage door domination!

[Wade Lippman]

I have problems about once a year. If they designed them with a light that when on when aligned properly, it would make life so much easier.

[Lee Schierer]

I have problems about once a year. If they designed them with a light that when on when aligned properly, it would make life so much easier.

I just helped my son-in-law install a new opener in his garage and the unit has a light that shows when the sensor sees the transmitter. The instructions also warned not to locate the receiver where the sun could shine on the opening. They said to locate the transmitter on the sunny side of the doorway.

[Doug W Swanson]

As for setting the electric eye in a location where it can't function, well I guess that is something you have to decide yourself. In the 12 years I have lived in my current home I have never had an issue with either door electric eye. I enjoy my grandkids and I could never live with myself if something happened because of my bypassing a safety feature for my convenience.

I agree. I have fiddled with my electric eyes more than I care to admit but I would not want to bypass them. I live in Minnesota (where we use salt on the roads) our garage door rails and lower parts of the door can get rusty when the snow/salt mixture melts off the cars so I've had to replace the wiring, take apart the sensors and solder the connections (they use a telephone type plug) and fiddle with them when the eyes get bumped into.

I have thought about moving the sensors up and out of the way but decided that safety was a higher priority than convenience.

[Ronald Blue]

Mine do have a light. Makes it easy to know when they are on target.

[Doug Garson]

My Genie Accelerator did the same thing. I fixed it by shading the sensor with a 3/4" copper pipe union. Cut a slit on one end to make it a bit bigger and slipped it on the sensor 'snout'. Spray painted the inside of the fitting black to make sure there were no reflections.

The only time it would mess up was in the winter when the sun was low in the South sky. Trying to get the door to close when it's 5 degrees and blowing got really annoying.

-Tom
Sounds like a good solution, may try it when I get the chance. 5 degrees, that's balmy, oh you mean degrees F. :D

[Shawn Pixley]

I have them and have had little problems. I reinforced the bracket and all remains well.

[william watts]

When I was working, occasionally I would be asked to repair a garage door opener. I have seen seen several installed with the photo sensor's laying on top of the opener pointing at each other. These installs were done by experienced installers getting paid for the work. I bet they slept well at night, without a second thought.

Bill

[Malcolm McLeod]

... so I just mounted my sensors on the wall above the opener switch. :)
Just be aware that any competent home inspector will flag this as a 'deficiency' when you go to sell the home.

[Garth Almgren]

Not very PC, but I've never felt the need for such a safety device so I just mounted my sensors on the wall above the opener switch. :)

The previous owner got very creative with the sensors on our two openers. It was obviously flagged as a deficiency when we had the house inspected, but one that is easily fixable.
In fact, I've been meaning to fix it (and clean up the rat's nest of wiring) since we moved in, but right now we are only using the garage for storage, don't have small children, and aren't in and out of the big doors on a regular basis so it's a pretty low priority for me on the ol' to-do list.

349416349417

The fact that the resistance sensor was turned up way too high was a bigger safety concern personally (If I stuck a 2x4 under the door it wouldn't reverse the way you'd expect it to). That one was adjusted as soon as we had closed on the place.