DIY: Garage door opener - move it to cig lighter!
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From: VA
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civic2uner, at the beginning of my post i had stated that if you aren't proficient at soldering, then you should be wary of beginning this project. oh well, lesson learned, right?
some tips for soldering: put solder on the tip and let it burn up. then get some more solder on it and use that to make the connection
some tips for soldering: put solder on the tip and let it burn up. then get some more solder on it and use that to make the connection
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Rep Power: 0 hahaha....jackass...he just told you a good technique...haha...another suggestion...dont keep the iron on the circuit board for too long, or you'll just fry everything, try to do everything in a timely manner, the less the heat on the circuit board...the better...hope that helps..haha...
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From: VA
Rep Power: 436 ouch. well i learned when i was younger, and personally i think it's better to use a broken in soldering iron. what i usually do is what i posted above. solder on tip. more solder to make connection. don't hold the soldering iron over the spot for too long thoguh. just make sure you put enough solder on the wire to make a clean connection, then pull the iron up, and away from teh board.
Originally Posted by infinite012
civic2uner, at the beginning of my post i had stated that if you aren't proficient at soldering, then you should be wary of beginning this project. oh well, lesson learned, right?
some tips for soldering: put solder on the tip and let it burn up. then get some more solder on it and use that to make the connection
some tips for soldering: put solder on the tip and let it burn up. then get some more solder on it and use that to make the connection
ok now i see. i have never been told or showed. i am pretty knowledgeable in electronics and i wanted to give this a try because i hate my garage door opener
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From: VA
Rep Power: 436 17/64 inch drill bit. if you purchased the same button as i did, then you will notice that it has what looks like a nut on the base of the button (circled in red below). it twists off and you use that to hold the button in place.
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From: OH-IO
Rep Power: 513 damn thing didnt work for me. i think i soldered it so that the solder was touching more than one thing cause it acted like the button stayed pushed down. oh well. back to normal garage door opener for me
Originally Posted by abmerop18
damn you people. make me look bad now. now tomorrow i have to gofix it so im not the odd one out
i fried my first door opener. that cost me 25 bucks. soldering in small places is a bish.
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Rep Power: 0 I know its kind of late, but I remember some time ago over on www.hondasuv.com a guy hooked his up to controll the garage door when he flashed his high-beams...
I thought it was a cool idea, the only thing I didnt like was trying to keep the thing dry, also the thought of a plastic baggie duct taped up under my bumper never set too well with me...
Clean Idea though, I'll run it by the wife before I tear her car apart...
Maybe I could find a good looking OEM swich that is kind of generic (no writing)...
Thought I'd share what I remembered, if you want to hop over there and search help yourself, its been some time ago, but you should still be able to find it. I think they guy had and Element...
Later,
I thought it was a cool idea, the only thing I didnt like was trying to keep the thing dry, also the thought of a plastic baggie duct taped up under my bumper never set too well with me...
Clean Idea though, I'll run it by the wife before I tear her car apart...
Maybe I could find a good looking OEM swich that is kind of generic (no writing)...
Thought I'd share what I remembered, if you want to hop over there and search help yourself, its been some time ago, but you should still be able to find it. I think they guy had and Element...
Later,
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From: San Francisco Bay Area
Rep Power: 0 Well, using a multimeter and some physics, i calculted the internal resistance of the opener to be around 2200 ohms and the resistor i needed would be 860 ohms to drop 12v to 9v for my opener
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Rep Power: 0 the reason I wanted to drop the voltage was because my opener had a BJT on the circuit board and that would amp up that 9v so I didn't want it to amp up the 12v and fry something. I'm at school right now so I can't test it out, but the led goes on when I press the SPST switch so I know it's getting enough power. The bad thing about my opener is that if you take the battery out you have to reset it to the actual opener so I tapped into my fog light wiring which is connected directly to the battery so it's always getting constant power. For those of you frying out boards, and if you're not an electrical engineer I suggest getting a multimeter and trying various resistors to drop the voltage across the battery from 12v to 9v or however many volts your opener runs on. Hope this helps, and great DIY by the way! Now I can tell people that's my warp speed button
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Rep Power: 0 ^ ^ I too would be more interested in hooking up to constant power. I think it would be goofy to not have it hooked up that way. I move into the new house tomorrow, so I'll find out then what kind of voltage the new garage door opener has then...
Moving, bleah...
Moving, bleah...
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Rep Power: 0 ^^ And how would this be any different than it being powered by a battery?
Or are you saying to hook it up to keyed power?
Thats a VERY good idea, thanks...
Might suck though if you needed to open it w/o the keys, but probably better than being able to break in...
EDIT: I havent had a chance to do this yet, as she has the Civic in Oklahoma still, she's not out here yet. However, in regards to the thing being hooked up to constant or keyed power, my Titan's homelink mirror has power all the time, so I guess its just personal preference, I believe my mom's Accord with OEM homelink was the same way...
Later,
Or are you saying to hook it up to keyed power?
Thats a VERY good idea, thanks...
Might suck though if you needed to open it w/o the keys, but probably better than being able to break in...
EDIT: I havent had a chance to do this yet, as she has the Civic in Oklahoma still, she's not out here yet. However, in regards to the thing being hooked up to constant or keyed power, my Titan's homelink mirror has power all the time, so I guess its just personal preference, I believe my mom's Accord with OEM homelink was the same way...
Later,
Last edited by mini-nsx; Mar 20, 2005 at 07:32 AM.
35+ Years Driving Japanese Autos
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Rep Power: 309 This is a great idea and DIY. I have a garage at work and plan on doing this mod. If you are worried about power to the unit, you could leave the current battery in place and just tap across the switch itself to the new switch. Also I would be careful of leaving the exposed PCB, I would try to cover or secure it so it will not short on something.
