This new, very well-insulated, foil-backed, house has one drawback... the garage door opener range with the garage door closed is only about
20'
Any ideas on how I could extend that range? ...Jim Thompson
-- | James E.Thompson | mens | | Analog Innovations | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at
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| 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
You could work on improving the antenna, or you could just put the receiver outside and run a wire to it from the opener. I believe the "antenna" on the units I have seen is just a piece of wire hanging from the unit a foot or so. Not much to work with there... at least I would find it easier to just move the receiver to the outside of the house.
If the receiver is a separate unit, or if the antenna input is obvious, do as already suggested and move the receiver or connect an external antenna.
If not, and if for some reason you don't want to rip into the thing to get at the antenna terminals, find out what frequency it works at (probably 400-ish MHz), hang a simple dipole antenna outside your garage with coax or twin-lead going to another antenna right at the opener.
--
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Always have to go out of your way to be a turd, don't you... sad specimen you are. ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
I assume the garage door is insulated with foil backed foam or fiberglass. Therefore, RF through the garage door is a difficult path.
First, try a simple experiment. Open the garage door wide and test the range of your unspecified model garage door opener radio. If you get normal ranges (200ft or more), then the problem is the garage door shielding. However, if the range is the same, the tuning on either the transmitter or receiver is off frequency.
Punching a big hole in the aluminum door insulation might help, but methinks adding some coax cable to the antenna, punch a hole somewhere in the garage wall (not the roof), and bring the antenna outside, will work best. I'm not sure what frequency your unspecified model garage door opener operates (probably 315 or 390 MHz) but the coax cable should be specified to have the minimum loss at the operating frequency. Satellite grade CATV coax cable (RG-6/u) is both cheap and low loss.
Garage Door Opener Antenna Extension (Ignore his comments on how RF travels better when it's cold and wet. His receiver is drifting with temperature. Also, you do need to ground the shield of the coax at the receiver ground).
A wired push button switch on a vertical pipe somewhere along the driveway approach? If that's too primitive, a 2nd remote receiver somewhere along the driveway.
--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
My own 10m illegal transmitter and receiver and a relay... ought to give me a full block's range >:-} ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Sigh. 10m as in 28 MHz? Were you planning on operating the garage door from the adjacent state? Transistor, tube, or spark gap? 28 MHz requires a fairly large 2.5 meter antenna on both ends, or something somewhat shorter with a loading coil. Even so, the aluminum foil in the garage door, is a fairly effective barrier to RF. Move the receive antenna outside, and the foil will not be a problem. Also, you might want to measure the receiver sensitivity and tx power output to make sure your range prediction is not based on bad assumptions.
--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
I have some old 455kHz ceramic filters... maybe that's the way to do it >:-} ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Buy a second receiver and wire it into the button curcuit and place it in a non-sheielded location. (bare receivers are available for use on electric gates etc)
Put a better antenna on your remote, *
Use some UHF coax to move the reveiver antenna to a better location. *
Ummm.... no. I suggest that you give up on building your own and purchase something that has a chance of actually working: Look for 315 MHz and something with a momentary/timed/latch output jumper for the relay(s). Install the receiver antenna or the entire receiver outside your shielded garage for optimum range.
--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Looks like my opener receiver is part of the whole control board. Do you know of any stand-alone receivers that can be "trained" to the remotes built-into automobiles? I think my Q45 remote is Homelink brand. ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
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