I was asked to look at an old lady's garage door opener. She says that the opener works from the button inside the garage but the remote does not. It just happened yesterday and it seems like we've had some lightning come through the area over the pasr few days as well. Her failure may be more than coincidental. I recall working on a couple of openers several years ago during the Summer months that had damaged photoelectrics after a storm. What I can't remember though is how to positively determine that the photos are bad and not the radio system. I don't know which brand opener we're dealing with if it matters. Can anyone familiar with these systems please offer some insight into this. Thanks very much. Lenny
You can buy replacement transmitters & receivers at Home Depot. Older electronics were repairable, but the newer units use proprietary ICs, with rolling security codes.
I repaired a lot of the older, tone modulated analog systems 25 to 30 years ago. Dried out electrolytics and shorted rectifiers were the biggest failures, followed by the units drifting out of tune.
The receivers I repaired used a dual gate MOSFET in the front end, and lighting popped a lot of them. When they died, you couldn't operate them for more than an inch or two separation.
If her battery went dead, it might need reprogrammed so the units are in sync, like remote car door locks.
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If you say so. I've been buying from them for 20 years and have never had any problems, other than something being out of stock. Around here, they beat the hell out of Lowe's, and the older chains, many who are long gone. Scotty's hardware stores, for example were full of rejects, factory seconds, and returns. The employees knew it was crap, and just didn't give a damn. The new remotes & receivers were 'Stanley' the last time I checked. What other brand are you going to recommend, Radio Shack? There aren't many brands available as there was 25 years ago.
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You can\'t have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!
The unit was a 1992 Craftsman brand opener. There are no dip switches. The transmitters are "learned" into the receiver. There were two remotes with this system. The photo cells were working, btw. One remote she keeps in a drawer so it is rarely used. I made sure the batteries were good and tried each transmitter. Neither remote activated the onboard led on the receiver board. I then tried erasing the codes and then reprogramming the receiver. It still wouldn't work. With two transmitters doing this the problem is probably the receiver however you can't really tell if the transmitters are putting out can you? So how would you determine if both transmitters are good or if the receiver were good? Without being able to duplicate the modulation scheme, the best I could do if I could determine the operating frequency would be to hit this thing with a burst of CW from a signal generator. I know that this would not operate the door but would it disturb the onboard led thereby indicating the presence of RF being received? How about if I take the transmitters and put them in close proximity to my counter and if the transmission duration is long enough I should be able to read the carrier? Lenny.
The OEM /might/ be Chamberlain LiftMaster. The Receiver board /may/ operate at 315MHz. Replacement receiver boards may run about $90USD. A whole new DIY install is under $200USD. If you can get an exact Sears Craftsman model/part number from the opener's label, more detailed information could be forthcoming. Belt, chain, screw or direct drive?
Spectrum analizer would be one way. Or even a scope capable of the frequencies the remote transmitter uses might be viable.
Test the transmitters, if they are good, then the receiver has failed.
Unlikely to do anything.
Maybe, if your counter is sensitive enough. Long shot, IMHO.
Do the manual buttons work? If yes, get a new receiver and you should be happy: you will have the advantage of new security techniques that were not available in 1992.
It probaly is too short of a burst to read the actual frequency, but it should show RF output. If you try it, used the fastest timbase availible in your counter to improve your chances of reading.
I used a UHF mixer diode and a short piece of wire to the input on my scope for a quick test, when I was repairing the equipment for a garage door opener company. The Sears units made at that time used custom ICs in the transmitters, so you might luck out and find a pwere supply problem in the reciever. The success trate was very low in repairing those systems. The standard repair was a new reciever, connected across the push button controls, rather than buy another over priced control board that couldn't be repaired.
The old '60s & '70s 'Linear' brand controls were very good, and easy to repair. He had thousands of customers, and I did batches of them for him, so he would have a spare in stock.
A Chamberlain Universal Radio Control Replacement Kit, with one remote is $49.97. How much time do you want to spend on a dead 17 year old unit with little chance of success?
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is a prgrammable universal transmitter for garage door openers.
Clicker® Universal Remote Control KLIK1U If you need to replace a lost or broken remote control, or just want to complement your existing garage access system, the new Clicker® Universal Remote Control is the perfect single-source solution. It is designed to work with a variety of brands of garage door openers to give you convenient, secure access to your garage and home. With it, you can operate two different garage door manufacturers and/or frequencies at the same time, so it's like having two remote controls in one. A single coin cell battery is included.
?Replaces lost garage door opener remote control, or adds an extra remote for multi-car families ?Dual frequency/dual manufacturer design ? operates 1 or 2 garage doors even if they're different brands ?Attaches to your car visor ?Easy to program ?1-year limited warranty
Compatible with the following brands: ?Genie® ?Linear/Moore-o-Matic® ?Stanley® ?Overhead Door® ?Wayne-Dalton® ?Craftsman® ?Chamberlain® ?LiftMaster® ?300/310/315/372/390 MHz compatible
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is the manual.
shows you how to program it.
is priced $29.97.
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You can\'t have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!
Same here. Convenient plentiful crap. Just don't expect the transmitter to outlast the battery. The drill is to get a new one, put the old one in the new packaging and return it for a refund. Get a new transmitter with every battery change.
I just purchased some universal replacement SkyLink opener TX/RX products that replace the manual GDO pushbutton, which you said was still working. The package inludes a transmitter and a receiver/switch module.
The small RX module has it's own manual push switch, plus a coded receiver that learns codes from up to 15 TX remotes (only SkyLink transmitters, I assume).
The RX/switch module is simply spliced into the existing manual switch leads. Power for the module is attained from the existing switch leads. If the GDO is so old that there is inadequate voltage at the existing switch leads, a 12VDC wall adapter is used to supply power to the SkyLink RX/switch module.
The keychain-type TX device is a standard 1-button device that uses an A23 battery.
These kits were priced at $2.97 on the clearance table at that Shack store.
I purchased one of these from Home Depot to replace a stolen Stanley remote. It worked, but the quality was mediocre and the unit's range was considerably less than the Stanley.
So you think they have vacuum forming equipment and heat sealers in the back of every Home Depot? Defective merchandise is returned to the vendor, or scrapped. I've known people who worked at home Depot who's job was to sort and process the returns, they deal with the OEM.
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You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!
On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:32:01 -0700 (PDT), snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com put finger to keyboard and composed:
Could you try programming a learning remote with your suspect ones? It wouldn't matter if the original was a code hopping type -- you would only need to determine whether there was any response to transmission.
BTW, you may be able to get parts from Sears:
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User Manuals are available here:
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- Franc Zabkar
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Heh. They did at the local office supply place last time I was there, except not in the back. The shrink-wrap equipment was in the front of the store, in plain sight right behind the registers. Caveat emptor.
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