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muggsy_gw

garage door opener

muggsy
18 years ago

I have adapted a craftsman opener to act as an actuator on a sliding gate. It works well except the antenna wire is down low behind some brick work.I think this is causing me to have a problem with the range of my remote. Can I extend the antenna wire by simply splicing on a piece of electrical wire to reach above the obstruction? Also, can I expect the range to improve if I have a 'line of sight' situation or is this futile? Thanks....muggsy

Comments (8)

  • Don_
    18 years ago

    There is an antenna extension available from the manufacturer that sometimes helps this situation. Look in the yellow pages and call around to the Chamberlain or Liftmaster dealers. I have never seen one so I can't be much help. You can always experiment on your own but I wouldn't expect too much.

  • formulaross
    18 years ago

    Yes, you can probably help the situation. Maybe there are metallic oxides in the brickwork attenuating the radio signal. A friend of mine couldn't open her garage door when she was sitting immediately in front of it (metal door was acting as a shield), so I soldered a 3' wire onto the antenna wire and stuck it up vertically through the drywall into the attic. Worked like a charm. Line of sight is always good for radio signals.

  • muggsy
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Hey formulaross,thanks for the good words. I took you're advice about soldering on an extension wire and it works great. Thanks a million.

  • drmeow3
    18 years ago

    Would that solution also work for a garage door opener whose remotes have started to only work erratically and only from relatively close? I have a 1-year old garage door opener that over the past 2 - 3 months has been having problems with the remotes. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, and they never seem to work if I'm more than about 5 feet away from the edge of the garage (either in the house or in the driveway). (We were rarely using the remotes over the past 4 months so didn't realize it was a problem until now.) It seems to me to be something wrong with the antenna wire (I checked the sensors and they are aligned and the wires seem to be good on them). We just had a huge remodeling project with a lot of sawing, dirt, and dust in the garage and I thought maybe the antenna might be dirty or something so I cleaned it but that didn't help (I also tried to straighten it so that it points straight down - don't know if that's what it should do). Could some change in the garage be interfering with the antenna and would some sort of antenna extension fix it (they added a new electrical sub panel in the garage, put in a control panel for an alarm system, and moved some gas lines)?

  • rmiller
    18 years ago

    I have a problem with my garage door opener. The remote has a new battery but will not open the door. The manual push button at my back door is constantly flashing. It is a Sears Craftsman 1/2 horse, what is the flashing button telling me.

  • Don_
    18 years ago

    If you have a 3 button wall control that flashing light is telling you someone pressed the lock button. That is the button with the icon of a padlock on it. Press and hold it for about 3 seconds and it should be okay. If not post back.

  • rmleininger_msn_com
    13 years ago

    My daughter has two garage doors. I programmed their vehicles to operate them and they worked fine. She said that recently, the openers won't operate until they are right in front of them with either the vehicle or the remote transmitters. Both doors are acting the same way. What could this be? Could there be some kind of RF interference causing this? Is there any way to boost the signal. They used to operate from 50 yards away. Thanks!

  • don_1_2006
    13 years ago

    Limited range of your remote controls could be related to radio frequency interference that comes from something in your home or in the surrounding environment. Certain electrical devices can radiate interference; this could be almost anything that is plugged into an electrical outlet.

    Please keep in mind that the device can be brand new, or can be an item that has been in use for quite a while. Also, the item may continue to function properly as far as you are able to tell. The only problem with the item may be that it has started to broadcast the interference, with no other symptoms noted.

    Some devices are more likely to generate interference than others. This includes TV cable, cable amplifiers, surge protectors, fluorescent lights, battery charging devices (power tools, golf carts, etc.), anything that utilizes a timer (sprinkler systems, lights, alarm systems, etc.), and a myriad of others. If the problem seems sporadic, we can safely assume that the device responsible for the interference is only being operated during these times. Again, please keep in mind that the age of the device does not determine if it is capable of broadcasting unwanted interference. Any electrical device can be the source of the problem.

    The first step is replacing the battery in your remote. If the range on your remote does not improve, remove the wall control wires from the overhead unit.

    To isolate potential sources of interference, turn the circuit breaker off to the garage and plug the garage door opener into an extension cord from another room. If the range improves, then the interference is coming from a device in the garage. If no improvement is seen follow the same procedure, this time turning off the circuit breakers to your home, with the exception of the garage and test the remote controls. If improvement is noted, turn the circuit breakers back on, one by one, until the range problem resurfaces. This will allow you to narrow down what room the problem device is in. You will have to go from there to isolate it further, by unplugging and re-plugging the items in that room.

    If you are unable to determine any source of interference, then the receiver logic board in the overhead unit will need to be replaced.