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elguero77

Garage opener relay clicks but does not close

elguero77
15 years ago

Hello,

Yesterday, I opened my garage door after work, and when I tried closing I can only hear a relay click but my garage door does not move an inch.

The safety sensors are good and aligned.

I installed the plastic gears a year ago, so I know all the parts a well installed (i.e. interrupt cup on motor shaft).

My green indicator light blinks 5 times, pauses, blinks 5 times, and repeats same pattern.

Could the RPM sensor be bad?

From what I have read on the forum, when the RPM sensor is bad the garage door moves down atleast a few inches and then moves back up. But, my garage door does not move at all. I only hear the relay click.

Could my receiver logic board be bad?

Maybe I should play around with the Interruptor cup and rotate it such that I can get my garage door to atleast move down a few inches. In other words, how can I test if the issues is really my RPM sensor?

Thanks,

Santos

Comments (13)

  • elguero77
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    I forgot to mentioned. I have a 139.539##SRT craftsman model.

    I immediately opened up the garage unit when it failed to close and all looks good inside. Nothing smelled liked burnt electronics (I would recognize that smell). I manually moved the shaft on the motor as if it was moving in the direction to close my garage door. While moving the shaft, I had the garage door disconnected from the rail to release some load. I managed to move the gears manually so that the slider on the rail moved about 1 foot to the closing direction. I clicked my remote twice and the garage door moved back to the open position. So, the motor is good and my receiver board apparently was able to process my remotes signal.

    But, again, when I press my remote again to move the opener in the closing direction, nothing moves. I only hear the relay click.

    ~Santos

  • don_1_2006
    15 years ago

    Is the trolley running into the bolt just in front of the opener? If so you need to remove the bolt and then run the opener until the door closes. Then turn the 'up limit' control about 3 turns in the opposite direction of the arrow printed on the cover. The up limit control is found on the side of the motor unit and it will take a small screwdriver to adjust. Be sure to replace the bolt.

  • elguero77
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Also... some more info.

    The garage door moved in the closing direction about 6 to 12 inches when I initially tried to close it.

    So, it's not like the garage door was stuck on my first attempt to close it. On my first attempt to close it, the garage door started going down and then automatically moved back to the fully open position.

    And, all attempts to close the garage door after my intial attempt results in a relay click. The garage door does not move at all in the close direction.

    ~Santos

  • don_1_2006
    15 years ago

    Baffling. I cannot think of another thing except the RPM board but as you know it usually starts down and then reverses. The only way to check it is to replace it. Make sure the the plug to it is on securely.

  • elguero77
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Here is some more information on experimenting:

    First experiment:
    I switched the wires connected to the UP limit and DOWN limit connectors on the limit switch assembly. I was hoping to fool the RPM sensor or the receiver logic board into thinking the garage door was closed (but, actually fully open, 6 inches before stop bolt) and have the opener actually move the garage door in the closing position. But, this did NOT work. Instead, the garage door moved towards the open direction until it hit the BOLT on the rail and the motor hummed a little bit. I switched the limit wires back to their original position.

    Next experiment: I manually turned the motor shaft to move the trolly in the closing direction. I moved the trolly all the way to the fully close position and I connected the garage door to the trolly. So, now the garage door is completely closed. I pressed the garage opener button and the garage door starts moving in the opening direction. I let the door open about two feet and I press the remote button again and the garage door stops immediately. I press the remote button again (in normal operation the garage door would start closing) and I hear a relay click and two seconds later the garage door starts moving in the opening direction. The pattern repeats itself until the garage door reaches its UP limit. After that, I just hear the relay click when I press the remote button.

    So, can we pinpoint the issue with the additional information? ;-)

    What are the signals going to/from the RPM sensor to the receiver logic board? There is another wire going from the RPM sensor to the limit switch assembly. If I had some more information on the what each wire means, maybe I can pinpoint which component is bad.

    How about I switch the wires on the motor? Will that help pinpoint the bad component?

    Thanks,
    Santos

  • don_1_2006
    15 years ago

    More and more it sounds like you have a bad logic board.

  • elguero77
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Problem is fixed. The problem was the receiver logic board. I tested the motor by directly applying current to it and the garage door closed and opened fine. So, I knew the logic board was not supply the required current to the blue wire on the motor.

    I took off the logic board and inspected the soldering points. I noticed a disconnected solder joint and resoldered. My garage door is now working great!!!

    Thanks,
    Santos

  • nosleep
    15 years ago

    I just post an issue that is similar to this. See http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/garages/msg120544585326.html "Craftsman Garage Opener Clicks only and LED blinking 5 times". I have not experimented with the motor but it looks perfect without anything loose or burnt. The logic board looks tight without removing it and all connections were tight. Santos, I guess I can trace some of your steps and verify the motor is good.

  • nosleep
    15 years ago

    To verify the motor is good. I try to rotate the gear manually to back the trolley a few inches. I could not move the gear. It was stopped at the upper limit so I make the upper limit higher to allow the motor to move the trolley in the upper range. I plug back in the power and click the open/close remote button and same as before: clicks, LED starts to blink, motor does not turn.

    I put a digital meter to measure the AC on the relay of the motor side (a white wire and a black wire). As soon as I plug back in the power, it is reading 120 V AC. Hitting the open/close remote button does not change the reading. That means the motor has power regardless of me hitting the open/close button?! I am puzzled.

    The only other wire to the motor is a red wire which connects to the logic board connector. Anyone know anything about that wire.

    I don't know what conclusion to draw. Bad motor or bad logic board. Anyone has a good suggestion to tell which is which? Thanks.

  • elguero77
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    The motor has three wires. White, Red, and Blue. Disconnect power to the garage door openor to avoid getting electricuted and also to avoid burning your logic board. U will have to connect direct power again once u disconnect what i mention below. And, just follow what u know about electric technician fundamentals. If you don't know much about fundamentals of electric tech, then have someone that does do the job.

    Disconnect the logic board completely from the garage door openor assembly to avoid burning it. Disconnect the blue and red motor wires from the capacitor. Discharge the capacitor using a screwdriver.

    If you want to move the garage door down, connect only the blue wire to direct power. If you want to move the door up, connect only the red wire directly to power. This way you can verify if your motor is good or bad. If your motor moves both way, then ur motor is good and u have to inspect your logic board. Mine turned out to be a bad solder point.

  • zummerr
    6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    .. Thanks to this forum. I checked all staff and almost gave up and found this forum. I'd buy new opener, but reading this thread I saved about 200$. In my case it was resistor between capacitors. Found it when did inspection of wires and capacitors, cause it only thing left since i replaced RPM sensor and logical board/ This resistor connects two big capacitors. After replaced RPM and logical board I still had same symptoms , then just accidentally found that this resistor have one leg broken and it was not seen cause its legs wires covered by insulation--i just tried to check all wires again and moved it a little and one leg of resistor came out of from insulation, while it other leg was attached to clamp as it should. Soldered broken leg to clamp and connected it back to both capacitors as it was and Viola!!! Problem solved - motor started to move gear in down direction.

    PS: My opener is Craftsman 3/4 HP Model 139.53990D. Not sure why two capacitors connected like this - it might be serial or parallel connection or they have same side attached to ground. According to manual one is 46uF another is 56uF. I measured resistor and its about 0.6 Ohms.

  • Carl Smith
    6 years ago

    I had this exact same problem. Door opened, then when I pressed the button it went down about a foot, then reveresed and went back to the open position. After that it would just click a relay but not move down. If I cranked up the upper limit control until the limit switch opened, it would run up another inch or two. Did this with the door disconnected from the trolley until I ran out of travel. Couldn't get it to go down. I manually turned the motor by turning the shaft with pliers until I got it down a few inches. Hit the button and it would go up. But not back down. After finding this page I pulled out the logic board and found a cracked solder joint on the big white relay marked on the PCB as K1 UP. I resoldered the joint and reinstalled the board and everything works great again. Thanks for saving my door opener!