Activating garage door

[CORT]

This weekend I realized that it would be simple to activate my garage door opener with my Elk M1 system since the garage door button and Elk keypad are virtually opposite each other on the garage wall. I was able to fit a small Elk relay in the keypad's back box and run a wire inside the wall from the relay to the door opener button. The relay connects to the keypad's output.

Now I need to figure out how to activate the relay. I would like to have a weatherproof keypad outside the house that connects to the M1. This way I can write a rule allowing the keypad to open the garage door only at certain times of day.

Are there any weatherproof keypads that will do this easily? inexpensively? How are other people activating their garage doors with their Elk M1's? Any interesting ideas for rules with regards to the garage door?

 

[wuench]

I haven't done it, but you could look into using the Weigand access control input on the keypad. Usually this is for a card reader, but I believe there are also weatherproof weigand compatible keypads on the market.

 

[123]

"How are other people activating their garage doors with their Elk M1's?"

To open the garage door from the outside, I use the existing RF door-opener that came with the garage-opener (or via Home-Link).

The wired, door-opener switch (inside the garage) is connected to an M1 relay output. Closing the relay contacts for 1 second will short the switch and cause the door to open or close. A magnetic contact switch monitors the door and lets me know the door's state.

I can call the M1 and use its IVR interface to trigger the relay output that controls the garage-door (rarely ever do this but it is nice to have).

 

[thewireguy]

I have mine setup so when I arm the system in Night mode it checks to see if the door is open and close it if it is. Also I have a rule setup so when the system is armed in Away mode it started a 2min timer and when time is up of the door is still open I get an email. I could also have it just close the door if I wanted it to.

I would use the Weigand solution

 

[beelzerob]

The wired, door-opener switch (inside the garage) is connected to an M1 relay output. Closing the relay contacts for 1 second will short the switch and cause the door to open or close. A magnetic contact switch monitors the door and lets me know the door's state.

I was wondering about this....I wired up my interior door opener, and there were just 2 screws on the back. Just to test, I shorted the wires connected to the screws, and sure enough, the door opened and closed. So, I figured the same thing...just connect those 2 screws to a relay and short it shortly to open or close.

The door opener has 2 buttons...one for the door, and one for the light. What I wondered, though is how the door opener also controls the on-opener light? Just shorting the wires didn't appear to affect the light. Does it send some other kind of signal? Also, the opener has lighted buttons, which could only be getting power from the opener itself...shorting those wires isn't going to be "bad" for things, is it?

 

[zpollock]

I would like to have a weatherproof keypad outside the house that connects to the M1. This way I can write a rule allowing the keypad to open the garage door only at certain times of day.

Are there any weatherproof keypads that will do this easily? inexpensively? How are other people activating their garage doors with their Elk M1's? Any interesting ideas for rules with regards to the garage door?

I've used the Rosslare keypads such as this one with the Elk. It allows you to use either a PIN code or a proximity card/fob for access.

 

[Xpendable]

The wired, door-opener switch (inside the garage) is connected to an M1 relay output. Closing the relay contacts for 1 second will short the switch and cause the door to open or close. A magnetic contact switch monitors the door and lets me know the door's state.

I was wondering about this....I wired up my interior door opener, and there were just 2 screws on the back. Just to test, I shorted the wires connected to the screws, and sure enough, the door opened and closed. So, I figured the same thing...just connect those 2 screws to a relay and short it shortly to open or close.

The door opener has 2 buttons...one for the door, and one for the light. What I wondered, though is how the door opener also controls the on-opener light? Just shorting the wires didn't appear to affect the light. Does it send some other kind of signal? Also, the opener has lighted buttons, which could only be getting power from the opener itself...shorting those wires isn't going to be "bad" for things, is it?

I don't think you want to just short the 2 wires going to the hard-wired controller for the garage door opener if the controller has separate buttons for light and opener. That's because the controller is sending data back to the opener, not on/off like an old opener from 20 years ago. You need to take the controller apart and solder wires to either side of the same junction points that the microswitch is soldered to. That way, if you momentarily touch the 2 new wires together, you are "closing the circuit", essentially doing the same thing that pressing the microswitch does. Then you just hook up the relay to the 2 new wires that you added.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

I know I've mentioned this many times before, but an easy way to do this would be to use the original remote for the garage door and interface it with your home automation system as shown in THIS How-To. This would also fix the above mentioned problem.

 

[thewireguy]

The wired, door-opener switch (inside the garage) is connected to an M1 relay output. Closing the relay contacts for 1 second will short the switch and cause the door to open or close. A magnetic contact switch monitors the door and lets me know the door's state.

I was wondering about this....I wired up my interior door opener, and there were just 2 screws on the back. Just to test, I shorted the wires connected to the screws, and sure enough, the door opened and closed. So, I figured the same thing...just connect those 2 screws to a relay and short it shortly to open or close.

The door opener has 2 buttons...one for the door, and one for the light. What I wondered, though is how the door opener also controls the on-opener light? Just shorting the wires didn't appear to affect the light. Does it send some other kind of signal? Also, the opener has lighted buttons, which could only be getting power from the opener itself...shorting those wires isn't going to be "bad" for things, is it?

I don't think you want to just short the 2 wires going to the hard-wired controller for the garage door opener if the controller has separate buttons for light and opener. That's because the controller is sending data back to the opener, not on/off like an old opener from 20 years ago. You need to take the controller apart and solder wires to either side of the same junction points that the microswitch is soldered to. That way, if you momentarily touch the 2 new wires together, you are "closing the circuit", essentially doing the same thing that pressing the microswitch does. Then you just hook up the relay to the 2 new wires that you added.

I have been doing this for about 2 years using the relay to short the 2 wire. Works great and button and light work too.

 

[BrettS]

I don't think you want to just short the 2 wires going to the hard-wired controller for the garage door opener if the controller has separate buttons for light and opener. That's because the controller is sending data back to the opener, not on/off like an old opener from 20 years ago. You need to take the controller apart and solder wires to either side of the same junction points that the microswitch is soldered to. That way, if you momentarily touch the 2 new wires together, you are "closing the circuit", essentially doing the same thing that pressing the microswitch does. Then you just hook up the relay to the 2 new wires that you added.

Actually, you can still just short out the two wires even with most modern garage door openers. That's all the switch inside does anyway. The opener sends a little voltage down the line for the light in the controller, but it's still designed to allow those lines to be shorted. If you press the 'light' button the controller connects those two lines through a resister and the opener can detect the resistance and know that you hit the light button.

Brett

 

[Xpendable]

Actually, you can still just short out the two wires even with most modern garage door openers. That's all the switch inside does anyway. The opener sends a little voltage down the line for the light in the controller, but it's still designed to allow those lines to be shorted. If you press the 'light' button the controller connects those two lines through a resister and the opener can detect the resistance and know that you hit the light button.

Brett

I figured that the wall control was sending state either by pulsing/modulating the voltage, or by varying the voltage. Assuming your garage door opener sees fully closed with no resistance as the button pushed state, then I guess that would work.

 

[beelzerob]

yay! Now I'm extra glad I ran that spare wire to the wall location. Now to find a cheap controllable relay....

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

yay! Now I'm extra glad I ran that spare wire to the wall location. Now to find a cheap controllable relay....

http://www.elkproducts.com/products/elk-924.htm

 

[beelzerob]

yay! Now I'm extra glad I ran that spare wire to the wall location. Now to find a cheap controllable relay....

http://www.elkproducts.com/products/elk-924.htm

Is that controllable standalone? Because if not, adding in the cost of an ElkM1G puts it out of the "cheap" category. :blink:

Not to take this thread too far offtopic...I think I'll start a new thread on this, because I'm seeing the need to explore the category.

 

[jharrell]

I don't think you want to just short the 2 wires going to the hard-wired controller for the garage door opener if the controller has separate buttons for light and opener. That's because the controller is sending data back to the opener, not on/off like an old opener from 20 years ago. You need to take the controller apart and solder wires to either side of the same junction points that the microswitch is soldered to. That way, if you momentarily touch the 2 new wires together, you are "closing the circuit", essentially doing the same thing that pressing the microswitch does. Then you just hook up the relay to the 2 new wires that you added.

Most hardwired garage openers with light and lock buttons do send 3 states but it's not as sophisticated as you might think. Open the switch up and you will notice all it has is three switches with two wired to diodes. It's quite clever, it is usually 24 or 12v AC (AC is the key), full Short is open/close, short one phase is the light, short the other is lock which is simple with diodes only. So yes a simple relay short works fine for open/close and I found 2 seconds latch instead of 1 for reliability as 1 sec would not be detected occasionally with my Omni relays.

Justin