DIY: Integrate your battery-free garage door opener into your dash!

[daveshin]

No lowe's in canada lol
absolutely cannot find anything similar
maybe i'm not looking hard enough.

well anyhow, I installed it with battery. works like a charm for now...until battery runs out :s

[R4DG]

radio shack has the quick connectors you need, just make sure its the same gauge as your wire

it does not have to be 3M

check an audio shop or an auto parts store

at O'Reilly we sell quick connectors made by Calterm

[SiAzul]

Nice DIY man, I also wanna do this and I have all the required items but I have one question, My garage opener uses one of those square batteries with the pos and neg on one end, will that be an issue with power or are those also 12v?

[TigerDave]

Originally Posted by SiAzul

Nice DIY man, I also wanna do this and I have all the required items but I have one question, My garage opener uses one of those square batteries with the pos and neg on one end, will that be an issue with power or are those also 12v?

You mean a 9 Volt battery? I wouldn't recommend that.

[SiAzul]

What should I do? can I program another control? or is there a way to convert the voltage?

[SiAzul]

What about a resistor? dont they reduce the amount of voltage coming in? anybody know if I could solder one between the incoming power line and not have a problem? correct me if im wrong, I dont know very much about this type of thing

[TigerDave]

From what I recall in electrical class in college ('92), resistors reduce the amount of amperage, not voltage. But I could be wrong! Google it.

[J_Bone]

If I remember right, you can add a 390 ohm resister in line to reduce the Voltage from 12volts to 9 volts.
They are cheap enough to buy and test it out before you install it or ask someone at the local Radio Shack or electronic store.


Great DIY!! This will be my first mod.

[J_Bone]

If I remember right, you can add a 390 ohm resistor in line to reduce the Voltage from 12volts to 9 volts.
They are cheap enough to buy and test it out before you install it or ask someone at the local Radio Shack or electronic store.


Great DIY!! This will be my first mod.

[Phalanx]

Okay, well... I finally got around to doing this mod. Well... sort of.

I didnt reall ALL the pages to see if anyone had a similar issue. But here goes...

To anyone doing this mod... be wary of bending the 'nipples' of the Button too much. Im a novice when it comes to electrical wiring and soldering, etc (this was my first time). All was well until i went to secure everything down and install it back in my car. When I was securing it, i bent the red wires to get it to lay flat and in doing so, tugged a bit on the 'nipples' of the button. When I did this, the 'nipples' broke off. So, now I need a new button.

So yea, dont bend and pry the buttons 'nipples' too much!

happy modding!

Ill post pics when I get it done. Im putting my button in the roof of the coin tray (below to the left of steering wheel)

[jjackowski]

I'm curious as to how long this mod works. When I last added electronics to a car, it was a 1989 Civic and the CMOS chip I used lasted two weeks. I had to protect the circuit from noise on the power line; then it worked for the remaining 8 years or so I had the car. Do these garage door openers have protection? They wouldn't really need it to run from a battery. Are the new Civics better about delivering a more constant unwavering voltage? Firing spark plugs needs lots of current, so it makes noise, but I don't know how much it's isolated from the rest of the car's power supply.

Originally Posted by J_Bone

If I remember right, you can add a 390 ohm resister in line to reduce the Voltage from 12volts to 9 volts.

Might be a little late, but it is my understanding that will work only if the circuit draws about 31mA. (V=IR) If it needs more current, the voltage will drop further. If it needs less, the voltage will rise. It'll probably be OK if the voltage doesn't rise above 9.5v, but expect the voltage to drop a little under the load of transmitting so measure when not transmitting. The voltage from a battery will drop, too, especially as the battery wears out. The transmitters are made to deal with this, so I think using a resistor will work, but you'll need to measure your results and change resistors accordingly. A more robust solution is to use a 78L09 voltage regulator, but a garage door transmitter probably doesn't need the extra help.

[TigerDave]

Six months later, it's still working fine for me!

[Cybergypsy]

nice clean work guys....

[zosky]

'big-ups' on a SiCk write up !!! wish i had any skills to do something like this

$$$ CASH REWARD $$$ seeking honda enthusiasts or MoD guru in the GTA area who has done this already and would like to again :P. new 2k8 DX-G w/ <1000km ($$$ bonus for installing new LEDs)

[07Ex]

Wow, that a nice DIY!

[eub]

if your garage door opener is not 12v by design, you will want to stay away from resistors, and go with a voltage regulator instead.

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[TigerDave]

Folks, I sold my Civic (and I miss it too), so I am selling the modified button shown in the original DIY post. I've added bullet connectors making it much easier to install and will include the female bullet ends as well (shown in the small bag).

First one to PM me gets it.

Asking $15 including shipping (hey, it's $10 worth of parts alone).