I have a 1/3hp Raynor garage door opener and one of the photo cells no longer works. I called a Raynor rep in my area and they want $100 for a new set of photo cells. The door is working fine I just have to hold down the button in order to get the door to close so I'd like to save the $100 if possible.
Does anybody know if there is anyway to disable the photo cells? I tried simply disconnecting the photo cells from the unit but it had no effect. Any ideas?
Thanks, Rich
I have no small kids (nor pets) so I simply made contact between the leads going to the sending unit at the photo cell. Prior to that, I had taped the cells facing each other. When I broke one, I did the re-wire and have had no problems since.
Jim
Rat Shack probably has a generic that would work. Most areas, code requires some sort of auto-reverse on power openers. It could be a problem when you sell, and you'll have to get it repaired in a hurry then.
aem sends...
Rich,
If there is a two-conductor wire going to the photo cell, then you can wire these two together. I'm not sure which cell you would need to do but it could be one or the other or both. (did you try re-aiming the cells? Or putting them up close to each other nose to nose to confirm aiming is not the problem?)
Another thing you can do to improve the safety is to add a second push-button in series to the one in your garage. Put them about 6-8 inches apart. This way, both buttons will have to be held in order to activate the garage door so children would have a harder time. Good idea to keep your car locked as well.
"Rich"
Not sure of the details of his opener, but it's likely these won't work. These are designed to be retrofitted between an existing switch and an older opener. Most modern openers, including his, it sounds like from how it's behaving now, have a separate circuit that needs to be satisfied for normal operation.
It's very unlikely any aftermarket products will satisfy the circuit. He would likely be throwing away money.
Most of these sensors send a series of pulses to the main opener, so they are not trivial to bypass. He could try - it may be as simple as shorting the circuit as someone else mentioned - but it is unlikely to work if the opener is less than 10 yrs or so old.
I would either cough up the cash or get a new opener. Actually, I would bypass it, but I know a little more about electronics than most.
As someone also mentioned, it could be the aiming between sensor heads is a little off. This is the most likely problem.
- Nate
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