Did I leave my overhead garage door open?

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Greetings,

In addition to the tools meant for the job you might also consider a low cost b/w security camera because of the extra benefits it provides. I saw one, with monitor, at Wal*Mart?(I think) for $50 recently.

Hope this helps, William

Reply to
William.Deans

Andy suggests:

If you tie a short piece of rope to the bottom of the garage door, and the other end around the tail of a cat, there should be a pretty loud audible indication whenever the garage door is in the up position......

Sometimes a low-tech solution is best.

Andy

Reply to
Andy

Anyone ever seen any of the garage-door-opener makers that provide terminals so that one could attach an external indicator light that would then light up any time the garage door was open?

The old folks here in Florida are very frequently forgetting to close their overhead garage doors and some of them (like me) have been wondering how hard it might be to build an add-on circuit or whatever so that an indicator light that we would install in their house would remain on.

(I called the local distributor of 'Overhead Door' openers in Sarasota, but off the top of their heads, they did NOT know of any such way to add-on such an extra to THEIR models of door openers. But, there are many other makers of openers, such as Sears and Genie, etc, etc and you might think that one of them might have come up with externalizing their 'upper-limit-switch' circuit to send that information along in the form of two extra screw-terminals or something to signal this condition.)

Anybody know of such?

TIA...

Dave

Reply to
David Cook

An electric indicator would suit people who cannot put in the front yard a mirror that reflects the front of the garage to the living room window.

Reply to
Don Phillipson

Google: garage door open indicator. You will find remote indicators and also DIY indicators.

Reply to
Walter R.

I put a set of magnetic contacts on my garage door and wired it to my alarm system. When the garage door is open the alarm panel tells me so.

You could easily mount a pair of magnetic reed switches either on the door or on the opener track.

Reply to
Travis Jordan

On 8/26/2005 6:26 PM US(ET), Mort Guffman took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

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Reply to
willshak

On 8/26/2005 6:57 PM US(ET), Stormin Mormon took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

My garage door opener's light goes off within a few minutes after I open or close the door, whether the door is in the open position or not.

Reply to
willshak

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I got one of these on e-bay pretty cheap. I forget what it cost. Anyway the thing works great and takes just a few minutes to hook up.

mort

Reply to
Mort Guffman

My Dad solved that problem on his. Wired a 120 volt line in parallel with the lamp that comes on. Ran it over, through the wall, and put an indicator bulb.

If you want to do it on the cheap, screw the bulb out, put in one of those things with the two sockets on the side. Run some lamp cord, into the house. Put another lamp inside the house.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Get a cat with a five year warranty.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Sounds good. Would you mind dropping by my place and trying to tie something around Ernie's tail?

Andy replies:

Sorry Dick... I'm an idea man..... (grin)

Andy

Reply to
Andy

My very old (Sear I think, came with the house) opener has a low voltage source, active when the door is open. I was able to light an LED with it, so I ran leads for the LED and for a momentary contact switch to the wall inside the house, so I can easily open/close the door and see the status light.

Let me know if you are interested, and I will run outside and review what I did. It's a few years ago, so I can't quite remember.

- Jerry

David Cook wrote:

Reply to
Jerry Albro

On 26 Aug 2005 11:07:08 -0700, Andy wrote in alt.home.repair:

Sounds good. Would you mind dropping by my place and trying to tie something around Ernie's tail?

Bring a tourniquet...

Reply to
Dick Yuknavech

It's not very wise to operate an overhead door based only on the status of a light. You should be able to see the door, anything or anyone that may be under it before pressing that button...

Rich

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Reply to
Garage Door Parts, LLC

Aren't garage door openers supposed to (and for a few years now) have a sensor that stops and reverses the closing operation if anything gets in the way?

Ours is just under two years now, and our cat (not the one used for an audible indicator! ;-) ) knows well that she can stop the closing door.

That aside, railroads often use remote-controlled locomotives to shunt cars in and near yards. If I shouldn't close my garage door remotely when I can't see it, even though it will stop if someone or something gets in the way, why should a railroad permit an operator operate a 2000 HP locomotive from a quarter mile away? Of course, there are signs and strobe lights on one of these locomotives warning you, while your garage door posts no such disclaimer.

Reply to
Calvin Henry-Cotnam

Sure the openers are mandated to have safety reverse mechanisms installed. But I wouldn't rely solely on them to stop and reverse the door. As we all know these reverse mechanisms aren't foolproof.

Compare apples to apples. A railroad is not controlled with cheap reversing systems as would be found in an electric opener,. Their safety measures are a bit more elaborate then an electric door opener's.

If you want to compare apples to oranges then we can also say the space shuttle is also controlled by remote control and could be piloted automatically. But we won't find cheap reverse mechanisms there either.

Reply to
Garage Door Parts, LLC

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