garage door opener... sensor beams?

[kimmell]

Hi all, I just installed a Chamberlain 1/2HP garage door opener in my garage. The opener is not new, it is actually about 8-9 years old. I removed it from my mother's garage before it was torn down.

I want to know if there is a way to "hot-wire" the opener so as to bypass those stupid electric eye sensors that mount on the bottom of the doorway. Anyone know how to do this?

I guess if there is no way to accomplish this, I could always mount the sensors up above by the opener and have them pointed at each other.

Any help would be appreciated.

-Tony

[G Henslee]

Yeah, it's always best to disable those "stupid" life saving electric eye sensors.

[3rd eye]

Ahh another one of our federally mandated safety devices. Our elected officials looking out for us once again.

Just tape them together & hang em out of the way soemwhere.

[Rick Brandt]

I line those up with the furthest forward areas of each car bumper. Makes it impossible to lower the door when it would hit the car's bumber and scratch it.

[Joseph Meehan]

Normally I would say you had a really stupid idea. However I am going to guess the real problem is they are not working properly. If I am right, how about telling us what the problem is and maybe we can help you out.

I might suggest this if I am wrong. Just consider spending the next 10 years in jail if some neighbor kid would happen to get injured and you had disarmed them? The reason they are required is there were a lot of injuries and worse.

[xrongor]

not exactly. the reason they are required is there were a couple injuries because people were too stupid to adjust the 'return force' mechanism that already existed (and still does). these resulted in huge lawsuits because people wouldnt own up to their own stupidity. hence, we now have electronic eyes.

is the door really any safer? no.

randy

[G Henslee]

They get more taxes out of us when we're alive.

[Joseph Meehan]

....

Famous last words. Ask your insurance company what they think.

[Rich]

Ask a personal injury attorney or ask the parents of children that were injured or killed by doors with faulty or improperly adjusted reverse mechanisms.

The doors aren't any safer, the beams aren't there to protect the doors. But the children are indeed safer.

Go figure....

Rich

[rantonrave]

The door is much less dangerous with the sensor beam because it's the only non-contact safety mechanism, unlike the motor time-out and the force sensor, neither which is nearly as sensitive.

Several years ago, I installed a Chamberlain-made Sears opener, and during testing it once failed to stop the door from closing while the sensor beam was blocked. Then a child in a town 40 miles away was killed by an opener (brand unknown), and this encouraged me to do more testing, which eventually duplicated the initial failure. I returned the opener to Sears and told them it was defective. It turned out there was a design flaw that made the opener pick up false signals from the wall pushbutton, which was connected to the same wires as the sensor beam (different voltage levels used to distinguish them). I then bought a Stanley opener and was unable to make it fail, except to make its motor thermal cutoff open up, no matter what I tried. Its force sensor could also be adjusted for much higher sensitivity without the door friction or weight causing false triggering.

[Dan C]

What if there are no "neighbor kids" where you live?

[borgunit]

Just as an FYI, the consumer product safety commision has a report on garage door incidents. Between 1996 and 2003, 64 children were killed and 49 were injured from garage doors. Like it says above, your insurance company may have a strong opinion on the matter.

[xrongor]

which would be like asking the cigarette company what they think of smoking...

randy

[xrongor]

so, to be clear, this was a case of someone getting hurt by a FAULTY UNIT that actually already HAD AN ELECTRONIC EYE. a specific design flaw to a particular model. not anything really to do with the basic design of garage door openers in general.

and now we have to have electronic eyes on all of them. is anybody really safer? doubtful.

randy

[xrongor]

i bet more kids choked on peas or chicken and died that year.

the insurance company has a strong opinion in the matters of making money.

randy

[Joseph Meehan]

No, it is more like asking your life insurance company what they think of smoking. It is in the best interest of both insurance companies to provide accurate true information.

Sorry I can't help you gain common sense or to overcome your attachment to conspiracy theories. If you want another source, try you local fire and EM department. Ask them.

[xrongor]

joseph, my point is simple. EVERYTHING is out to kill you. you need to come up with some sort of pecking order so you can worry about the important things. how much safer do electronic eyes on garage doors make the world? very very little.

if you just want to increase your chances of survival, why not build a concrete bunker, and never leave it.

if you want something worth worrying about i could give you a whole list.

randy

[Matt]

I never thought the sensors were worthwhile either..... but the other day the garage door was about 6" from closing, I opened the entrance door to the house, the kittens ran out.... door is about 4" off the ground now.... under the door they went and the door stopped and reversed. Otherwise, there would have been kitten juice running all down the driveway.

Now, I understand this could be a happy or sad story depending upon your personal views with respect to cats. However, my point is that you just never know what can happen.

Another thing to consider is that most doors are supposed to reverse if they encounter a blockage before fully closing. I look at those eyes as a backup to that safety - in other words I don't have to worry about ruining the door/motor if I leave a 2x4 or something laying in the path of the door.

To answer your question, I would guess that of the 2 sensors, one is wired with power, and the other is the "switch". Determine which is which, and then determine if the "switch" is normally open or normally closed, and then short or leave the leads open as required. But this is just a WAG on my part.

I'd think it would be easier to just install em.

[Joseph Meehan]

And just how did you determine that they provide so little protection or that garage doors are so safe?

According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, 20,000 people each year have been treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries related to garage doors.

Over 85 children have died or suffered severe brain injuries involving automatic garage doors since 1974.

[rantonrave]

I don't know any details of the opener that killed the child, nor did I mention if it was defective, wrongly installed, or had an electric eye.

You're jumping to conclusions without sufficient evidence, and I do know of an opener that was safer because of an electric eye. Its safety-reverse microswitch had fallen off due to a crack in the gearbox housing, and I had previously added a homemade electric eye circuit.