Automatic garage door - any suggestions?

[Andrew McKay]

As I remarked in an earlier message, I now have a fully working automatic garage door. However one problem is that if I don't remember to park the Freelander forward then I'm going to have an expensive repair job to look forward to, as the canopy door extension bar sticks out several inches, and will clobber the rear of the Freelander.

The door opener/closer is the Motorlift 5000 from Screwfix.

I need to have some sort of proximity detector which will either prevent the door from closing, or alternatively beep at me or flash a light if the car isn't far enough forward in the garage.

Any ideas, possibly with links?

Andrew

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[Andy Hall]

Are you sure that the canopy arm is actually needed? When I did mine, the instructions suggest that one is, by the design of the door, but in fact it isn't

.andy

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[BillR]

To solve an identical problem I screwed a batten to the floor behind where the rear wheel would be with the car in the correct position. Didn't help when I remotely made the door come down on the open hatchback though :-(

[Owain]

"Andrew McKay" wrote | As I remarked in an earlier message, I now have a fully working | automatic garage door. However one problem is that if I don't remember | to park the Freelander forward then I'm going to have an expensive | repair job to look forward to, as the canopy door extension bar sticks | out several inches, and will clobber the rear of the Freelander. | I need to have some sort of proximity detector which will either | prevent the door from closing, or alternatively beep at me or flash a | light if the car isn't far enough forward in the garage.

An infra-red beam break detector positioned the requisite distance/height from the garage door sounds the sort of thing. Maplin.co.uk BZ64U or p557 in the Catalogue for GBP 25. 12-20Vdc supply, reed relay normally-closed might do the job.

Owain

[James Hart]

How about a lever-arm switch with the lever running parallel to the bar so that it'd kill the power if it came too close.

[Andrew McKay]

Well.....

I hear where you are coming from, but the canopy door levels out horizontally. And prior to fitting the opener I tried applying pressure on the top of the door in a horizontal direction - it wouldn't budge.

Hence why I went for the canopy arm, because I believe that splits the horizontal movement to a force direction which causes the door to close.

I suppose I could try it without, but I was a bit worried about knadgering the drive system and maybe having the door fall off through being given some brute force in a direction it decided to resist :)

Andrew

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[Capitol]

B & Q Warehouses used to sell the Chamberlain photo electric sensor kit to go with the door. Phone them and check. Alternatively talk to any garage door fitting company, they probably have the units. It's an essential item, remarkably sensitive, I set it up with her broomstick! Regards Capitol

[Andy Hall]

it to move by pushing the top. Do you have horizontal tracks as part of the door mechanism? If so, are they aligned properly? I had to adjust mine because the builder did not install correctly.

However, see other post

.andy

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[Essjay001]

How about the old tennis ball hanging from the garage roof which touches the windscreen when the car is far enough in the garage. Not high tech but it works! Steve R

[Essjay001]

Tennis ball £1

Steve R

[<nightjar>]

I just line up my nearside wing mirror with a particular brick in the wall.

Colin Bignell

[Doordoc]

tennis ball or wiffle ball w/ string from the ceiling so that the ball is touching the windshield when the vehicle is far enough in the garage. Simply always pull in until the windshield touches the ball. Most of the photo-cells made for residential operators are brand specific & will not usually work on other brands of openers.

Doordoc

[Andrew McKay]

I'll check this out.

However, no horizontal tracks that I recall.

Andrew

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[Andrew McKay]

Yes, but the only problem is if I happen to be thinking of something else whilst parking and pull up to where I used to park (I did this by aligning the passenger door to a spot on the garage wall) then the tennis ball isn't going to leap up and down to say "oi - you haven't moved far enough forward!".

Andrew

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[Andrew McKay]

Forgot to mention - it's a double-width garage, so mounting the sender and receiver units might be a tad difficult. There's usually always something in the way on the other side of the garage, and you can't mount these things in midair to span just one bay.

Andrew

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[Toby]

I warned you about parking something tall, and you called me a midget?! ;-) Reverse in, makes for batman style getaways with the electric door. (Or hill street blues...) Bit of plank on the floor, good for nudging up against, bad for tripping over. Dangly string must touch windscreen. Or nudge something on the side wall, stepladder? My sister used to nudge the boiler!!

Toby.

[Neil Jones]

'd have thought it'd be fairly striaghtforward to modify it into an interlock if required.

I'm thinking about getting one for my dad, so if anyone's tried one and they're rubbihs, or whatever, please say!

Cheers

Neil

[Andrew McKay]

I didna call ya a midget, mon! I just said I was concerned if you HAD been a midget ;)

Listen, going in forwards is hard enough - their is 1.5in to spare with the wing mirrors sticking out and the single door frame (I know because I've caught them twice in 3 years.....).

Plus if I reversed in I'd have to get out the passenger door.....

Andrew

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[Andrew McKay]

Hey - I like that idea!

The door open signal works from the end of our road - I tried it yesterday - about 50 yards. Now you've given me an idea that I could fit some extra electronics so that when I come round the corner into our close I push a button and auto-pilot guides the vehicle into the garage......

Andrew

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[Andy Hall]

Careful use of a mirror in the middle? I'm not sure if it's IR though .andy

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