Motorised garage door - make garage lights come on via relay?

Folks,

A normal motorised garage door with a control box - Rollixo something or ot her. I've lent the installation manual to father in law.

This control box has a worthless light on it that comes on when you activat e the door either up or down, and stays on for 2 minutes after the door sto ps.

I'd quite like to have the actual garage lights come on instead of this ver y small bulb built into the control box. I suggested a some sort of relay s et-up to father-in-law (an electrician) but he was skeptical and started ta lking about contactors, which I've never heard of.

My understanding of a relay is that they are usually used in low-power situ ations to switch circuits of higher power. So my idea would be to have a re lay somewhere alongside my existing two garage light switches, the relay ef fectively acting as 3rd switch.

Helpfully the connector bar in the control box doesn't have connections for the internal light, so I further envisaged removing the bulb from the hold er and somehow wiring to the actual light fitting to provide the switching in and off connections to the relay, i.e. when the control box puts the lig ht on, instead of the bulb illuminating the relay would energise.

Are you with me so far? Anyone else managed to do this successfully?

Jon

Reply to
Jon Parker
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Contactors are the name used by electricians for relays

To avoid digging into the door control circuit, use a photo sensor to note the light has come on. This can then operate a contactor, possibly with a "delay off" if you want the garage lights to stay on longer than the one in the door mechanism.

Haven't felt the need.

Reply to
charles

I did wonder about that too. Would such a photo sensor be able to tell the difference between the control box light (not very bright) and sunlight? Where the control box is it is exposed to daylight when the garage door is open.

Regards Jon

Reply to
Jon Parker

Look into Solid State Relays; much nicer to use.

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

Wikipedia sort of says that a contactor is a relay for more than 15 amps. I always thought that a contactor was a relay specifically designed for operating an electric motor of perhaps 1/4 HP upwards.

Whatever the exact definition, I'd have said that you were right, you just need a relay (of suitable rating of course).

If the bulb is in a bulb holder, is it *really* not possible to connect to its feed from the back, as it were?

Agreed, but seems like more work to me. Another option might be to put a microswitch at each end of the door travel, and use these to activate the lights. With sufficiently cunning wiring it should be possible to make either switch operate the circuit.

Reply to
newshound

Not much digging required. Find the wires that go to the bulbholder of the built-in lamp, connect the contactor coil to those, use the contactor to switch the lights.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

On the face of it it sounds pretty simple. Obviously some care about electrical safety, and you might need an extra transistor to give enough switching current for a relay that is switching mains lighting, so may need a feed from another more capable power supply, but assumedly this is what the motor for the door needs, or is it? I think your father might have been thinking that the door opening voltage might just be enough to seperate a relay or a light on its own, but of course when the Dorr stops,the light would go out, so you might need some kind of latching circuit. It all depends though on how long you want the light to be on. If you want it always on and then goes off when you manually turn it off, then an old fashioned triac on DC and a relay would suffice, but you would need to interrupt the load for ie the relay when you turned off the light. You know I am sure somebody must have thought of this already. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Use a bayonet connector

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) to replace the lamp on your door opener, connect that to your contactor and the contactor to your lighting switch. Any problem in the future and you can just unplug the bayonet connector re insert your lamp and your door is as it is at the moment. I'm sure your FIL can provide a suitable box for the contactor.

If your lamp is an ES there are convertors available.

Peter

Reply to
Peter Andrews

The only gotcha is that since it is a two switch system the relay will need to be a 2 pole changeover to allow it to work with the existing switch wiring. Such mains powered relays are available. eg

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12v & 24v ones also available in the same range.

One thought though - might it not be simpler to replace the poxy filament lamp in the unit with a much higher efficiency LED based one?

TBH the dim light never really bothered me. Not sure I want the full workshop illumination coming on when I drive into the garage. YMMV

Regards, Martin Brown

Reply to
Martin Brown

The relay will have no knowledge of the existing state of the switches and, if the lights are already on, will turn them off.

Much better to use a SPST relay between the two strapping wires of the existing 2-way switch wiring. That will force the lights on for the time period regardless of the existing state of the lights.

Owain

Reply to
spuorgelgoog

That's just the job, great spot sir!

Jon

Reply to
Jon Parker

Thanks for that, bookmarked.

Sadly not. The control box is near the front of the garage as you might expect. I have to reverse in to the garage and it's quite tight as it is and I want proper light so that I can see exactly where I am.

Regards Jon

Reply to
Jon Parker

Yes, this is exactly what I want to achieve. Thanks, I'll show this FIL.

Regards Jon

Reply to
Jon Parker

I always wondered why they had such poxy lights. They seem old fashioned.

Reply to
DerbyBorn

Having mulled the problem over for a while I decided it was easier just to fit a separate movement-triggered bulkhead light, less than £20 from eBay, and with independent control over the "on" period and the location. Never regretted it.

Reply to
Mike Barnes

Unfortunately since posting this I have found the manual on line and noticed that the lamp is probably an E14 25w 240v and as I have been unable to locate an E14 connector you will also then need

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to connect to, BUT this combination probably won't fit inside the housing. However assuming you are not concerned about a warranty on the opener and your FIL is an electrician he should easily be able to find a suitable way of connecting a contactor to the unit in parallel with the existing lamp.

Peter

Reply to
Peter Andrews

Or fit a optical sensor that detects when the little light is non and switches the bigger one on..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Electricians aren't generally that familiar with relays. Although never been quite sure what the definition difference is between a relay and contactor. Except that a contactor is a form of relay. An electrical wholesaler would not be the place to go for a relay capable of switching a few amps anyway - you'd be better at an electronics supplier like RS. Or even Ebay, for one.

The simple way would be to find a relay with a coil suitable to be driven from the supplied light, and use it to switch the main ones. If you use a changeover relay, and a two-way switch for the lights, operating the door would reverse the state of the lights. Which might give you more choice on how they get used in practice.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Jon Parker wrote on 10/08/2016 :

It could be done. A contactor is just the name used by electricians, usually for a someone larger version of a relay. You need a relay/ contactor with the coil rated for the voltage and ac or dc of the voltage across the internal light. The contacts of which should be rated for mains voltage ac, at what ever current rating of the larger light you intend fitting.

Another way, would be to wire a mains light up via a PIR. That would come on when ever you drove in or walked into the garage.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Is it cheaper to buy a 7in reversing camera for the car?

Reply to
Capitol

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