Already did. He was amazed.
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Already did. He was amazed.
Moderator
I had one LED bulb play havoc within 3' of one of my digital calipers. It was so electrically noisy it caused the numbers to jump wildly. I put that bulb in the barn.Originally Posted by Nick Decker
JKJ
Contributor
I've had very little trouble with mine. One issue I have occasionally on a sunny day in late afternoon the sun shines directly on one of the sensors and the door won't close. I have to prop a piece of cardboard against the door frame to shade the sensor and then it will close. Only happened a couple of times.
Contributor
It must be the bulb brand you used. Liftmaster has a whole list of LED bulbs that they tested and have approved for their units.Speaking of garage door lights, I'll post in this old thread for lack of a better place. With apologies, if this is common knowledge to people other than me.
My garage door opener has been a PITA for me since I moved into this place a couple years ago. Very erratic, sometimes it would work fine, other times you had to be standing right under the unit for it to work. It was particularly bad about closing remotely. After backing out on a cold morning, I'd often have to get out of the car and walk back through the garage to hit the wall switch, then come out the front
door.
I rent, so this was up to the owner to fix. He sent a repair guy over twice, the second time being yesterday. Installed a new circuit board in the ceiling unit, and still it wasn't working right. We went all over the place, trying to think what wireless device might be the culprit. He finally gave up and just said well, that's just how it is with this wireless world.
After he left, I started searching the net and found out it was the LED lightbulb I had put in the unit when I moved in. They operate on about the same freq. range as the door opener. Made sense that I always had trouble closing the door; when I would back the car out the garage light would come on and stay on while I was sitting in the driveway cussing at it. Works fine now, good range, etc., after replacing the bulb with an evil old incandescent.
Sorry to bore you with my rambling but it was one of life's little victories that I needed to share.
Contributor
As for setting the electric eye in a location where it can't function, well I guess that is something you have to decide yourself. In the 12 years I have lived in my current home I have never had an issue with either door electric eye. I enjoy my grandkids and I could never live with myself if something happened because of my bypassing a safety feature for my convenience.
Member
My Genie Accelerator did the same thing. I fixed it by shading the sensor with a 3/4" copper pipe union. Cut a slit on one end to make it a bit bigger and slipped it on the sensor 'snout'. Spray painted the inside of the fitting black to make sure there were no reflections.
The only time it would mess up was in the winter when the sun was low in the South sky. Trying to get the door to close when it's 5 degrees and blowing got really annoying.
-Tom
Member
You're probably right. The one I had put in there was Great Value (Wal Mart). The article I read mentioned that some of the cheaper foreign-made brands are all over the place in freq. range and signal strength and don't adhere to FCC guidelines. Obviously part of the Chinese conspiracy of garage door domination!
Last edited by Nick Decker; 12-11-2016 at 4:33 AM.
Member
I have problems about once a year. If they designed them with a light that when on when aligned properly, it would make life so much easier.
I just helped my son-in-law install a new opener in his garage and the unit has a light that shows when the sensor sees the transmitter. The instructions also warned not to locate the receiver where the sun could shine on the opening. They said to locate the transmitter on the sunny side of the doorway.
Lee Schierer
USNA '71
Go Navy!
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I agree. I have fiddled with my electric eyes more than I care to admit but I would not want to bypass them. I live in Minnesota (where we use salt on the roads) our garage door rails and lower parts of the door can get rusty when the snow/salt mixture melts off the cars so I've had to replace the wiring, take apart the sensors and solder the connections (they use a telephone type plug) and fiddle with them when the eyes get bumped into.
I have thought about moving the sensors up and out of the way but decided that safety was a higher priority than convenience.
Doug Swanson
Where are John Keeton and Steve Schlumpf anyway?
Contributor
Mine do have a light. Makes it easy to know when they are on target.
Contributor
Sounds like a good solution, may try it when I get the chance. 5 degrees, that's balmy, oh you mean degrees F.
Contributor
I have them and have had little problems. I reinforced the bracket and all remains well.
Shawn
"no trees were harmed in the creation of this message, however some electrons were temporarily inconvenienced."
"I resent having to use my brain to do your thinking"
Contributor
When I was working, occasionally I would be asked to repair a garage door opener. I have seen seen several installed with the photo sensor's laying on top of the opener pointing at each other. These installs were done by experienced installers getting paid for the work. I bet they slept well at night, without a second thought.
Bill
Last edited by william watts; 12-11-2016 at 11:54 PM.
Bill
" You are a square peg in a square hole, and we need to twist you to make you fit. " My boss
Member
Just be aware that any competent home inspector will flag this as a 'deficiency' when you go to sell the home.... so I just mounted my sensors on the wall above the opener switch.
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