Sick of having a garage door opener floating around your car? Want an alternative to an expensive aftermarket mirror with embedded opener? Here's a simple mod that just about anyone can do with even the most basic of soldering skills, for only a few units of local currency.
Most garage openers use a simple momentary pushbutton switch to trigger the transmitter. If you open up your case, look to see if you can find the button on the circuit board, and examine the traces running to the legs of the button. All the button does is short (ie connect) those two points when you push the button. So it's a simple matter to solder on a pair of wires to the two points...
A dab of hot glue helps prevent you from pulling off your solders when you're wiring it up. I added another one in the center to help hold the excess wire down. I used mynar wire, a very thin wire used in wiring electronic and circuit boards (like this!). Thicker wire is fine though, space permitting.
I used a standard pin header, and cut a small hole in the bottom of the plastic casing about the size of the 2 pins. I soldered the other end of the wires to the pin header, glued the pin header to the casing, and now I can wire it up to any standard momentary pushbutton to trigger the transmitter. Making it removable with the pin header means you dont have to sacrifice a transmitter by permanently installing it into a single vehicle. The wire pictured is a motherboard wire off an old computer case, but these types are easily available. you can use any other connector too- I chose the pin header because it is so small and I was very tight on space.
Now I need to get the pushbutton, and figure out where I want to mount it. I'm thinking that the interior of the coin tray seems like a good spot - I know I've seen a pic of that here before. Then the opener unit itself could sit out of site in the armrest console. Another option would be to hook it up to an existing button in the car, like the headlight switch or something. Anyone have any better ideas? I don't like the headlight idea due to unnecessary wear on the popup mechanism. Maybe the Cruise Controls?
-Josh
Most garage openers use a simple momentary pushbutton switch to trigger the transmitter. If you open up your case, look to see if you can find the button on the circuit board, and examine the traces running to the legs of the button. All the button does is short (ie connect) those two points when you push the button. So it's a simple matter to solder on a pair of wires to the two points...
A dab of hot glue helps prevent you from pulling off your solders when you're wiring it up. I added another one in the center to help hold the excess wire down. I used mynar wire, a very thin wire used in wiring electronic and circuit boards (like this!). Thicker wire is fine though, space permitting.
I used a standard pin header, and cut a small hole in the bottom of the plastic casing about the size of the 2 pins. I soldered the other end of the wires to the pin header, glued the pin header to the casing, and now I can wire it up to any standard momentary pushbutton to trigger the transmitter. Making it removable with the pin header means you dont have to sacrifice a transmitter by permanently installing it into a single vehicle. The wire pictured is a motherboard wire off an old computer case, but these types are easily available. you can use any other connector too- I chose the pin header because it is so small and I was very tight on space.
Now I need to get the pushbutton, and figure out where I want to mount it. I'm thinking that the interior of the coin tray seems like a good spot - I know I've seen a pic of that here before. Then the opener unit itself could sit out of site in the armrest console. Another option would be to hook it up to an existing button in the car, like the headlight switch or something. Anyone have any better ideas? I don't like the headlight idea due to unnecessary wear on the popup mechanism. Maybe the Cruise Controls?
-Josh
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