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nickb800

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#94938 22-Dec-2011 12:35
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In the process of designing a new place, with a sectional automatic garage door, and im thinking about prewiring the garage door opening buttons, but have a couple of questions.

1) Given that the hard wired opening buttons tend to be low voltage, is it okay to put them in the same flush box/wall plate as mains voltage light switches? I was thinking about using a momentary switch mech.

2) Im thinking of having two trigger locations - one at the back of the garage, and one just inside the front door of the house. My only concern is that the front door location doesnt have a direct view of the garage door - would this be unsafe? As it is a sectional door it doesnt swing out, and we dont have kids, but i cant help but feel this might be bit of a hazard.

Appreciate your thoughts.
Nick

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RunningMan
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  #560673 22-Dec-2011 12:58
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The last couple I installed had wireless buttons, not wired.

The button was standard faceplate size, but was surface mounted, no flush box, and has a button cell battery.

They were Merlin.



Jaxson
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  #560678 22-Dec-2011 13:02
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nickb800: In the process of designing a new place, with a sectional automatic garage door, and im thinking about prewiring the garage door opening buttons, but have a couple of questions.

1) Given that the hard wired opening buttons tend to be low voltage, is it okay to put them in the same flush box/wall plate as mains voltage light switches? I was thinking about using a momentary switch mech.

2) Im thinking of having two trigger locations - one at the back of the garage, and one just inside the front door of the house. My only concern is that the front door location doesnt have a direct view of the garage door - would this be unsafe? As it is a sectional door it doesnt swing out, and we dont have kids, but i cant help but feel this might be bit of a hazard.

Appreciate your thoughts.
Nick


I think you know the answers already.....

Low voltage and high/mains voltage should not be in the same flush box.

Commercial doors like this require a light beam to ensure they are clear when closing.  Garage doors don't typically offer this, so common sense would suggest that yeah, you'd want to see what's going on.

nickb800

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  #560683 22-Dec-2011 13:04
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RunningMan: The last couple I installed had wireless buttons, not wired.

The button was standard faceplate size, but was surface mounted, no flush box, and has a button cell battery.

They were Merlin.


Ta, that makes sense. Sounds like we can cross that bridge when we get to it rather than pre-wiring - great!



scuwp
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  #560686 22-Dec-2011 13:10
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The last ones we installed were all wireless, from Dominator. They key fobs just fit into a small bracket that can be put anywhere. I would definitely be looking at having the controls in view of the door, neighbours kids, animals, or even a door obstruction may be an issue for safety/security if you can't visually confirm closure without incident.




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kiwitrc
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  #560706 22-Dec-2011 13:52
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I have B&D openers (2) with wireless and highly recommend them, they have a great range of transmitters and I have had them running without a problem for over 10 years. They also have the option of having IR sensors so they dont close if there is something in the way.

http://www.dominator.co.nz/shop/?fuseaction=info&id=218&i=7&ct_id=170

jonherries
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  #560716 22-Dec-2011 14:08
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Generally the electric closers have a sensor that stops the door if there is an obstruction (like a lift or automatic door at the bank).

You could build a sensor that will tell you if the door is open/closed, saw one on instructables last week.

Generally the remotes are now wireless, and will sit on your keychain or in your car.

You may consider connecting the door opener to the alarm, or given that you are posting on GZ, connect it to an arduino and remote trigger it with your android/iphone.

Jon

kiwitrc
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  #560719 22-Dec-2011 14:16
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jonherries:  connect it to an arduino and remote trigger it with your android/iphone.

Jon


Busy googling arduino, is there a kit to do that already?

 
 
 

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oxnsox
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  #560727 22-Dec-2011 14:41
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jonherries: Generally the electric closers have a sensor that stops the door if there is an obstruction (like a lift or automatic door at the bank). Jon

These 'commercial' applications use active (usually Infra-red) sensors for this. Most common garage doors simply sense an obstruction when the circuit current gets too high, and reverse things. 

nickb800

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  #560738 22-Dec-2011 15:30
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jonherries: Generally the electric closers have a sensor that stops the door if there is an obstruction (like a lift or automatic door at the bank).

You could build a sensor that will tell you if the door is open/closed, saw one on instructables last week.

Generally the remotes are now wireless, and will sit on your keychain or in your car.

You may consider connecting the door opener to the alarm, or given that you are posting on GZ, connect it to an arduino and remote trigger it with your android/iphone.

Jon


Would love to fiddle around with an arduino for a few things in the house (irrigation system, grey water, rfid entry) but realistically dont have time with work and designing more important things like colour :)
Will definitely have a go at some of those things once we are settled in.

Im used to have a relatively large controller in the car, but good point about the keychain controllers as they make the in garage switches irrelevant.

nickb800

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  #560739 22-Dec-2011 15:42
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oxnsox:
jonherries: Generally the electric closers have a sensor that stops the door if there is an obstruction (like a lift or automatic door at the bank). Jon

These 'commercial' applications use active (usually Infra-red) sensors for this. Most common garage doors simply sense an obstruction when the circuit current gets too high, and reverse things. 


Might save the door, but generally too late to save the paint finish on your car boot. I might make up a simple single beam IR sensor at ~30cm off the ground to stop the door from moving.

jonherries
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  #560758 22-Dec-2011 16:33
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Would love to fiddle around with an arduino for a few things in the house (irrigation system, grey water, rfid entry) but realistically dont have time with work and designing more important things like colour :)
Will definitely have a go at some of those things once we are settled in.

Im used to have a relatively large controller in the car, but good point about the keychain controllers as they make the in garage switches irrelevant.


Ha! Surely the house colour thing would be easy.

The options you have are microsoft beige, Dell grey, or maybe apple white (or apple rainbow if you are retro).

I wonder what colour linux would be? Maybe PCB green?

Jon

jonherries
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  #560760 22-Dec-2011 16:35
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ready made app for android:

http://btmate.com/


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