Wireless overhead door opener and RF interference

[LarrylLix]

Funny thing is I just had me NetGear router wallwart goes bad. It did all kinds of nasty things and I even blamed it on my outbuilding router that talks to it, unplugging that one for a month.
 
In the end my Net printer spewed out paper at times, various equipment worked erratically, while others worked fine all the way through until I substituted another 12v PS for trial. The outbuilding router works fine and all the weird crap stopped.
 
Of course, look and ye shall find, but reports are everywhere that Netgear has some bad PSs on their routers. They may have had an era they used cheap capacitors for filters.
 
It may be worth a try to sub in temporary PSs.

 

[mikefamig]

Thanks for that, I'll give it a try. If memory serves me it is 12vdc and I can power it from the Altronix aux supply.
 
Mike.

 

[pete_c]

For while here used Cisco LV 5VDC regulated power supplies. Got them cheap and they lasted a long time. Really just clean power is all you need maybe to fix your issues.

Relating to IP cams you can go with POE and use the TP-Link device for power and a small POE switch relating to the Foscams.

 

[drvnbysound]

Didn't have a chance to read through this yet, but wanted to comment and mention that I have a co-worker who had some cheap WiFi cameras (802.1x, 2.4GHz) that used to interfere with his garage door opener. Shortly after getting them setup his wife came home and couldn't open the garage door. Obviously LOW WAF! It took him a bit to figure out what it was, but once he turned them off there was no issue.

 

[mikefamig]

So I shut down all of the breakers in the mains box in the garage and brought things back on piece by piece and I can not find any one thing that was causing the trouble with the GDO. I was sure that the IP switch made a big difference with the lights when I tested that last fall but now it doesn't seem to make that big of a difference with the opener today.
 
The remote that was giving me trouble is wired to the Elk M1XOVR adapter and was mounted to a beam in the ground floor ceiling and it is difficult to test with it so I used a hand held remote for today's testing. With that I was able to turn the cams and IP switch and everything else back on and the doors still worked pretty well but when I tried using the remote that is attached to the Elk it was spotty communications again. I'm thinking that maybe with the Ip and the cameras and the wireless phone and a big metal car lift in the middle bay that the door remotes are just going to have to suffer.
 
Another thought is that maybe the remote that is wired to the elk is failing but to test that will require me to solder wires to another working remote as a replacement.
 
What I ended up doing is to re-position the Elk remote to the front wall of the garage where it is working a little better than it was and I'll see how it does like that for a couple of days
 
. In all of this testing today I still could not get the remote that is built into the Ford truck's sun visor to work unless the truck is almost touching the door while at the same time the Liftmaster remote works from 150' away. I may take that up with the Ford dealer (warranty).
 
Mike.

 

[mikefamig]

I suspect that a GDO remote control uses your body as an antenna when you hold it in your hand, Can anyone tell me if this is true? It would explain why the remote control that is wired to the Elk and hanging on the wall of the garage does not perform as well as the one in my hand.
 
Mike.

 

[pete_c]

The remote that was giving me trouble is wired to the Elk M1XOVR adapter and was mounted to a beam in the ground floor ceiling.
 
Odd that it's doing this inside of the garage.  Can you move it?
 
Yeah here when I had issues with my wife using any remote for the opening went and purchased more GDO remotes to test.  Tested with her hold the original stock remotes and 3rd party remotes with the same issues.
 
It is her and something about RF until I did the antenna thing.  Here holding a remote or using the homelink remotes worked the same for me. 
 
That said if you need another remote I can send one to you.  I just have to find them as they are in some kitchen drawer here.

 

[mikefamig]

The remote that was giving me trouble is wired to the Elk M1XOVR adapter and was mounted to a beam in the ground floor ceiling.
 
Odd that it's doing this inside of the garage.  Can you move it?

I moved it yesterday and will see how that goes for a few days.

Yeah here when I had issues with my wife using any remote for the opening went and purchased more GDO remotes to test.  Tested with her hold the original stock remotes and 3rd party remotes with the same issues.
 
It is her and something about RF until I did the antenna thing.  Here holding a remote or using the homelink remotes worked the same for me. 
 
That said if you need another remote I can send one to you.  I just have to find them as they are in some kitchen drawer here.

Thanks but I have a few extra remotes here to play with. In order to replace the remote that is connected to the Elk I'll have to take apart a good working remote and solder the wires into it to attach to the OVR and I just don't want to take the time to do it right now.

 

[pete_c]

Let us know how it works Mike.

 

[mikefamig]

The remote is working good in it's new location and I'm going to call that a win. I still don't know exactly what the problem was but after playing around I now think that it may be the remote itself that has a problem. I just couldn't pinpoint any one thing that was causing a lot of interference.
 
My testing is complicated by the fact that I can't walk around with the remote that is permanently wired to the elk. I did my testing with a second remote of the same brand and model and it worked at a up to 150' away from the garage. I also suspect that holding the remote in your hand improves it's performance by using your body to improve the antenna.
 
I can just pull a wire pair to each door motor if I can figure out where to attach them but I'm not sure that these doors are switched with a simple dry contact switch. I'll be looking into doing that next.
 
Mike.

 

[pete_c]

Yeah here have same MFG of GDO as you have.  There were  / are two GDO opener buttons (multiple buttons) here with two wires which I can lock the garage door and turn on the GDO lighting.  That said I do use the two terminal connections to the OmniPro 2 panel with external loops as a saftey thing.  Suggested here on the board way many years ago was just to utilize the remote openers such that you are not horsing around with the direct two terminal wires / connections.
 
This is where you can utilize an Elk debounce board if you want separating the direct connects to an indirect sure bet way to toggle the door.  (along with the use of sensors on the door).  I know though this way does over compensate and over complicate the simple function and integration of the GDO to the Elk panel.
 
Here the error in logic (causing low WAF) from the 1990's alarm / GDO opener stuff is still very much ingrained in my noggin so I did it differently this time trying to cover all of the bases of logic of the what if then if stuff.
 
The old house GDO was a Sears Craftsman MFG door opener. Over the years one 120VAC relay went out but it was for the lighting and it was a simple fix and replacement of a relaty.   It worked fine for me (> 20 years).  It was a detached garage and I did run a wire(s) underground from the detached garage to the house GDO button in the kitchen on the wall.  I had it doing a ding and flashing when the garage door was open.  It was connected to the security panel and I do not recall how many wires the device was using.  It was a Sears GDO button though.  Thinking I used 6 wire solid core old telephone wire for this set up. 

 

[mikefamig]

I just looked at the install manual for my liftmaster 3800 opener and it doesn't look like the motor can not be operated by a contact siwtch. The door is controlled by what they call a "smart control panel;" and the manual says that if you need a second control that you must use a wireless remote model 378LM. I would much prefer to have the motor wired directly to the Elk's OVR but as far as I can tell it is not possible without altering the smart control or the motor or both.
 
So I'm just going to stick with using the hot-wired remote to communicate with the Elk. It's working now in it's new location so I think that this is the end of story.
 
Mike.

 

[pete_c]

You got me looking to upgrade my two garage door buttons.  I have same / similar wall buttons for GDOs. 
 
I am all connected to the OmniPro2...just wanting to give the myQ stuff a try...
 
I do have to get one of these for each door. 
 
Just really to modernize the look of the button and really to see about hacking out the cloud stuff. 
 
Curious too what new GC's charge for the new house option considering it is inexpensive these days.