Sooo Honeywell L7000 panel...

[tangent]

Cheaper 3rd party tilt sensor: $16 RE206 RE206- Resolution Products Wireless Garage Door Tilt Sensor | eBay

 

[wantafastz28]

You've probably pulled more wire than me. Commercial buildings with drop ceiling and metal studs are a different ball game than residential houses. I imagine you want to avoid the typical cable installer's wrap the cable 6 times around the entire perimeter of the house on your own home.

Your flex bit might be a bit dull. If you don't own a Magnepull see if you can borrow one from a friend.
Also don't forget about Labor Saving Devices

Yeah, there are wraps from direct TV that are driving me nuts. The one for my ptz will have to be tucked between the stucco and concrete around the house. Was going to use my friends boring scope to see if there is a visible fireblock by the corner where I need to go up. The Magnepull variants are a new tool for me, I saw them when I bought my fishing sticks and almost pulled the trigger, but my ladder doesn't let me reach the vaulted ceiling top, so fish sticks it is. Def. Nice tools in the links, I'm considering that baseboard boring tool.

 

[randytsuch]

So I was going to add a garage door open sensor, but not to my alarm, to my home automation system, just so I know if the garage door is open.

Instead, I have an el cheapo, 720p camera installed by the door from the garage into the house. It captures anybody entering from that door, and also shows if the either of my garage doors are open, and if the cars are there (so I know if my teenage daughter is home lol).

So, if I'm worried, its now easy to check. I used to have problems because the safety sensor on one of the doors would keep the door open when nothing was blocking it, but I recently replaced it, and now door works fine.
Next step will be to add something to my HA system so I can remotely open/close the garage door.

Randy

 

[nayr]

amazon sells automatic door closer for like $35-40.. good investment because alot of home burglaries are triggered by people driving away thinking there garage door was closing/closed but some leaves, a neighborhood cat, or something else tripped the saftey tripwire and caused the door closing to abort.

they work by replacing your open/close button on the wall and putting a sensor on the door, if the door is open for more than a timeout period like 10mins then it keeps trying to close it.

Guy here in the neighborhood lost a very expensive bicycle and a bunch of toys out of his garage a couple months ago when his garage door failed to close, lucky for him they didnt go through the garage to get into the house and just grabbed shit in the garage.

 

[wantafastz28]

Neighbors of mine just had 2 expensive bikes stolen at 8:30am last week... kind of their fault tho, they had their car parked outside, unlocked, with the garage door opener in the car...

My wife goes to work after me and by a few hours, and the garage door was left open by me ~3 times, I consider us lucky.... repetition gets the best of me I suppose. Either way I'd like to address it.

 

[nayr]

some of the luxury vehicles have a built in garage door opener (called HomeLink), nice thing about these is the buttons are deactivated if there is no key in the ignition.. if you you have a vehicle that supports it, chances are you never programmed it.. and you really should consider it.

another option if your into home automation crap, wire the garage door to automation system and then put a RFID sticker on your dash that tells your phone to open/close the garage door.. even if you leave your phone in the car I doubt the'll know where to tap it.

 

[tangent]

Many of the newer openers are no longer compatible with HomeLink without installing a special receiver for the older less secure rolling code. Some cars have a competing system Car2U.

EDIT: depends heavily on version of homelink in your car and age of opener. New cars with homelink 5 are compatible with most brand new openers.

 

[nayr]

99% of garage door openers out there are older than a decade, its not like an iphone.. ppl only replace it when it goes foobar.

 

[tangent]

99% of garage door openers out there are older than a decade, its not like an iphone.. ppl only replace it when it goes foobar.

I know. Typical life seems to be 10-15 years, some go longer especially the old ones with fewer safety features and really crappy remote security. Only reason I threw that in is we really have no idea how old the opener is. If you put them on surge protector it can also help stretch the life. On the last one I replaced, the motor shaft and chain sprocket sheared off. They don't make em like they used to.

 

[wantafastz28]

some of the luxury vehicles have a built in garage door opener (called HomeLink), nice thing about these is the buttons are deactivated if there is no key in the ignition.. if you you have a vehicle that supports it, chances are you never programmed it.. and you really should consider it.

another option if your into home automation crap, wire the garage door to automation system and then put a RFID sticker on your dash that tells your phone to open/close the garage door.. even if you leave your phone in the car I doubt the'll know where to tap it.

To be honest I always left them unprogrammed... i never knew they only work with the key in. I still have to check the year of the openers, the house is an 03, have a craftsmen and chamberlain... Chamberlain looks newer... I'll check today along with inspecting the garage.. the panels and seals might need some attention.

 

[tangent]

To be honest I always left them unprogrammed... i never knew they only work with the key in. I still have to check the year of the openers, the house is an 03, have a craftsmen and chamberlain... Chamberlain looks newer... I'll check today along with inspecting the garage.. the panels and seals might need some attention.

Another advantage of these is somebody can't steal your remote and come back later. I'm not certain if all homelink/car2u buttons are disabled with no key (you would hope so), but I kind of thought on my Grandma's old car they worked without the keys (not sure exactly what she had, doesn't have the car anymore).

If you're inspecting / servicing your garage doors one of the most important things to do is lubricate the track, rollers, hinges, and torsion springs. Goes a long way towards maximizing the life of all components including the opener. Something you should do 1-2 times per year.

 

[wantafastz28]

Will do, the attachment points where the rollers go to the panel have dents in them, almost like it is closing the garage too hard, or they are getting in a bind. No unusual noises though... one thing after another with this house.

 

[tangent]

Will do, the attachment points where the rollers go to the panel have dents in them, almost like it is closing the garage too hard, or they are getting in a bind. No unusual noises though... one thing after another with this house.

pull string to detach from opener, see how door moves independent of opener. re-attach and go through opener manual for adjusting/calibrating.

 

[randytsuch]

I was looking at automatic garage door closers, and stumbled over something kind of scary.

You can break into a garage door, with a coat hanger and a piece of wood.

I also saw a shield on amazon for $20 to guard against this, but I'm going to make something, should be easy enough.
Prevent Garage Door Break-Ins

I have two doors to secure, so I'd rather build than buy.

 

[tangent]

I was looking at automatic garage door closers, and stumbled over something kind of scary.

You can break into a garage door, with a coat hanger and a piece of wood.

I also saw a shield on amazon for $20 to guard against this, but I'm going to make something, should be easy enough.
Prevent Garage Door Break-Ins

I have two doors to secure, so I'd rather build than buy.

Variations of this have been talked about here quite a bit in the past. The simplest fix is to put a fairly heavy zip tie on the release.

 

[randytsuch]

Variations of this have been talked about here quite a bit in the past. The simplest fix is to put a fairly heavy zip tie on the release.

OK, good you guys are aware. I'm new here, and never heard of it.

I read to use a thin zip tie, so you can still release if you need to, but it will defeat someone trying to open with an coat hanger.

 

[tangent]

I read to use a thin zip tie, so you can still release if you need to, but it will defeat someone trying to open with an coat hanger.

I used a zip time that was probably 30# test about 3/16" wide broke just fine when I had to pull the release recently.

This is a video showing the simple zip tie fix.

 

[tangent]

Another advantage of these is somebody can't steal your remote and come back later. I'm not certain if all homelink/car2u buttons are disabled with no key (you would hope so), but I kind of thought on my Grandma's old car they worked without the keys (not sure exactly what she had, doesn't have the car anymore).

So I went over to my parent's today to setup homelink, bluetooth, and such on a 2017 Subaru my parents recently bought and decided to test this. Unfortunately the homelink buttons always work regardless of if the car is locked, unlocked, wireless key present or not, or even if car alarm is sounding. Also recently read a manual on aftermarket homelink buttons that mentioned on some cars they always work and on others the key is required car mfg's have some discression on this it appears. I'd would be nice if they gave you control over this setting

 

[wantafastz28]

Well that puts me back in the game of not programming my vehicles and getting the adapters to make it happen!

 

[nayr]

That sucks, thats the main reason to use it.. bout to get another Audi with HomeLink; better work like it did on my last Audi and require ignition to be on.

At least with the built in opener they cant steal it out of WallMart parking lot w/your Registration and hit you up later.. and most criminals might overlook it and not even try the button.