Garage Door Opener

[Jaoteay]

Now maybe I'm just lazy, but I've gotten tired to getting off my bike to open my garage door. And I've tried having an opener in my jacket.... but, sometimes it gets turned around and with gloves on it's hard to push the button. (Someone recently did something like this on the VMOA tech list and it motivated me to just do it).

So I mounted a button on the left hand side:

And glued and zip tied the opener here:

I was pretty worried about the opener getting wet so I placed it under the faux tank and also sealed it with clear caulk.

Now I can roar into the garage with barely slowing down!

 

[Frosty72]

That's a pretty cool idea, I have to move mine from bag to jacket all the time. How does the wiring connect into the opener? And how do you plan to change the battery?!

 

[fasterlapdunn]

great idea...stay tuned unk:

 

[Jaoteay]

How does the wiring connect into the opener? And how do you plan to change the battery?!

I have more pictures of the actual wiring on my wife's camera - I'll put them online later. But basically here's what I did:

My opener (and the other one's that I checked too), had two holes that when I connected a straight piece of wire closed the circuit just like pushing the button. Their were like 6 or 7 holes. So we just took a piece of wire and kept trying different combination's until we figured out which ones it was.

The wire we had was too big, so I could only fit half of the wires through the hole the others I just spun around to leave a larger contact point on that top.

I then drilled two holes in the top of the opener and then put more caulk around them there too. I then closed the opener and sealed it with the rest of the caulking. I wrapped the wires in electrical tape (right after they leave the opener and all the way until they are soldered into the button.) I wrapped those connections with tape between to keep the wires from getting bounced to be touching (or easily bent). And then wrapped it with more electrical tape since their is a chance of water getting into this area. (The button is not waterproof and will probably have to be replaced at some point, but it was $1.35 at radioshak)

And how do you plan to change the battery?!

Originally I was going to power it through the bike, but this opener only uses a 3v batter so it would be way too much. Since it is just caulk I'll be able to scrape it off pretty easily and since I only sealed it on the outside once it pulls off it should be pretty easy to open the opener. Plus the battery's supposed to last for 3 years.


If you guys have any more questions about how I did this let me know - it's nice to actually have an answer or two instead of being the one who's always asking the questions!

 

[Buster Hymen]

That's pretty slick.unk: There is also another garage door opener thread here http://www.vmaxforum.net/showthread.php?t=770 that takes a bit of a different approach.

 

[Vinmax]

Hey, Nice mod! I did something similar. I have a mini remote from Genie garage door for my garage that I use only for my bike. The Genie unit has a 12 volt battery.
What I did was first, take the pc board out of the plastic case. I wired a jumper across the button so it's always on. Then I remove the battery. I soldered 2 wires to the battery terminals. Then I taped the heck out of the remote. Now it looks like a flat module with two wires coming from it, with one tiny LED showing through the tape. I used velcro to keep the module in place just under where the left side plastic shield is near the left scoop. I took the two wires coming from the remote and tapped into the high beam circuit, healight connector right under that same plastic cover near the left scoop. Now when I toggle my high beam switch, the remote gets 12volt power and the door opens. Don't even need a second switch to operate the remote and don't need to remove my hand from the handlebar.
The module is water tight. If I want to use my bright light, the remote uses so little power that it just stays on without problems. The remote's power consumption is so small, that any effect on my electrical system is negligible. I hardly use the brights anyway, except now, for getting in and out of my garage.

Vinnie