Has anyone experienced this?

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bristlepad

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I have a customer that is claiming that sometimes when she turns her lights (line voltage/fluorescent) on or off, the garage door opens. I have never experienced this and told her to call a garage door company. She swears it's an electrical issue though, she even went to HD and bought new switches and replaced them herself which obviously did not fix the problem. Any ideas? I'm stumped...


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bristlepad said:
I have a customer that is claiming that sometimes when she turns her lights (line voltage/fluorescent) on or off, the garage door opens. I have never experienced this and told her to call a garage door company. She swears it's an electrical issue though, she even went to HD and bought new switches and replaced them herself which obviously did not fix the problem. Any ideas? I'm stumped...


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Try changing the codes on your remote and the unit. There is a dip switch on each one that you can switch codes. Just make settings identical. . . this might save you headaches. Some electronic ballasts can wreck havoc on sensitive electronics.
 
myspark said:
Try changing the codes on your remote and the unit. There is a dip switch on each one that you can switch codes. Just make settings identical. . . this might save you headaches. Some electronic ballasts can wreck havoc on sensitive electronics.
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I think it's been 25 years or more since openers were made with dip switches to set the codes.
 
retirede said:
I think it's been 25 years or more since openers were made with dip switches to set the codes.
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True, but not all garage door openers have dip switches. My daughter's car has her Bluetooth programmed to operate the gate (she lives in a gated community) and her garage door.

I don't think she is even aware that garage door openers have dip switches.
She does know what guacamole dip is. :)
 
I want to find the guy who wired my house and have some strong words with him. Part of the kitchen, the dishwasher, den, powder room, laundry, master bedroom and garage are all on the same circuit. Until I changed out my garage door opener, every time my wife started the vacuum in the bedroom area the garage door would go up. Irritated the hell out of me. Still want to find the guy though.:rant:
 
goldstar said:
I want to find the guy who wired my house and have some strong words with him. Part of the kitchen, the dishwasher, den, powder room, laundry, master bedroom and garage are all on the same circuit. Until I changed out my garage door opener, every time my wife started the vacuum in the bedroom area the garage door would go up. Irritated the hell out of me. Still want to find the guy though.:rant:
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Sounds like he didn't pull a permit...


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House was built in 1969. I live in a lake community and this development was fairly large. I don't think the inspection standards were a strict then but even by today's standards I don't think an EI would pick that up except for the fact that the laundry circuit should have been it's own 20A circuit. I'm wondering how far back that goes.
 
In a related story...

A few years ago a local TV station ran a story about folks not changing the code on their garage door openers when they were installed. In the video for the piece the reporter was sitting in the passenger seat punching the "open" button on a remote control while being driven through a residential neighborhood. Several garage doors opened as he passed in front of the houses.
 
ggunn said:
In a related story...

A few years ago a local TV station ran a story about folks not changing the code on their garage door openers when they were installed. In the video for the piece the reporter was sitting in the passenger seat punching the "open" button on a remote control while being driven through a residential neighborhood. Several garage doors opened as he passed in front of the houses.
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I still contend that no door openers made since the mid 80s have user-programmable code settings.
Back then, most had an 8 gang dip switch so only 256 possible codes. Even if the user changed the default, chances are you could drive down the street and find a match somewhere.
 
retirede said:
I still contend that no door openers made since the mid 80s have user-programmable code settings.
Back then, most had an 8 gang dip switch so only 256 possible codes. Even if the user changed the default, chances are you could drive down the street and find a match somewhere.
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The news story i am remembering could very well have been in the 1980's.
 
retirede said:
I still contend that no door openers made since the mid 80s have user-programmable code settings.
Back then, most had an 8 gang dip switch so only 256 possible codes. Even if the user changed the default, chances are you could drive down the street and find a match somewhere.
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I remember still setting some switches on new door openers until about mid 1990's.

After that you make the receiver "learn" the remotes you want it to respond to. I think most if not all have a much more complex method of signaling as well to provide better security. Not only does the remote send a signal out but possibly has to process an incoming signal and return another expected code for authentication reasons, I think I have heard they send a slightly different signal every time they operate, but you can also pair more then one remote to the system and each one is independently recognized and authenticated when you send signals to open the door.
 
kwired said:
I remember still setting some switches on new door openers until about mid 1990's.

After that you make the receiver "learn" the remotes you want it to respond to. I think most if not all have a much more complex method of signaling as well to provide better security. Not only does the remote send a signal out but possibly has to process an incoming signal and return another expected code for authentication reasons, I think I have heard they send a slightly different signal every time they operate, but you can also pair more then one remote to the system and each one is independently recognized and authenticated when you send signals to open the door.
Click to expand...

Fair point - it may have been the 90s.


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It's been my experience that even though a customer can rarely articulate the problem in a way that makes electrical sense, there's usually some truth to what they're telling you.

I once had a tv that I would occasionally find turned on when I got home from work, then one Sat I was napping on the couch when the tv turned on by itself. I noticed there was a bright ray of sunlight coming through a window that just then covered the tv's infrared receiver.
 
RAKocher said:
It's been my experience that even though a customer can rarely articulate the problem in a way that makes electrical sense, there's usually some truth to what they're telling you.

I once had a tv that I would occasionally find turned on when I got home from work, then one Sat I was napping on the couch when the tv turned on by itself. I noticed there was a bright ray of sunlight coming through a window that just then covered the tv's infrared receiver.
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I once had a TV located next to an FM receiver. There was one combination of a TV channel and an FM station that would defeat the audio on the TV.
 
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