[paul e]

Is there any way to “boost” the garage door signal from the Homelink?

I back out of the 2 car garage. The opener receiver is in the middle of the garage between the bays.

I hit the button. The door closes…every time.

I return and pull back into the same spot, hit the opener. Usually nothing happens, but sometimes it will open. If not, I press it again, maybe it opens and maybe not.

It will work eventually. Three, four, maybe 5 presses.

This has been going on a while, today it just frosted me.

Any ideas?

[Wires]

I don't believe so. How old is your opener? When we built our house in 2008, the Chamberlain opener that was installed by the builders just didn't work at our particular physical location (weird interference). They replaced it, and still no good. I could basically rub the bumper on the garage door, and it might not open.

About 6 years ago I bought a Chamberlain MyQ opener (wifi). That one is brilliant. I can now open the door from the end of the block.

[chowser51]

Mine was having issues. It would work less than half the time. It was the logic board. Garage door opener is from 1998. Lol. Replaced the logic board solved it. I bought a myq add on last year. Never got around to installing it and it’s lost somewhere.

[joesid]

I usually just press and hold the button as I'm approaching until the door opens. Have you tried that method? I've gotten the impression the signal is being sent continuously while you hold.

[Walker_CW]

That is weird, mine works from like 200ft away with the door closed. I do have glass panels at the top of the door.

[INROADRACR]

Originally Posted by paul e

Is there any way to “boost” the garage door signal from the Homelink?

I back out of the 2 car garage. The opener receiver is in the middle of the garage between the bays.

I hit the button. The door closes…every time.

I return and pull back into the same spot, hit the opener. Usually nothing happens, but sometimes it will open. If not, I press it again, maybe it opens and maybe not.

It will work eventually. Three, four, maybe 5 presses.

This has been going on a while, today it just frosted me.

Any ideas?

I have a similar issue, but it's position dependent. When I back out of my garage, the Homelink signal often does not allow me to close the door. If I move the car down the driveway just a few feet it works. Also, I can approach the house from several hundred feet away and open the door.

What I believe the issue to be is a wireless dead spot. These occur with most wireless communications systems and can be caused by interference points or the natural amplitude nodes at various distances from a transmitter. There's likely no issue with your Homelink, but experiment with positioning and see if it solves your problem.

[Jvac]

Originally Posted by INROADRACR

I have a similar issue, but it's position dependent. When I back out of my garage, the Homelink signal often does not allow me to close the door. If I move the car down the driveway just a few feet it works. Also, I can approach the house from several hundred feet away and open the door.

What I believe the issue to be is a wireless dead spot. These occur with most wireless communications systems and can be caused by interference points or the natural amplitude nodes at various distances from a transmitter. There's likely no issue with your Homelink, but experiment with positioning and see if it solves your problem.

Same for me. I think you have it right.

[auburnf30x]

I have a similar issue and agree it must be positioning, but it could be my opener itself, too.

Coming home I can open that thing halfway down the block. Backing out of my driveway, I will sometimes have to get my front bumper inches away from the door before the stupid thing will close. I've even had to resort to throwing a backup handheld remote in the door pocket because it seems to prefer that one sometimes.

I don't believe it's the car, it's possibly a dead spot like the above posters mentioned. But, I'm also convinced that garage door's sole purpose in existing is to piss me off, so that's a solid chance it's that, too.

[E30M CW]

Never mind the Homelink garage door opener, I used to have trouble with the garage door transmitters that came with the garage door opener. I tied a longer antenna to the receiver of the garage door opener and problem solved.

You could also try turning the antenna on the receiver 90 degrees from its current orientation. That might help it catch the signal from the transmitter across its length rather than down its length.

[COKen]

As E30M CW said, work with the opener antenna first. Moving it around or maybe even adding more wire to it.

[auburnf30x]

As an update on this, I fooled around with the antenna wire like the above posters suggested and it actually does seem to be working somewhat better now. Not 100%, but better. I just pointed the end of the wire towards the front of the house.

Very fortunate for it, because I was about one failure to shut away from taking it out back and setting it on fire.

[Wires]

For me, adding wire didn't help, it was area interference impacting the board in my door opener.

As a FYI, messing with the antenna length can have negative impacts to performance as well. The length is such to get a 1/4, 1/2 or full wavelength based on the openers frequency. Adding 3' of wire that is outside those optimal lengths can make it worse than no wire changes at all since you get out of those optimal ranges and start encountering signal cancellation from the reflections.

[paul e]

Below there is a picture of the receiver from my 15 year old Casablanca ceiling fan. The receiver failed, I bought a new one and installed it, no issues there.
Notice the little “hook” shape at the end of the antenna wire. The “hook” shape has a plastic form around it to keep the shape, I’m sure it’s no accident.
I put a similar shape at the end of the garage door antenna.
It hasn’t failed to work yet.

[agentorange]

Originally Posted by paul e

Below there is a picture of the receiver from my 15 year old Casablanca ceiling fan. The receiver failed, I bought a new one and installed it, no issues there.
Notice the little “hook” shape at the end of the antenna wire. The “hook” shape has a plastic form around it to keep the shape, I’m sure it’s no accident.
I put a similar shape at the end of the garage door antenna.
It hasn’t failed to work yet.

Little loops and twists in a wire antenna are the snake oil of antenna builders if you ask me. Yes, it might tune an antenna to a slightly better resonance for the frequency in use, but the standing wave issues at 315 MHz due to the interactions with the metal in the garage doors is likely to be a far more dominant factor.

I parked in the third spot outside my house yesterday and my 328d Homelink failed to open the garage door after multiple attempts. My ML will open the door from two houses away coming down the street, but as soon as I pass the main garage door it can get flakey.

[paul e]

Not looking to argue or debate, I just thought it notable that the Casablanca fan folks actually had a part made to put the antenna in a shape and keep it that way.

I would also think (hope?) that anyone designing a remote garage door opener would realize the signal has to pass through the actual garage doors.

[Wires]

Originally Posted by paul e

Not looking to argue or debate, I just thought it notable that the Casablanca fan folks actually had a part made to put the antenna in a shape and keep it that way.

I believe the actual reason is to insulate the end of the antenna wire so it doesn't short out on anything. Putting the heat shrink on the straight wire can get pulled off, doing the loop won't. The garage door antenna hangs in free space so there isn't the same concern.