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Author Topic: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?  (Read 505 times)

W4RXK

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Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« on: December 10, 2022, 05:20:50 PM »

Yeah, this is a crazy one.

My wife's garage door opener stopped working yesterday. I replaced the battery and it works when very close to the garage door receiver, like underneath.

Today, my son tells me his garage door opener isn't working. His is 2 weeks old and opens a different door (not the same as my wife). It works when you elevate it to the window and a few feet from the receiver.

So I tested mine, the same door as my son, and it took has a extremely limited range. I could not open the door unless I held the opener up high @ the window.

Previously, we could open the door at the top of the driveway, at least 30 feet away. Now, unless it is in line-of-sight with the receiver, the receiver doesn't receive.

The only thing different is my operating an end-fed @ 100 watts on 40 meters. Prior to my operating @ 40 meters, the garage door receiver had a decent +30 foot range. Now, it's practically deaf.

The low receive occurs when not transmitting, like tonight, when we went out to eat. This is when my son told me his door opener doesn't work.

So ... did my amateur radio operation permanently damage the garage door receivers?
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W9IQ

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2022, 06:03:23 PM »

Likely interference from Christmas lights or some other new RFI source.

- Glenn W9IQ
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- Glenn W9IQ

God runs electromagnetics on Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the wave theory and the devil runs it on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday by the Quantum theory.

WY4J

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2022, 06:11:37 PM »

Garage door openers operate between 300 MHz and 390 MHz so is doubtfull that a 100 watt signal on 7 MHz would have damaged the unit. Look for you problem elsewhere besides your ham equipment.
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WA9AFM

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2022, 07:23:02 PM »

To have all your openers 'go deaf' at the same time certainly points to some type of RFI.  You didn't mention, but were your attempts to open/close during the day?  If so, that would seem to eliminate the Christmas lights theory.  This might merit a call to your friendly garage door tech.

Another possibility.  Check your garage GFI.  If your openers have battery back-up, on some brands, the receive distance is dramatically reduced when on battery.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2022, 07:25:49 PM by WA9AFM »
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K1SK

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2022, 07:27:56 PM »

Likely interference from Christmas lights or some other new RFI source.

- Glenn W9IQ

Garage door openers operate between 300 MHz and 390 MHz so is doubtfull that a 100 watt signal on 7 MHz would have damaged the unit. Look for you problem elsewhere besides your ham equipment.

Agree and agree.  You should also consider other lesser known sources such as any new household appliances you might have recently installed, new vehicles you may have brought home, invisible fences installed, grow lights, the list is extensive. The point being the culprit may well be something you would not necessarily associate with RFI at all. I once had a modern high efficiency washing machine that generated RFI so bad I could not monitor 146-147 MHz within about 200 feet of the house. Fortunately it was lousy at washing clothes so off it went! Good luck!
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W4RXK

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2022, 07:47:58 PM »

Likely interference from Christmas lights or some other new RFI source.

- Glenn W9IQ
Glenn, none of the Christmas tree lights are on. And .. the only lights we have, the single tree in the house, were on the other night when we returned home. The garage door opener worked from the top of the driveway, at least 30-40 feet from the door.

What bothers me is that all three of our openers are affected @ the same time. I've been in the house for years. The garage door openers have been consistent, until a I started transmitting.

I understand interference when transmitting, but not permanent damage. As-if the ability to receive has been affected.
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W4RXK

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2022, 07:49:11 PM »


Another possibility.  Check your garage GFI.  If your openers have battery back-up, on some brands, the receive distance is dramatically reduced when on battery.

These are older Chamberlain openers with no battery backup. Just the simple receiver with a 6-8 inch wire hanging from the box.
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WA9AFM

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2022, 08:11:46 PM »

How old are the openers?  If they 60-80's vintage, they operate on a single frequency which likely can not be changed.
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W9DJ

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2022, 10:30:41 PM »

Damage from HF seems unlikely. First thing I would check is the condition of the "new" battery(ies) in the transmitters. Are they really putting out 9 volts under load? Sometimes they go stale or you get a bad pack. I have been fooled before.
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W1VT

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #9 on: December 11, 2022, 05:15:29 AM »

https://www.computerworld.com/article/2543543/military-wireless-net-kills-garage-door-openers.html

https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/new-air-force-radio-frequency-jams-garage-door-openers/73-344405637

Those frequencies are shared with the military.

Hams also share a lot of frequencies with the military. 
Traditionally, this has worked well, as the sharing arrangements make them less attractive to commercial interests, allowing hams to hold and use valuable spectrum.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2022, 05:20:25 AM by W1VT »
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K9AO

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #10 on: December 11, 2022, 06:48:19 AM »

You didn't happen to have replaced any light bulbs recently did you?

I had something like this happen to my gate opener, also a Chamberlain by the way. I have a light globe on a post on either side of the gate and each has a bulb in it that is on all of the time. The gate opener control box with the receive antenna is maybe a foot from the bulb. I had replaced these older CFL bulbs with LED bulbs when the last CFL bulb I had burned out. All of a sudden the gate opener range was dismal. I couldn't get it to work from the garage any more and it wouldn't open until you were right up to it in the car. I went out and sniffed the area and it was the new LED bulbs generating a huge amount of RFI around the gate opener receive frequency. I discovered later that at the big box store there were LED light bulbs available that were specially made for garage door opener use. As it turns out these special LED bulbs are RFI suppressed so they don't generate the RFI that the other bulbs did. I bought a pair of these and they fixed the range issue with the openers. I also put a pair in the garage door opener because I had replaced those bulbs too with the other LED bulbs. I don't think I saw the issue on these because the door opener lights weren't on when I was using the remote opener. They light up when the door opener is already opening.

Just a thought.

Rick, K9AO

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K0CV

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #11 on: December 11, 2022, 06:53:56 AM »

I have the opposite problem with an indoor antenna in the attic, some of which is close to the opener (a 25 year old Sears model). On 80 and 40 meters, the opener reacts to SSB and CW and opens and closes in tune with the signal. (The XYL is not amused.)
I think the problem lies with the remotes you have. I bought a replacement generic opener at Home Depot and after programming it works fine BUT at 1/4 the range of the second original remote. You might buy a new generic remote and keep the receipt if there is no improvement.
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WX7Q

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #12 on: December 11, 2022, 07:10:48 AM »

You didn't happen to have replaced any light bulbs recently did you?

I had something like this happen to my gate opener, also a Chamberlain by the way. I have a light globe on a post on either side of the gate and each has a bulb in it that is on all of the time. The gate opener control box with the receive antenna is maybe a foot from the bulb. I had replaced these older CFL bulbs with LED bulbs when the last CFL bulb I had burned out. All of a sudden the gate opener range was dismal. I couldn't get it to work from the garage any more and it wouldn't open until you were right up to it in the car. I went out and sniffed the area and it was the new LED bulbs generating a huge amount of RFI around the gate opener receive frequency. I discovered later that at the big box store there were LED light bulbs available that were specially made for garage door opener use. As it turns out these special LED bulbs are RFI suppressed so they don't generate the RFI that the other bulbs did. I bought a pair of these and they fixed the range issue with the openers. I also put a pair in the garage door opener because I had replaced those bulbs too with the other LED bulbs. I don't think I saw the issue on these because the door opener lights weren't on when I was using the remote opener. They light up when the door opener is already opening.

Just a thought.

Rick, K9AO

Make sure that you use LED bulbs that do not cause interference to the garage door opener. "Genie" makes LED bulbs specifically for this purpose. You can get them at Walmart, Amazon.

HTH

WX7Q
Jim


https://duckduckgo.com/?t=mobotap&q=genie+led+garage+door+opener+bulbs&ia=web
« Last Edit: December 11, 2022, 07:13:48 AM by WX7Q »
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W1RKW

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #13 on: December 11, 2022, 07:29:39 AM »

I had a problem with one door (out of 2) where the opener would open the door by itself at any time of day.  Sometimes days would go by and no unexpected opening. Hearing the door open at 2AM is a bit unnerving or coming home from work to find the door open equally so. swapping the mechanism with another didn't do anything to narrow down the problem. The other mechanism did the same thing on the same door.  After much trial and error, and some suspicion, conclusion was microwave oven microprocessor was causing false triggers.

Another problem that was not serious was, motion sensor flood light which shared the same frequency would interfere with the remotes rendering them useless until motion stopped.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2022, 07:32:47 AM by W1RKW »
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WA3SKN

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Re: Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?
« Reply #14 on: December 11, 2022, 09:51:21 AM »

What, if any, test eqpt do you have available???

-Mike.
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