When replacing the 20 year old garage door openers at my folks house recently, I decided to salvage the guts of the openers for potential re-use. The most interesting part of these that would be useful by itself is the radio receiver board and the remotes. I figured that they could be used to turn on a dust collector in the shop or a multitude of other possibilities. So lets examine the guts of what came out of the opener. There is the radio board and the sequencer board. The radio board connects to the sequencer board with a three wire connector. The sequencer board connects to the all other components in the opener (motor, wall button, reversing beam, light bulbs, etc.) So if the radio board has three wires, it should just have a power, ground and switch output connections. As it turns out this was mostly the case. However the switch output was a voltage differential signal going to the sequencer and I would like it to be a relay contact output.
Before I go in to the details, a little history on garage door opener receivers. In the beginning openers did not have wireless remotes. Eventually they starting offering some models that came with remotes and also offered 'upgrade' receivers to add the capability to an existing opener that lacked it. So the receiver was made as a complete circuit board that could be popped into the opener at the factory and also it seems with a slightly different version that came in a plastic box that was sold as the 'upgrade' unit.
Upon closer inspection of the radio boards that I pulled out of my folks openers it was obvious that it was lacking a couple components, the most important of which was a relay. So here is the details on how to modify your radio board for relay output....
This board is a Genie 25648R. It is the old static code (12 dip switch) model. There are definitely other models this hack will work on such as the older Cryptar II boards AR-30, AR-75 & AR-85. Also the newer Intellicode I (rolling code) boards such as the 34375R and probably some others have a similar board layout. So if the genie receiver board that you have has a three pin connector and holes for a missing relay, you should be good.
To convert the board from voltage output to relay output...
1. Remove and discard the resistor circled in red.
2. Remove the solder covering the diode holes and relay holes.
2. Remove one of the gray relays and one of the diodes circled from the sequencer board
3. Install the diode in the orientation shown and then install the relay.
The pinout is as follows:
1. (green) - relay common/ground
2. (black) - relay
3. (purple) - 24v DC input
So now when the remote button is pushed, the relay will close and you have a dry contact patch between pins 1&2 to control some other device. Enjoy!
PS: Just in case you don't have a donor board for the relay and diode.... The relay is a SPDT 24 VDC (pn 27A21D24) and the diode is a 1N4148.
Before I go in to the details, a little history on garage door opener receivers. In the beginning openers did not have wireless remotes. Eventually they starting offering some models that came with remotes and also offered 'upgrade' receivers to add the capability to an existing opener that lacked it. So the receiver was made as a complete circuit board that could be popped into the opener at the factory and also it seems with a slightly different version that came in a plastic box that was sold as the 'upgrade' unit.
Upon closer inspection of the radio boards that I pulled out of my folks openers it was obvious that it was lacking a couple components, the most important of which was a relay. So here is the details on how to modify your radio board for relay output....
This board is a Genie 25648R. It is the old static code (12 dip switch) model. There are definitely other models this hack will work on such as the older Cryptar II boards AR-30, AR-75 & AR-85. Also the newer Intellicode I (rolling code) boards such as the 34375R and probably some others have a similar board layout. So if the genie receiver board that you have has a three pin connector and holes for a missing relay, you should be good.
To convert the board from voltage output to relay output...
1. Remove and discard the resistor circled in red.
2. Remove the solder covering the diode holes and relay holes.
2. Remove one of the gray relays and one of the diodes circled from the sequencer board
3. Install the diode in the orientation shown and then install the relay.
The pinout is as follows:
1. (green) - relay common/ground
2. (black) - relay
3. (purple) - 24v DC input
So now when the remote button is pushed, the relay will close and you have a dry contact patch between pins 1&2 to control some other device. Enjoy!
PS: Just in case you don't have a donor board for the relay and diode.... The relay is a SPDT 24 VDC (pn 27A21D24) and the diode is a 1N4148.
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