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Hacking the homelink garage door opener to activate with engine crank


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The long story: We moved to a new apartment and now the legacy gets to sit in a garage instead of being out in the elements. Downside, its an uninsulated detached garage about 200 ft away :(

 

My remote start works at that range and starts the car; but the garage door remote doesn't. I've looked at options of extending the range of the garage door opener, but none that don't involve changing the whole motor system (It's a rental, so not going that route). And I don't want to have the car running in a closed garage, obviously.

 

I was wondering if there is some way to wire something up so that it activates the homelink button on the mirror for the couple of seconds needed when the car starts so that the garage door opens when I start using the remote.

It'll be a hassle when I open the garage manually and start the car as a regular person... But I think it'll pay off for having a warm car in the winter :)

 

Has anyone attempted something like this or any ideas that I haven't thought of?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Using the home link button is an interesting idea. And I might look into myself but I think it's extremely unlikely anything can be done. I don't think anything regarding homelink is exposed outside the mirror. The mirror basically just gets 12v and that's it. But I would look up the wiring diagram to confirm that.

 

I'm in a similar situation, with car being in a garage. I went the route of using a device connected to the house wifi. Basically it's a smart switch which can be controlled via the phone app or via Google home. So I can just ask google to open my garage door.

 

Of course you need the WiFi to reach the garage but there are ways to make that happen. I used a power line adapter to send the signal over a power wire to the garage.

 

If this is something that you might be interested in I can elaborate.

 

 

Or maybe you could setup an arduino with a carbon monoxide sensor so it would open the door automatically.

Edited by nevets27
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  • 5 weeks later...
Using the home link button is an interesting idea. And I might look into myself but I think it's extremely unlikely anything can be done. I don't think anything regarding homelink is exposed outside the mirror. The mirror basically just gets 12v and that's it. But I would look up the wiring diagram to confirm that.

 

I'm in a similar situation, with car being in a garage. I went the route of using a device connected to the house wifi. Basically it's a smart switch which can be controlled via the phone app or via Google home. So I can just ask google to open my garage door.

 

Of course you need the WiFi to reach the garage but there are ways to make that happen. I used a power line adapter to send the signal over a power wire to the garage.

 

If this is something that you might be interested in I can elaborate.

 

 

Or maybe you could setup an arduino with a carbon monoxide sensor so it would open the door automatically.

 

Thanks for the ideas! The bell wire won't work in my case as it would have to run across the road and in front of other neighbor's houses to reach mine. And I'm pretty sure the condo association will frown upon it. I ended up going the wi-fi garage door opener; but the wi-fi signal is at the brink of its range. On good weather days it stays connected, but on rainy/cloudy/high humidity days it doesn't get the signal. This would be the issue in winter when I would need it most.

 

Please tell me more about the power line adapter. Not sure if this will work in my case as I don't know how the garages are wired. We have sets of 6 garages and each one is owned by different condos. They are free standing and not attached to any building; so I'm assuming that they would be wired up to a common line for the whole community vs each one going back to the respective owners home.

 

My set up now:

I got this; for 40 bucks, it wasn't too bad in my opinion. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075H7Z5L8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Install was fairly easy. The chamberlain unit did not register per instructions, so had to call they support line and they walked me through a different process on their site.

Once registered, I had a long process because of my wi-fi situation; Had to be in the garage to do the door sensor linking; back to the house to get a strong wi-fi signal and get that link setup; then to the garage for it to learn the motor code.

Got the Linksys N600 Pro Dual-Band WiFi Range Extender RE4100W that's hooked up in the patio (farthest outlet in the house) and the chamberlain is hanging right by the door.

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The power line adapter would only work if the power to the garage runs into your house. This would mean you should have a breaker for the garage power in your house. From the sounds of it, it's unlikely that the power runs to your house and therefore the power line adapter won't work for you.

 

Which leaves you with the wifi route. Which you've already went down. Now you just need to improve the range and you should be good.

 

Giving advice on how to improve your wifi is a bit difficult due to many variables so if you can I would just learn and research a bit about wifi and how to improve it and that should help you out.

 

2 key things to remember is if you have a lot of interference with neighbours then that will kill the signal. And the signal has to talk both ways. So having a strong transmitted signal at the house is only half of the battle.

 

Also it looks like you have one part of it mounted to a metal door. If that have to send signal through the door the metal will definitely hurt the signal strength.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
The power line adapter would only work if the power to the garage runs into your house. This would mean you should have a breaker for the garage power in your house. From the sounds of it, it's unlikely that the power runs to your house and therefore the power line adapter won't work for you.

 

Which leaves you with the wifi route. Which you've already went down. Now you just need to improve the range and you should be good.

 

Giving advice on how to improve your wifi is a bit difficult due to many variables so if you can I would just learn and research a bit about wifi and how to improve it and that should help you out.

 

2 key things to remember is if you have a lot of interference with neighbours then that will kill the signal. And the signal has to talk both ways. So having a strong transmitted signal at the house is only half of the battle.

 

Also it looks like you have one part of it mounted to a metal door. If that have to send signal through the door the metal will definitely hurt the signal strength.

 

Thanks for that. Yep, its quiet a few homes in close proximity. I'd say there are at least 40+ routers broadcasting in a 300 ft radius.

 

The piece in the 2nd pic that's on the door (vinyl) is just a door sensor that tells the hub if the door is open or closed. It's the hub that's hanging on the side which connects to the wi-fi.

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One other suggestion would be to try something like the pop can trick for wifi antennas. This is just a quick Google for an example (might not be the best example) https://www.cnx-software.com/2011/09/15/can-a-beer-can-really-boost-your-wifi-router-signal/

 

The basic idea is to try and amplify the signal by bouncing it off the metal. This also makes the signal more directional. Which may also help with the interference of the neighbours. But will also decrease the signal strength from behind the can which depending on your repeaters setup could be an issue. Ideally you want as close to line of sight as possible going through as few objects as possible.

 

You might also want to check what channel your wifi is set up on. If your using 2.4ghz then there is only 3 truely separate channels. 1, 6 and 11. Use only one of those channels and the one that's has the lowest signal strength of other neighbours networks. (good way to figure that out is wifi anylzer app on Google play store. Not sure for iPhone but I'm sure there is a similar app)

 

If that doesn't help you could try a slightly different approach to extending your range. I'm not sure how well that extender works as I'm guessing it's just repeating the wifi. It might work fine but I don't know. If it does just repeat the wifi then the can trick likely won't work and would probably be awkward to try and put on it.

 

You could use something like this instead:

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-PowerLINE-1000-802-11ac-Gigabit/dp/B01929V7ZG

 

There are probably cheaper options but I saw this has external antennas so the can trick would work or if they are removable you could put better antennas on it if need be. It's also a power line adapter. So you plug one into the wall by your router and run an ethernet cable into it. The other piece get plugged in as far as you can get to the garage and it will get the network traffic over the power line and then transmit wifi. And interest thought is you could also try running and extension cord off the back of your house and have that pluged in. Not sure if that would work as I've never tried but in theory it should. Would need to put the extender in a waterproof box. Come to think of it depending your situation you could try that with your existing repeater.

 

But it all depends on your wifi situation. I'm just assuming it's week signal. Lots of interference might be hard to overcome. Though 5ghz can help a lot with that but has a harder time traveling further distances.

Edited by nevets27
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I don't have all the electronics figured out, but you could use a photocell pointed at the car lights to trigger the garage door when the vehicle starts.
That's an interesting idea. Could probably get that to work with basic electronics or with an arduino. If going the arduino route they also have carbon monoxide sensors. So you could also set it up to open the door when it senses exhaust. And if placed relatively close to the exhaust/rear of the car then it souod likely detect it right away. Might be a bit more realistic then a photocell only due to sunlight having the chance of setting it off and opening the door. Though I'm sure there would be ways to help prevent that, there's still a chance it would happen randomly/unexpected. (I forgot I had already mentioned that)

 

The other option is to wire to a 12v hot when running wire in the car. Use that to trip a relay and then that relay would close the contacts on a spare garage door opener. A momentary relay or some electronics to make it a momentary action would be needed.

 

Actually that could probably all be done inside the mirror. If one was brave enough, you could open the mirror and wire to one of the buttons contacts. It's likely the mirror gets power on either ACC or when running so you could use that.

 

I have opened up a older OnStar mirror and soldered to the board to use the buttons for other functions. So it's very likely possible.

Edited by nevets27
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One other suggestion would be to try something like the pop can trick for wifi antennas. This is just a quick Google for an example (might not be the best example) https://www.cnx-software.com/2011/09/15/can-a-beer-can-really-boost-your-wifi-router-signal/

 

The basic idea is to try and amplify the signal by bouncing it off the metal. This also makes the signal more directional. Which may also help with the interference of the neighbours. But will also decrease the signal strength from behind the can which depending on your repeaters setup could be an issue. Ideally you want as close to line of sight as possible going through as few objects as possible.

 

You might also want to check what channel your wifi is set up on. If your using 2.4ghz then there is only 3 truely separate channels. 1, 6 and 11. Use only one of those channels and the one that's has the lowest signal strength of other neighbours networks. (good way to figure that out is wifi anylzer app on Google play store. Not sure for iPhone but I'm sure there is a similar app)

 

If that doesn't help you could try a slightly different approach to extending your range. I'm not sure how well that extender works as I'm guessing it's just repeating the wifi. It might work fine but I don't know. If it does just repeat the wifi then the can trick likely won't work and would probably be awkward to try and put on it.

 

You could use something like this instead:

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-PowerLINE-1000-802-11ac-Gigabit/dp/B01929V7ZG

 

There are probably cheaper options but I saw this has external antennas so the can trick would work or if they are removable you could put better antennas on it if need be. It's also a power line adapter. So you plug one into the wall by your router and run an ethernet cable into it. The other piece get plugged in as far as you can get to the garage and it will get the network traffic over the power line and then transmit wifi. And interest thought is you could also try running and extension cord off the back of your house and have that pluged in. Not sure if that would work as I've never tried but in theory it should. Would need to put the extender in a waterproof box. Come to think of it depending your situation you could try that with your existing repeater.

 

But it all depends on your wifi situation. I'm just assuming it's week signal. Lots of interference might be hard to overcome. Though 5ghz can help a lot with that but has a harder time traveling further distances.

 

Thanks for that info. I already have the wi-fi extender that's connected to the socket on the porch facing the direction of the garage. Had to go with the Linksys RE4100W, as that was the only one that I could fit into the exterior weather protected socket housing. The ones with the antennas wouldn't fit, and when I tried one of them, I didn't see much of a signal improvement. ended up returning it.

 

I've been trying with the different bands the last few days. Didn't see much of a difference 8 thru 5. Settled on band 1 for now; hoping the lower middle frequency of 2412 Mhz will help with range and interference.

The comcast router doesn't let you select bands 1-4 when you have the mode set to g/n and choose the 20/40 bandwidth option. The default setting was g/n and 20/40; assuming that even in the Auto channel selection mode, it would lean towards higher bandwidth for speed and pick higher channels. And most people wouldn't get this deep into their router setup, that in itself should reduce some noise.

 

It's been connected this evening in the rain, so may be I found a nice balance in channel 1. Knock on wood!

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I don't have all the electronics figured out, but you could use a photocell pointed at the car lights to trigger the garage door when the vehicle starts.

 

That's an interesting idea. The issue with the CO sensor or the light method is that there is no way to know if the garage door opened, and if it did, if it stays open.

Since the homelink operates via the same button to open and close, you'd have to add in a timer deactivation so it doesn't send secondary high signals. Especially with the light option; think the lights flash when the remote start signal is received, then flash again to signal that it has started and then stay on.

 

It would be pretty cool though if done right. Set the light sensor deactivation timer to say 30 seconds less than the remote start cycle you have; and it would open the garage door start the car and close the garage door right before the car shuts off :)

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Reminds me of this video. I watched this video back in feb when it came out, but I think it's relevant from what I remember.

 

Pretty much the same thing; with a case.

 

wifi has been working well on channel 1 so far. Will need to see how it holds up in the cold and snow.

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How about using a photocell switch in parallel with the garage door opener push button. Let car lights activate. https://www.amazon.com/Solu-Photosensitive-Resistance-Headlight-Photoelectric/dp/B00ZWPKKJE

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  • 2 years later...
  • 3 weeks later...
I wanted the same thing but couldn't figure it out independently. Therefore, I chose to change my garage door. It was old anyway, and I'm adept at applying technology in my house. I wanted it to be as futuristic as possible if that makes sense. I mean, technology is the future! Either way, a team helped me with the garage doors. They installed everything that had to be installed. Everything works from a push on one single button! Trust me, and it really is a dream come true :D It makes everything so much easier. Edited by Andrejcas
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