Garage door control

The challenge

An electrical storm put all the electronics of a garage door out of service. Part of the equipment was still sound —the starting capacitor and the original remote receiver— so replacing the whole lot would have meant throwing away components that worked.

The constraints

The new control had to live alongside what was salvaged and fit inside the weatherproof box already installed, without forcing the installation to be redone or the remotes the user already had to be changed.

The solution

A control system of our own built on Arduino, mounted on perfboard together with a power supply, a DC-DC converter and two opto-isolated relay modules, with terminal blocks for the motor, the lock, the switches and the limit switches. It all sits on a structure printed to the measurements of the original weatherproof box, so that the assembly goes in where the previous one was.

How it works

The receiver sends a signal to the Arduino when the remote button is pressed. The system works out what state the door is in —closed, open, opening, closing or stopped— and acts accordingly: if it is closed, it releases the lock and runs the motor for a programmed time; if it is open, it closes it, stopping when it reaches the limit switch. It also allows for forced stops and power cuts.

One of the four relays is left free to drive auxiliary items: lighting, an alarm or an opening indicator.

Ready to grow

The system was designed so that a WiFi module compatible with Tuya, Alexa or Google Home can be added, to allow the door to be controlled from a phone or by voice later on.

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