Genie garage door radio modified for relay output

[bluto]

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.

[bluto]

Re: Genie garage door radio modified for relay output

Part 2: This is a another radio (34376R) that had been stuck onto one of the openers at my folks to make it be able to work with an outside keypad. This was an 'upgrade' unit installed around 2001 with rolling codes (Intellicode I) instead of dip switches that came in its own plastic mounting box and an external power transformer. It wired onto the same terminals on the opener as the wall button. In this case, since it was an upgrade unit, it came with the relay and diode already installed and screw terminals instead of pin connections. I removed the sticker so that the relay part number on the relay is visible. This relay is not the same as the ones on the boards in the first post.

[srhofmann]

Re: Genie garage door radio modified for relay output

If it's got a 12 position dip switch it's at least a 2nd+ generation opener.

The first generation of garage door openers were completely analog and had tubes in the transmitters and receivers. The receivers would close a relay when they saw a "pure" carrier signal around 120 MHz. This meant that if a plane happened to transmit dead air as it flew over your house it could trigger the opener, always unplugged the receivers before we went on vacation. There were no codes to set on these openers. If you had two openers you needed to tune them and it's receiver to two different frequencies. This was in the mid 1960s.

2nd generation openers had an 8 position dip switch and were considered to have rudimentary security because of the 256 possible codes that could be set. They also moved out of the 120 MHz band and were the first of the digital openers. Mid 1970s to early 80s, if I remember correctly.

2nd+ generation basically added more digital codes

3rd generation went to rolling codes and I think another frequency change


If you can find a old first generation opener, not a remote, get it and use it. No safety crap, no electronics to fail. A simple motor that changes direction with a stop switch at each end of the track. It will last forever.

[cozz]

Re: Genie garage door radio modified for relay output

just wanted to say thank you for this....I recently killed a cat with my old genie garage door opener....no safety beams....I have procrastinated changing the opener to a new one, because I have hardwired remotes for the old genie into the ignition of 3 cars -was a great idea at the time....step down the voltage, wire it into my ignition, and wire a switch to the dash. Finally put up a new opener, and knew there was a way to wire the old receiver to the new opener that has rolling code type frequencies, but couldn't figure it out. I actually ordered some generic clickers, and was going to rip all my dashboards apart, only to find that 2 of the 3 I ordered were defective..(stay away from Keystone Heddolf generic remotes- they suck)
Anyways, no more dead cats.

[jmaero]

Re: Genie garage door radio modified for relay output

The relay can be difficult to find. I located relay 27A21D24 as well as the diode without having to go to Genie by visiting electronicsurplus.com reference SKU 6475. Excellent supplier of high quality OE electronic components at much lower prices than major distributors.