Super Serious Garage Door Opener

Tired of cheap plastic garage door openers? [Yetifrisstlama]’s is probably the most serious garage door opener that we’ve seen. The case is an old emergency stop switch, which has plenty of space for the circuitry and features a big red button.

This build log starts with details on reverse engineering the original door opener’s protocol. It’s an amplitude-shift keying (ASK) signal that sends a 10 bit code to authenticate. The main components inside are a PIC16LF819 microcontroller, a MAX7057 ASK/FSK transmitter, and some RF circuitry needed to filter the signal. There’s a mix of through hole and surface mount components mounted on a prototyping board, requiring some crafty soldering.

[Yetifrisstlama] says that the next step is to add a power amplifier to increase the range. The code and project files are also provided for anyone interested in working with ASK. While the hack looks awesome, it might make bystanders think you’re doing something more sinister than opening a garage door.

17 thoughts on “Super Serious Garage Door Opener

  1. You may be better off getting some superior ASK modules ! At least consider a more powerful (but legal 25mW) transmitter? Check my recent insights into Dorji ASK modules => <a href=http://www.picaxe.orconhosting.net.nz/DORJI_433ASK.pdf

  2. I hope this guy has an amateur radio license otherwise his amplifier will be illegal. He’ll also need to filter those spurs at 413.9 and 453.9 MHz because they’re out of band.

    1. This one is right in the middle of the weak signal portion of the 70cm band and does require an amateur radio license.

      I don’t understand why more people don’t at least get one since the code requirement has been dropped and the theory tests aren’t all that hard.

      Plus one of the things you can use amateur radio for is, wait for it, remote control.

  3. it might make bystanders think you’re doing something more sinister than opening a garage door.

    It might also confuse people who hit the “e-stop” button to immediately stop all motion but who instead inadvertently close the door on someone.

  4. Youre happy having fixed code transmitter.
    Did somebody have an idea how floating code transmitting works?
    I was thinking about having hardmounted onboard TX in my car, but I’ll probably have to gut original one to make it (because I have Flor-S version).
    Nice, anyway … (I’d better say Cool or something, cause Nice is original keyring TX producer).

  5. 1. The garage door opener is the thing on the ceiling with the big motor in it. This is a transmitter or remote control.

    2. Kind of useless if it doesn’t implement rolling codes.

Leave a Reply to truthspewCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.