Garage Door Opener Remote Control

[Dudley]

Has anybody else done this? Way back in December of 2000, in my first week of Focus ownership, I hacked up my ash tray to make room for my garage door opener's remote control.







With the ashtray in the car, all you see is the little black button. To get the remote control to fit, I had to remove its guts, de-solder its pushbutton switch, and solder the new wires to the circuit board. It was pretty simple, and well worth the trouble.

As you can see, I mounted the circuit board to a small piece of plywood, using dowels to hold it in place. Then I added a divider to give a little storage place (I use it for quarters).

[Whayong]

Pretty sweet! I was going to do something similar. I got a home link unit from ebay about 3 years ago. I wasn't quite sure where I liked it mounted, the headliner, visor or the dash: so the project has been postponed up till now.

[Pharcyde253]

sick.

[Silfox]

Very good idea. I would do the same, but my new overhaed console has a button.

[Dudley]

Thanks all. It was pretty funny how the whole project started. At first, I pulled out my ash tray and slid my remote control in the opening. It fit fine, but it ended up sliding back and falling down behind the dash. D-Oh!

Luckily, all I had to do was un-bolt a panel or two below the steering wheel, but I felt like such a putz. Here I was, with maybe 20 miles on the odometer, and I was already taking apart my car. It seemed like a bad omen at the time, but this car has actually been prettymuch trouble-free (wait, did I just jinx myself? )

[suarezrh]

that's awesome!! I put my garage door opener in the ash tray. I have the small one (about 3in x 1 in). I just used velco to stop it from sliding to the back of the tray.

This is an excellent idea. hmmm...

[RacerAV]

thats cool man, i did the same thing, i had my garage door button in my center console when i was in high school in my first car, a little 88 corolla gts. loved that car. my mom flipped when i sold it and gave her back her garage door opener. lol... all gutted and with a really cool blue button. lol
Adamo

[intuneauto]

great idea really slick and simple

[dheath]

I have always wanted somewhere to mount my garage door opener. having it clipped into the passenger visor is just ugly (not to mention it leaves indentations). I was figuring I would build something and mount it in the ashtray of my other car. Glad to see its so easy in a focus

good job

[xerofall]

I thought about that in the coin tray, but I have no garage, so instead I put a power inverter.

Good job, that's a cool use of space.

[networm]

Cool, I've been looking for a good place to put my garage door opener.


wait, I don't have a garage door opener.


That's because .... oh, right, I don't have a garage.

[focuspl99]

thats really cool, didnt think about doing it but how well does your garage open? with mine i have to like finesse the damn remote and like try for like 2 minutes until i find a place where it actually works! maybe its time for a new remote though

[Silfox]

Sounds like a dying battery to me.

[Dudley]

Yep, it sounds like a weak battery, or your remote and/or GDO need some R&R. I get about a 50-foot range with the remote in the ash tray, but that's for a 21-year-old GDO. I don't know if newer ones are stronger or weaker, but in my case it's a fairly uncommon brand (Overhead Door). One nice thing about having the electronics so accessible is that I can flip the little DIP switches to determine which garage door I open. I've only done that a couple of times in the last 4-1/2 years, though.

[grbrgrnzx5]

That's a cool mod. the best part about it is that you always have 50 cents for whatever, like buying a Coke when you get thirsty.