garage door opener mod

Here's a simple mod I just added to my bike to open and close my garage door using the bright light switch on my bike and a transmitter that uses a *12 volt battery. My bike also has a 12 volt system :) This is by no means an original idea and I'm not the first to make this mod, but I thought I would share anyway ;-)

*If your remote operates on something other than 12 volts (3 volts, 6 volts, 9 volts, etc.), you can use an LM317 and two resistors to supply the proper voltage to the remote.

First you'll want to verify that the transmitter will operate the garage door when the battery is inserted into the transmitter while pressing the button. If it doesn't, this mod will not work with your transmitter.

If it does operate when you put the battery in while holding the button, you can solder a small piece of wire between the contacts for the switch on the back of the board, then solder an 18 to 22 gauge lead to each battery terminal of the transmitter. With a little filing, you should be able to put the board back into the case with the two wires coming out of it.  Connect the negative lead to a ground on the bike. I connected mine to the ground bolt behind the instrument cluster. Connect the positive lead to a wire that shows 12V+ when the high beam switch is on. On my R1, the bike must be running for the lights to come on. Many bikes will only require the key to be in the run position for the lights to function.

After I cut the two leads to length, I covered them in heat shrink, then wrapped the transmitter in 3M electrical tape to look like everything else behind the cluster, made my connections, tested the mod, then tie wrapped the transmitter to the harness behind the instrument cluster. Even with the windscreen off or with the stock clear windscreen on, the unit is not noticable, however I have a smoked double-bubble windscreen and nothing is visible behind the cluster :-)

BTW, I used an old Prestige two button transmitter and an AS-9154 receiver for the garage door, but many other transmitters and receivers can be used.

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If somebody has a remote that will not work if the button is pressed when the battery is inserted, It will be simple enough to power the remote via an ignition source and use a relay to short the terminals of the switch when the high beam bulb is powered.