Need a way to stop garage door from opening when car is up on lift

[dangdude]

I have a flushmount lift in my home garage with 9' ceilings and a double 8' high garage door. The other day someone outside was honking his horn and without thinking I opened the garage door with a car up on the lift. The garage door hit and was lifted by the car roof and floated on it because the roof barely interfered with the tracks. I got really lucky, as it didn't do any real damage to the paint because the garage door was able to stay in its tracks. It was a very cheap lesson.

Now I'm unlatching the door from the opener whenever the lift has a car on it, but that has its drawbacks.

What's a good / automatic way to disable the garage from opening when the door would hit a car?

I know the "infared beams" only work when the door is going down, not up. A dead man switch on the door opener plug is OK, but I really want this so safe that even a guest operating the lift cannot get into trouble, but also the door operates normally when the lift is not in use.

Ideas please?

 

[carnutdallas]

Should be on a switch or breaker. Mine are switched with a light switch. I can remove power to them. Problem solved.


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[Hilltopmasonry]

You can unplug the garage door opener or plug it into a switched outlet to kill the power

 

[sweetk30]

Had a few vehicles when i was turning wrench in a shop that a door would hit . We just shut and latched the door .

And if someone pulled up to my shop or house garage and started honking they would be told off and told to leave and not come back . Unwanted use of a horn to me signals hello i am a a$$ hole person .

 

[dirtydrew420]

Doesn't the door have a sliding lock into the track? If not install one!

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[Kenstone1]

I have a flushmount lift in my home garage with 9' ceilings and a double 8' high garage door. The other day someone outside was honking his horn and without thinking I opened the garage door with a car up on the lift. The garage door hit and was lifted by the car roof and floated on it because the roof barely interfered with the tracks. I got really lucky, as it didn't do any real damage to the paint because the garage door was able to stay in its tracks. It was a very cheap lesson.

Now I'm unlatching the door from the opener whenever the lift has a car on it, but that has its drawbacks.

What's a good / automatic way to disable the garage from opening when the door would hit a car?

I know the "infared beams" only work when the door is going down, not up. A dead man switch on the door opener plug is OK, but I really want this so safe that even a guest operating the lift cannot get into trouble, but also the door operates normally when the lift is not in use.

Ideas please?

""without thinking I opened the garage door with a car up on the lift.""
I'm guessing you pushed the button on the wall, that same panel has a button ("vacation") to stop the door from being opened that way, or with a remote.
Look for it and..
Put a sign on the lift control as a warning to disable the door opener prior to raising it up.
A low tech solution, no added switching required,
jmo

 

[The Cobbler]

rig up an inline to the opener low voltage switch to the lift, so if the arms aren't in the down position, the door wont open

 

[toolin' around]

You could either mount a micro switch on the lift that detects that the lift is elevated, or a laser/magic eye somewhere on the wall with a reflector on the lift.

Depends on the physical constraints and where your lift motor is plugged in in relation to your lift... but it would be possible to do it... the magic eye would require a little more complex circuitry... the micro switch is pretty simple... either would need a bit of design thought.

 

[toolin' around]

Other option is to wire the power to your lift so that the door opener is isolated when the lift has power, and vice versa.

 

[steve308]

Maybe pull the safety cord on the door opener?

 

[sublime68charger]

Just my off the hip idea get a Industrial switch that has Center off, Turn to the left the lift has power but not the Garage Opener, Turn to the right and the Garage Door has power and not the lift

or a 2 position would work left Lift power, Right Garage door power.
when using the lift the garage door doesn't have power.

not full proof as with the lift up you could still switch to garage door and operate the door.

but just my off the hip idea.

 

[The Cobbler]

A switch something like this, so when the lift is down, the switch is pulled, making contact for the closer to open, when the lift is raised, the switch is open so open/close circuit can't be completed to opener https://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-...40b79bca4b9587aadabb|ampid:PL_CLK|clp:2334524

 

[Ralphxj]

Look into a photoelectric beam sensor, there are a bunch on Amazon. Wire one to a 120v relay so if the beam is broken it shuts off power to the garage door opener. Mount it just under the door track so if a vehicle is too high on the lkft, it breaks the beam and the relay turns off power to the door. Will need power to the beam size to control the beam and power the relay and then the 120v for the door would go through the other side. Should be fairly easy to wire up and then thr whole operation becomes automatic.

 

[Bert_]

Another set of photo eyes at the top of the track would probably be the easiest to implement. Most commercial openers can have two sets wired up. Not sure about residential openers

 

[pbon]

Can this be programmed in to some fancy openers like jackshaft?

 

[infinkc]

I use this beam with my gate, would think it would do the trick also for an opener. You would have to get a 120v relay also to cut the power to the opener.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LFPB0M/?tag=atomicindus08-20


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WV7GMA2/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[toolin' around]

I use this beam with my gate, would think it would do the trick also for an opener. You would have to get a 120v relay also to cut the power to the opener.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LFPB0M/?tag=atomicindus08-20


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WV7GMA2/?tag=atomicindus08-20

As Bert_ said... you may actually be able to wire the beam directly to the door controller.

 

[JRC3]

Some of y'all don't know what the word "automatic" means.

LOL

 

[mmb617]

I think the safest way would be to wire up a low voltage control circuit with a switch that detects when the lift is raised and a relay that cuts power to the door opener.

All you'd need is the switch, relay, a transformer and some wire. Shouldn't be that expensive and it would be automatic.

 

[Tom Sestito]

The safest thing is to get a bigger garage with taller doors. C'mon GJ!!! lol

 

[lml999]

Another set of photo eyes at the top of the track would probably be the easiest to implement. Most commercial openers can have two sets wired up. Not sure about residential openers

I'm thinking about doing this so that my residential door doesn't automatically close (on a 10 minute delay) if SWMBO has left the SUV hatch open.

Photo eye circuit is normally closed, right? So I'd need to wire the two sets of photo eyes in series, rather than in parallel...

 

[firebirdparts]

I don't have an opener for partly this reason. Do you need an opener?

 

[infinkc]

most newer openers have a switch on the wall control that disables the opener for when you go on vacation.

 

[logical]

most newer openers have a switch on the wall control that disables the opener for when you go on vacation.

This happened because the OP pushed a button to open the door while a car was in the way. Suggesting he remember to always disable the door is not an iron-clad solution. he also suggested the desire to have it automatic for someone else using the lift to not have to do anything actively to prevent this.

Best bet is a photo eye that sees a car on the lift and prevents the opener from operating, that way he's also protected from someone with a remote opening it at a bad time.

 

[toolin' around]

I'm thinking about doing this so that my residential door doesn't automatically close (on a 10 minute delay) if SWMBO has left the SUV hatch open.



Photo eye circuit is normally closed, right? So I'd need to wire the two sets of photo eyes in series, rather than in parallel...

I think you can get/configure them to either NO or NC, but yes, assuming they are NC, you would wire in series. (Unless your controller has facility for a second input.)

 

[gerryw]

most newer openers have a switch on the wall control that disables the opener for when you go on vacation.

I’m in the same situation, I have a laminated sign on my lift control,

“DISABLE GARAGE DOOR OPENER”

I hate getting old.
Gerry

 

[JRC3]

most newer openers have a switch on the wall control that disables the opener for when you go on vacation.

That's not automatic though.

 

[casmurbax]

Would something like this work?



EDIT:
after watching the video that was linked in the article in the above, the originator stated that some of those parts aren't available. He stated that this company Sonoff has what is needed. At that point thats over my head.

 

[infinkc]

That's not automatic though.

my original post had the items needed to make it automated with a beam sensor and 120v relay outlet.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=8888188&postcount=16

 

[Garry]

The tracks have holes in them. Simply insert a screwdriver into one of the hols that line up the closest to the top of one of the rollers. It works nicely for security as well.

 

[pmiranda]

I think the safest way would be to wire up a low voltage control circuit with a switch that detects when the lift is raised and a relay that cuts power to the door opener.

This. There should be some convenient place on the lift to place a microswitch, then the hard part is running a pair of wires up to the outlet or switch the opener is on.

 

[welder4956]

Why not keep it simple:

 

[Dustball]

I put together a quick shopping list if I were to do this myself.

24VDC power supply
SPDT relay, 24VDC coil
Photoelectric sensor, 0-11m sensing range
Reflector
7 meter cable for the photoelectric sensor
Mounting bracket for the photoelectric sensor
Enclosure
120VAC power cord

Probably close to $200 in parts.

Mount the junction box near the garage door opener's receptacle.
Mount the photoelectric sensor on the wall on one side of the lift and route the sensor cable to it.
Mount the reflector on the wall on the other side of the lift.
Plug the garage door opener's power cable into the junction box.

Garage door opener receives power at all times until the beam is broken then the opener receives no power. I'd probably do an override toggle switch on or to the enclosure so the opener can operate while the beam is blocked.

 

[Bert_]

Why not keep it simple:

I wired up a commercial door opener one time where the door had one of those latches. Forgot to unlatch it and went to try out the opener. That little metal bar bent right over.

 

[pop pop]

I had this issue and had the track changed to keep the door close to the wall above and then close to the ceiling. Don't have to think now.

 

[Glemon]

Every residential garage door (I don't know about yours) built for the last twenty years or more has a some wires electric beam that stops the door from going down, shouldn't be too hard to rig it to detect a vehicle raised on the lift and stop the door from going up. I have a spare set or two sitting around, they outlast garage door openers.

 

[Dustball]

Every residential garage door (I don't know about yours) built for the last twenty years or more has a some wires electric beam that stops the door from going down, shouldn't be too hard to rig it to detect a vehicle raised on the lift and stop the door from going up. I have a spare set or two sitting around, they outlast garage door openers.

That's not how it works- it's a circuit board that controls the downwards reversing.

 

[Glemon]

I think I acknowledged that it stops the door from going down and you would have to alter to fix. If you have a belt or chain drive door flip the side of the slide the belt or chain is attached to and your door opener will think up is down and vice versa.

Of course if you have small kids around you would lose the safety feature of the bottom sensor.

 

[Jlbc212]

After placing the car on the lift completely close the door. Then run it up an inch or two. The next time the door opener is activated it will go down.

 

[niget2002]

After placing the car on the lift completely close the door. Then run it up an inch or two. The next time the door opener is activated it will go down.

and if you're my wife, you'd just hit the button a second time telling it to go up.

I think he's wanting something so that anyone walking into the garage can't accidentally open it.

I would mount one of these on the underside of the lift so that it triggers when the lift is down:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PQ38JTB/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I'd run it up next to the opener to a relay. The Relay would be set to normally open. When the lift is close to the ground, it will close the relay and allow the garage door to open.

What I like about these switches is that they're sealed. Microswitches seem to get damaged easily by me. It is an optical sensor, so it's not relying on anything special being under it for it to sense it. You can power it off of a cheap 12v brick.

Power brick runs power down to switch, signal comes back to a 12v relay. 120v AC goes on other side of relay for turning garage door on/off.

I have the same switch on my chicken coop door to keep it from closing if a chicken is sitting in the doorway.

Here's a relay that would work. You could put one relay on each leg of the AC line to fully shut it off.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WP7C8ZD/?tag=atomicindus08-20

And assuming you don't have a power brick lying around:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HNL5D56/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Total cost ~$30 and some wire for extending the sensor. Put the electronics in a small enclosure if you want it to look nicer.