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Anyone have Garage Door lighting? For when open....

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driftpin

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Dec 22, 2016
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11,319
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Miami-Dade/Broward Co. Florida
While I'm supportive of innovation, the kickstarter item is twice as-expensive as my system, and it's only for one door. My system is for two doors, so it's 1/4 the price of the kickstarter system, and you can easily do this in an afternoon. Want the lights to come-on when the door goes-up? Simply plug the lamps into a remote-controlled garage door opener light. Look at the wall between the OH doors, you'll see a remote-controlled luminaire, it uses two bulbs. Replace one bulb with an edison-base screw-in fixture to a single two-prong outlet adapter, probably $4 at your local Ace Hardware. You open the door, the lights go-on.

I've made brackets using 1 x 4's and Simpson Strong Tie butterflies to suspend 4 LED 4 ft luminaires beneath the open garage doors, I'm very happy w/the setup. The 4 ft. LED's are the Costco luminaires, everything cost-about $100.

I also used the wedge-shaped space above the doors for storage of light, but bulky items like Christmas decorations and empty bins.

The pop-riveted together bracket is one of the two hangers for the luminaire between the garage door tracks. I was gifted with a florescent shop 2-bulb light, and this was a good place to use it. The hanger fastens to a 2 x wood piece screwed-between the adjoining door tracks. The metal bracket pop-riveted to the butterfly is the horizontal piece that the shroud of the florescent luminaire is bolted-to.
 

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Platonic Solid

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Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Messages
3,587
Location
CT-USA
I see plenty of wires on that "Wireless Garage Door Lighting System". I'm still not sold on the idea due to the bug factor, but if it's successful enough I may have to market a better mouse trap.
 

XJSuperman

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Joined
Jan 26, 2018
Messages
3,088
Location
Central Iowa
I want my 3minutes of life back. The video didn't show me a dang thing except some family doing everything they could think of in their garage. No laundry rooms in that part of the country?

I was expecting to see a video or a slideshow. Didn't find pics nor explanation until almost the bottom of the website. And I think the average Joe can put together something to solve this "problem" from walmart or amazon components for less than 50 bucks pretty easy. The wireless factor Im not sure Im seeing here.
 
OP
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xJoey Dubsx

Well-known member
Joined
May 3, 2010
Messages
894
Location
Cleveland, Oh
While I'm supportive of innovation, the kickstarter item is twice as-expensive as my system, and it's only for one door. My system is for two doors, so it's 1/4 the price of the kickstarter system, and you can easily do this in an afternoon. Want the lights to come-on when the door goes-up? Simply plug the lamps into a remote-controlled garage door opener light. Look at the wall between the OH doors, you'll see a remote-controlled luminaire, it uses two bulbs. Replace one bulb with an edison-base screw-in fixture to a single two-prong outlet adapter, probably $4 at your local Ace Hardware. You open the door, the lights go-on.

I've made brackets using 1 x 4's and Simpson Strong Tie butterflies to suspend 4 LED 4 ft luminaires beneath the open garage doors, I'm very happy w/the setup. The 4 ft. LED's are the Costco luminaires, everything cost-about $100.

I also used the wedge-shaped space above the doors for storage of light, but bulky items like Christmas decorations and empty bins.

The pop-riveted together bracket is one of the two hangers for the luminaire between the garage door tracks. I was gifted with a florescent shop 2-bulb light, and this was a good place to use it. The hanger fastens to a 2 x wood piece screwed-between the adjoining door tracks. The metal bracket pop-riveted to the butterfly is the horizontal piece that the shroud of the florescent luminaire is bolted-to.

I was thinking something like this. Not a bad setup.
 

Viper98912

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Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
1,132
Location
GA
This is why I do LED strip corner lighting in my garage (the four main corners), top to bottom. Mount it in 90 deg aluminum strips (easily purchased online). You'd be suprised HOW DARK the corners of your garage really are, and how much this "accent" light really brightens up everything. This solves the issue of doors up and getting stuff out of a dark trunk.
 
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Viper98912

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Oct 20, 2012
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GA
The corner lighting really makes a big difference; you'd be surprised how much uni-directional lighting (from the ceiling) really doesn't go into all areas and crevices. Coupled with a glossy floor that is reflective, it really makes a difference.

Note: if the builder did a BS job of mudding the walls, it will drive you crazy. But I wasn't about to tear it down to start over.
 

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Jack Olsen

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Mar 22, 2009
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Los Angeles
I think putting lights on something that moves and vibrates as much as a garage door is not a very good idea. The kickstarter thing, especially -- you only get the light when the garage door is open.

My long-arm lights cost very little -- the lights themselves are made of cake pans and the arms are steel I had on hand.

My lights help whether the door is open or closed. And if I parked a car on the side with the long arm, I would have hinged it so it could moved out of the way for tall vehicles.

img0434cp.jpg

img0550m.jpg

They come out from the side:

d73ef344ac1a9255b366be9930fafb21.jpg
 

wssix99

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Joined
Mar 2, 2011
Messages
5,165
Location
Chicago, IL
Jack has a much better and well though out design. ^


Two issues with the Kickstarter deal:
- It assumes one lives in an area without insects. Door open + tons of light = swarm
- Billy Mays (God rest his soul) already came up with this sort of thing (this kickstarter thing is not really innovation...) Billy had remote no-wire switches, closet lights on tape; he had it all! ...and for $19.95!

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jon72vega

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Joined
Apr 17, 2013
Messages
3,494
Location
Niles Michigan
Here's what I did for my garage.
A set of brackets I got from Amazon that fasten to the roller track rails, a piece of angle-iron reinforced conduit fastened to the brackets, and the light is fastened to the conduit.
It's on any time my other lights are on, and it's beneficial whether the door is open or closed.
35634975741_c250150c2b_z.jpg
 

pjmariner

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Joined
Jun 15, 2018
Messages
71
Location
Marshfield MA
Here is how I did it. There are 12 total 4 foot leds on this workshop side of the garage, The other side has 8 lights total. I added outlets where the old single light bulbs were so I could run them off existing light switch. The old garage doors were so close to the ceiling, I had to hang half the lights from uni-strut, and threaded rod, and door goes over them. I used 8 foot 1/2" aluminum angle and zip ties to hold the 2 four foot fixtures together as they span the uni strut. It worked pretty good. When I replaced doors I went with 6'6" door for a better fit and I was able to get lights flush to ceiling. But for those who want lights to be useful when garage door is up, this could be a good idea. I prefer my lights on the ceiling since they are only 7' to start with and I could not spare the headroom

IMG_0891 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/120925262@N04/, on Flickr
IMG_0861 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/120925262@N04/, on Flickr
 

shade

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Joined
May 5, 2010
Messages
352
Location
(Formerly)Phoenix, AZ: (Current) SW MI
The corner lighting really makes a big difference; you'd be surprised how much uni-directional lighting (from the ceiling) really doesn't go into all areas and crevices. Coupled with a glossy floor that is reflective, it really makes a difference.

Note: if the builder did a BS job of mudding the walls, it will drive you crazy. But I wasn't about to tear it down to start over.



What lights are those? Looks good
 

Viper98912

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Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
1,132
Location
GA
Custom setup;

I used LED light strips placed into aluminum channels (made for LED's), along with a transformer. Everything can pretty much be bought on Amazon
 
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