[Eileen]

I paired my garage door opener with homelink on the rear view mirror. It works fine when I am out of the garage. But if I am in the garage, it will not open or close. I need to use my wall mount. Does anyone know why this is happening?

 

[HandyAndy]

Is this infra-red like TV remote controls, or a short-range wireless device? Sounds very like the signal from your transmitter simply isn't getting to the sensor, so if you park head-first into gge & infra-red transmitter is shining only ahead into the wall, perhaps it isn't strong enough to bounce back to wherever the receiver is. I guess it might be possible to rig-up some suitable reflector on the end wall to bounce it, you could try hanging a strip of aluminium turkey-cooking-foil as a test maybe? Tha should reflect Infra-red nicely, as well as radio waves. Make it as large as possible. Yo may also need another piece, if the sensor is aiming the wrong direction to collect the reflected signal, so maybe a small piece of foil about a foot square, located about a foot away from it, or something like that?

 

[KevinT]

Its RF. Ours works from inside the garage, but I have to be sitting in the car with the smart key on my person. When I've just reached in from outside the car or been in it without the smart key nothing happens.

 

[HandyAndy]

Ok, looks like Homelink in USA operates somewhere in 300-400 MHz range ballpark. Speed of Light is 3x10**8 metres/sec, so this gives the wavelength around 1 metre or a fraction less. So any useful reflection area wants to be roughly this sort of size, say 1x1 metre aluminium foil or larger (larger=better). A tiny 10cm x 10cm piece is far smaller than a wavelength, so isn't anything like large enough to do any reflecting, the waves will simply ignore it as being tiny in comparison to their own size. So sticking a really large area of aluminium foil somewhere may make a decent reflector. Perhaps putting a few of these around the gge might make the radio waves bounce around a bit before they get absorbed, just as they would for visible light. It's all the same stuff, just the scale is rather different! If we had eyeballs a metre in diameter, we might be able to see a bit more of this stuff !!!

 

[Eileen]

Thanks for the suggestions but neither of them worked for me. Please let me know if any other suggestions out there. Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks.

 

[HandyAndy]

Drat. The only other thing I can think of is a signal booster that's tuned to the frequency(ies) that you need. This is the kind of kit used to steal cars, by amplyfing up the feeble signal sent out by keyless-entry cars when you press the door button to unlock. Signal gets picked up by thief's radio-gadget beside the car, boosted hugely, picked up (erroneously!) by fob that's 50 yards away or more, responds with a feeble signal thinking the car's 3 feet away, that in turn is picked up by accomplice with similar radio-gadget standing outside your house, boosted up hugely as it's so feeble, then this boosted signal is strong enough to get back to the car which then unlocks your car. Starting it is the same process, and once a car's started, the engine won't stop even if no key is detected (while they drive away), as that would be a safety hazard!

Maybe you can hunt for a signal booster, but don't blame me if the cops come checking later! 😆

 

[Eileen]

I figured out the problem. My habit is to open the garage door as soon as I get in the car, before I turn on the car. The same when I pull into the garage--I shut the car off & then use garage door button. It seems that the car has to be running for Homelink garage button to work. I didn't see that anywhere in the manual.
I appreciate for all your help and maybe this will help someone else. Thanks.