any garage door experts? i have a problem

[ramonesfreak]

i have a very old garage electric garage door.

recently developed a problem with one of the safety sensors (eyes). when both sensor eyes are lined up, a green light lights up on each sensor and the garage door will come down when the button is pressed. If something is blocking or they are not aligned properly, the green light goes off and the door wont come down.

Yesterday I noticed one of the green lights out and i traced the problem to the wire going into one of the sensors. When I wiggled it, the green light goes on. However, the connection must be very bad because the slightest vibration or wind is enough to move the wire enough to loose the connection which causes a very annoying problem whenever i leave the garage

What im wondering is: can i take the wires that go to the left and right sensor from the lift motor, and cut and splice them? Basically I want to take the sensors out of the system for now

Thanks

[MBAtarga]

yes - you can jumper them at the opener itself. I wouldn't recommend that though - can be hazardous to humans and a big liability to you if someone gets hurt.

[ramonesfreak]

Thanks. i live alone, no kids etc...not a safety issue

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by MBAtarga

yes - you can jumper them at the opener itself. I wouldn't recommend that though - can be hazardous to humans and a big liability to you if someone gets hurt.

Come on, it's a garage door - not a guillotine. If you're too slow to get out from under a garage door, perhaps your end of the gene pool needs a little more chlorine.

[Zeke]

This was discussed recently. The consensus was that you cannot jumper these lights. The connection should not be hard to repair.

Here's the old thread:
Had enough of garage door optical sensors

[T77911S]

Originally Posted by widebody911

Come on, it's a garage door - not a guillotine. If you're too slow to get out from under a garage door, perhaps your end of the gene pool needs a little more chlorine.

we had a guy file an injury report at work because the elevator door closed on his arm, even though he was standing there talking and trying to hold the EL, his arm was not at the eye and it closed on him.
my Gdoor has a strip across the bottom that is pressure sensitve, when touched, the door stops and opens back up, no eyes.

[rcooled]

You cannot just jump these wires together to bypass the sensors. That circuit isn't just a closed loop of continuous current.....it's actually a pulsed signal sent by the transmitter and picked up by the receiver.

[sammyg2]

But you could repair the wire and duct tape the sensor and the reflector together and stash them up in the attic if you wanted to.
Just sayin ......................

I have a genie screw type garage door opener that's at least 15 years old. It does not have these optical sendsors. BUT >>>>>>>>

it has a spring loaded clutch and an optical sensor that detects if the motor is running and the screw is not turning (it knows if the clutch is slipping too much and shuts itself off when that happens).
if the clutch is adjusted properly, it will slip if the door tries to close on anything or anybody. The sensor will detect that the motor is running and the door is no longer moving, and it will shut off the motor after about a second.
It will not push hard enough long enough to cause harm to people. I don't need no stinking reflector thingies to cause problems.