For the past few weeks, my garage door opener wouldn't open. It'd close, but wouldn't open (unless I open it manually and latch it back on.) Okay, for a few weeks, I could keep pressing the button and eventually it'd open by itself after pushing some 20 times. But lately that trick has stopped working too.
So today, after going to buy some vacumn cleaner bags for my mom, I decided to take a look inside the garage door opener.
Sometime last week, I already verified that the switches outside work. (they tell when to stop the door so it doesn't run off the end of either end of the track.
When I peeked inside the Genie Pro 82, I noticed there's a motor, a control board, and some pieces that I dunno what they do. All I know is that something mechanical isn't working and telling it to switch. And intuition says it's a relay.
I take the board out by unplugging the huge connector and unscrewing one bolt. I mess with the relays and put it back in to test. Worked twice and then stopped working again.
I take it out, pry the casing off all three relays and clean them off with a paper towel. Put it back in, and now instead of closing, it only opens.
Poking and prodding with the voltmeter tells me stuff is most likely okay. I learned the relays are driven by 26 volts DC. Hotwiring a relay causes the door to start closing immediately when I plug the power back in.
Turns out I missed two important details. While cleaning, I took off this jumper that is probably for a safety sensor. Without it, the door always only goes one way. Up I guess. Since it'd be inline with what you want to have happen when something gets caught under the door... if only I had a sensor to detect such items. Putting the jumper back in wasn't the complete fix.
Putting the screw back on was.
Apparently the circuit board requires the mounting screw because some part of the circuit depended on being wired to the metal casing of the garage door opener to work. Bastards. I've heard of cost cutting before, but cost cutting a jumper wire by using the screw is just being truly cheap.
Anyhow, now I can park my car in the garage again.
Posted by hachu at January 7, 2007 06:23 PMI am having the same problem. Repairman said it in the board and he couldn't get the board. I would have to get the a whole new door opener. After reading your discription I am going to do my own investigation. Any drawings help you could send me would be a great help.
Thanks
Posted by: Jim Selders at April 6, 2007 07:28 PMUnfortunetely, I don't have any drawings since it was all done on the fly. However I can describe the idea pretty well.
When you take the cover off, you're going to see the board. There will be three box shaped relays on the board near the top edge.
Those relays are the ones you're going to want to clean. I think I had to clean the middle one.
The top shell of mine would come off if I pulled hard, but don't pull at an angle since that may damage the insides. Try to pull it upwards.
How stuff works has a relay picture that is good enough to look at: http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/relay-intro.jpg
If you see on the right hand side, there's an arm that contacts either the top or bottom contact point, those surfaces are what you want to clean off.
Good luck!
Posted by: hachu at April 11, 2007 05:19 PMHmm, while mine was a little black as well, I didn't consider it to be excessive. So what I did was take some sandpaper and slide it between the
contact point and sand it down. Had to make sure I didn't bend anything out of place. Over the years, it'll definetely accumulate some soot from
the spark that happens when it connects and disconnects. You just need to make sure that the contats switch and connect for it to work I think.
Good luck!
Posted by: hachu at April 12, 2007 02:00 PM