Homelink compatible receiver upgrade?

The Homelink range I am getting is awful, we often have to be practically touching the door with the car to get it to open. The original remotes are a little bit better we can open it the door from the driveway, about 10 feet further back. Occasionally we can open a little further back. Given the rather poor performance in general I'm considering installing a new/additional Homelink compatible receiver that might have better performance. I'm wondering if get 315Mhz receiver if things will be better. Anyone have recommendations?

arnold

Have you tried playing with antennae on the opener? Many openers have a piece of wire sticking out of the unit, it should be straight and you can get better reception if you play with orientation of that wire.

arnolddeleon said:

The Homelink range I am getting is awful, we often have to be practically touching the door with the car to get it to open. The original remotes are a little bit better we can open it the door from the driveway, about 10 feet further back. Occasionally we can open a little further back. Given the rather poor performance in general I'm considering installing a new/additional Homelink compatible receiver that might have better performance. I'm wondering if get 315Mhz receiver if things will be better. Anyone have recommendations?

arnold

Click to expand...

Interesting, Arnold, because I thought that the new LEAF Homelink opens the door from further out than either the opener-supplied transmitter or the factory-installed Homelink in either of our other vehicles. I should go perform a more critical test.

Glenn

We're often 200+ feet away when we use homelink . . . on our home, and on a rental we just programmed into the leaf. I too would suggest it's your garage door antenna that' at issue.

I should have said that I did check the antenna already, fresh batteries, etc.

The current opener is a Chamberlain, the date on the product is 08/06

One of the reasons I'm considering another receiver is I might be able to place it where I can give the antenna a little better view of the street/driveway. The garage door is steel, I have radiant barrier roof sheeting (metalized), solar panels are over the garage as well so all in not a very RF friendly place. I suspect the noise floor is not good to begin with and antenna is just not picking up the the transmitters very well. I see significant difference between the door open and door close so I know that is a factor.

Here is one I'm looking into:

http://www.emxinc.com/lr650.html

It doesn't say anything about about being Homelink compatibility. I will probably try to contact them tomorrow.

Another candidate is a Genie receiver:

http://www.aclickawayremotes.com/Genie/GIR390-1T/index.html

I think this one Homelink compatible.

If I was sure a new garage door opener would work better I might go for that. A few years ago I replaced a dead chain drive opener with the current screw drive to get it to be quieter (which it was) but it no where as quiet as belt drive (which we have experienced before in another house). So if I was going to be spending to get better range I might just spend a little more to get better range and quiet (and potentially faster operating speed w/c could compensate for range issues).

One thing I haven't tried is to try training the car Homelink away from the house where it might be RF quieter.

arnold

hill said:

We're often 200+ feet away when we use homelink . . . on our home, and on a rental we just programmed into the leaf. I too would suggest it's your garage door antenna that' at issue.

Click to expand...

I can use mine from 200+ feet away as well, so it doesn't seem to be a Leaf problem, or at least not one that's universal.