On April 16, 2010 at 20:57, Jimmy Bellagio said...
But what is needed to control the garage door reliablly? I understand you using the contact closure to check for the status, but what equipment do you need (including the actual hardware) to open and close the garage door(s)
Wire.
Go from an XP8 relay to the wall button in the garage. Wire it in parallel at the wall button with the wire coming from the motor. Then set your relay closure for .5 seconds in the macro of whatever button you want to control it with. If you want a discrete up/down macro, do a status test on the contact attached to the door, ie: discrete close-"if sense input 3 is open, close relay 3 for .5 seconds, else nothing".
I would caution you though about having it shut unattended as you may have personal or property damage. Yes the doors will stop if obstructed, but it takes some force for the motor to sense it if the photobeam doesn't stop it. I may be wrong, but I think the national building code specs that you must have a visual of the door from the trigger location.