On Sun, 11 Dec 2005 05:05:56 -0800, Larry Jaques
wrote:
On Sat, 10 Dec 2005 20:22:38 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm,
quickly quoth:
"Hank" wrote:

Has anyone ever bypassed the electric eye in a garage door opener? Some
value resistor should simulate a properly adjusted eye.

Why do that? I mounted mine high enough that it could see my 4x4.
Don't have kids so protecting them wasn't an issue.

Wish I had a way to check if my ham radio antenna was erected before I
drove in.

Your 4x4 gets erections?

Mine used to get a 92" erection all the time - 24/7/365.25

Unless I had the Hustler "Beer Can" mast on it, then they were a
little shorter but a whole lot thicker, and had a big knot in the
middle...

Now it's put away for special occasions like long out of town trips.
On 11 Meters, there's no intelligent life out there - I could slide it
down to the top end of 10 Meters, but without a proper ticket "Uncle
Charlie" might get a tad annoyed...

Install a little phosphor bronze rubbing strip which connects a red
(yellow, blue?) dash light to ground when the antenna is up, Hank.

But before doing that, consider the effects of several tens of watts
of RF (or several hundreds) at various frequencies running through the
contact strip and dash warning light circuit - even with the antenna
up and no direct contact. And if someone keys the mike with the
antenna down and in direct contact with the alarm contact strip,
consider the effects of a really oddball load on the finals of the
transceiver, too. (Magic Smoke, dontchaknow.)

A "Remove Before Flight" banner tag might be more effective. Hang
it from the inside rear-view mirror whenever the mast is up.

Or make a small "Antenna Is Up" box that the garage door remote gets
closed up in, perhaps with a simple combination lock. If they go to
hit the door clicker and drive into the garage but the remote is
'locked away', it will remind people why.

That, or there's always the Rube Goldberg R.C.M method: ;-)

Two wires stretched horizontally across the wall in front of the
garage door opening, one about two inches above the other, both spring
tensioned to allow for minor temperature swings. Put the supports on
arms a foot or two out from the outside garage wall to allow some
slack for reaction time...

Put a low voltage potential across the wires for safety, and when
the catch wires are shorted by the mast (contact closure) or stretched
by contact (tension switch) or snapped by to vigorous a contact (NC
loop monitor circuit or a pin-pull) they close a latching or time
delay relay (so a momentary closure and then the wire snaps will still
trigger the alert) attached to whatever flashing lights and
noisemakers you have handy to get the driver to stop. NOW.

-- Bruce --
--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
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