Hardwired my garage remote.

[RoB]

Remote installation. Disclaimer: open your remote at your own risk. Be careful & don't break it. Also not responsible if you end up putting a burn mark on your car. Images via Imagestation and a teeny bit of pseudo-hacking.

It's not really a hardwire since it is still running off the original battery, it's just installed nicer. Might be a good idea to change the battery in the remote before you do this, that way it won't have to be changed again anytime soon. I thought about doing this for a while and figured if I ever want to go back, I could just pick up a little blank from the dealer. In fact I might just pick one up this weekend to have it around.

Here's the basic tools involved.

Switch, remote, screwdriver, soldering iron, flux core solder (available at radioshack)Blank plate from car, & about a foot of wire.



OK here's a pic of my remote and the same pic with the cover off. The little button at the bottm is the button the switch on the cover hits.



That is the switch we are going to tie into. Flip the circuit board over and you can see the 2 contacts for that switch.


Next, strip about a half inch from each wire. Use a light gauge wire. I just took a chunk from a cord that was used
to attach a small set of speakers. Be sure it has 2 wires, not like a pair of headphone wire.


Next with the soldering gun, tip each end with solder. Here's how you do that. Heat up your soldering gun and set it on a plate, hold the tip of the wire on the tip of the soldering gun and let it heat up the wire. THen when the wire is hot, touch the solder to the wire, and it should melt over the tip of the wire. Use Flux-core solder which is available at Radio Shack. Here's a pic of the tipped wires. Do the same for the other end. It's hard to tell in the pic. This makes it easier to solder it to the contacts on the remote.


Here you can see the wires attached to the contacts. With the soldering iron still heated up, set the one wire right over the contact and lightly touch it with the soldering iron. It should quickly melt together. Do the same with the other wire.

DO NOT SOLDER THE OTHER END TO THE SWITCH/BUTTON YET. This has to be done after it's in the car.


Now drill a small hole in the case for the wire to exit the remote. I did it on the bottom so it's not as noticeable. If you look at the pic of the remote with the circuit board, I did it on the side where there really is nothing going on.


Here's a pic of the remote back together after I fed the wire out the back. Nice and clean. Don't mind the velcro, this is my wife's remote, since I didn't want to pull mine out of the car again.
[img]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid140/p64d9f6a3acf56e8141fe2b8**96d543d/f6f598e6.jpg[/img]

Ok now we have the remote all back together here's a front pic with the wire coming out.


Take the switch apart, unscrewing the plastic nut at the back. Here's a pic of the switch. This one has a red button, the one I used had a black button. I didn't take it apart for the install guide since I had already installed it. When I went to Radio Shack They only had ones with the red button so I just picked one up to make this guide.


And here's a pic of it apart.


Next, take the button blank from the car. Lie down on the floor and reach up under the dash, you should be able to find the right blank and gently pop it out.


Flip it upside down. You will have to remove this center brace piece. If you have some tin snips, cut some little lines in it about 1/8" apart. Then you should be able to pull the little pieces off with a pair of needle nose pliers. A dremel would work wonders here also. If you HAVE a dremel, the take off a bit on the sides also to make room for the plastic nut.
[img]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid140/pdc45f051d772c9**92003ef8c5ebadab/f6f53eb8.jpg[/img]


Find the middle and make a mark. I put mine in a vise to hold it. Then, using a small drill bit, say 1/4" drill a small pilot hole. Next, I Then using a 31/64" bit SLOWLY drill it through, as in slower than you think. With the bit being so much bigger than the original, there is a chance it could grab the blank when it comes through and rip it up. As for the drill size, I just took my drill bit collection, and started drilling a hole in the side of the bench, until I found one that the button would slide into.
I didn't take any pics of drilling it out since mine is already installed and I didn't want to take it off. But I'm sure you get the idea.

Next, lie on the floor of the drivers side and look under the car. I used some zip ties and zip tied it to this big bar underneath since it didn't seem to be in the way of anything. At first I thought of mounting it to the actual plastic of the dash, but I could see it under the steering wheel when sitting normally. Once I zip tied it, I stuck a piece of duct tape on it just so it won't wiggle around.
You can see the wire coming out the bottom. I then fed this through the hole in the dash where the button will be. The pic isn't the greatist but I could only reach under blind and take pics until I got one that was half decent and this is that one. (it's half decent :D )


There are a few things going on in this picture. First, I inserted the switch into the hole and put the nut on. I didn't dremmel the side out for the nut, when I was soldering the remote, I took the solder gun tip and melted the sides since I was right there. Kinda quick and dirty. But no one sees the inside, well except for everyone
on the internet who happens to see this. LOL But it won't be seen once it's in place.

Next I soldered the wires coming out of the hole in the dash onto the switch. Be very careful at this pont since the soldering iron will melt anything it touches inside the car. I mean it seems pretty obvious sittng here at the computer, but once you're in your car thinking of a million things, one slip and you have a nice burn on your dash or door so be aware. I may have the nut on backwards, but it fits better this way. Also with the desing of the switch you will never push the thing all the way through the hole if the nut comes off so I'm not to worried about it.
[imghttp://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid140/p2051f995d9bbf7438f259c6c4805ebda/f6f54005.jpg][/img]

Everything should be in place now so feed the wire back through the hole, and then pop the plate back in. Do it slowly and it will sit flush. The first time I did it I just popped it in and it was a bit crooked.


All done, nice and clean. Better than that ugly thing up on my visor.

[Ratko]

very clean install bro.

[boi]

good job!!

[mightymouse]

very cool.

[DaksGT]

Loving this mans clean installs.

[Moondoggz]

looks good man!

some of the pics are showing up as red x's for me, but if you e-mail me the pics and write up, i can put it into the install's section.

Thanks.

[foralon]

Very nice job !! I will do the same very soon. Except I will need a smaller switch.

[Burrcold]

I need that done

[RoB]

For some reason if you right click and the hit "show picture" it seems to show up. Not the greatist way of hosting pics but I've done so many on cardomain, they only let me use the small size pics. :(

Thanks for the compliments. I seem to have a bit more range now since I imagine the wire to the switch is acting a bit like an antenna.

[foralon]

Hey guys,
I finished doing the install of the wired garage door opener in about 15 min. However, I have been screwing around with it for the past 2 hours trying to get my range back. Let me fill you in on the details. I am using a mini remote (second sears remote) which I soldered the wires to. I have attempted to place the remote in several location (ie: firewall, beside clutch, under the steering column, under the cluster area) but the range is completely gone. I now have to be inside the garage to get to work. I even extended my wire to then mount the remote up higher (near the right side of the cluster) it then gave me 10 feet of range woohoo. Any ideas on how to extend my range ? Any feedback would greatly be appreciated.

[foralon]

Originally Posted by foralon

Hey guys,
I finished doing the install of the wired garage door opener in about 15 min. However, I have been screwing around with it for the past 2 hours trying to get my range back. Let me fill you in on the details. I am using a mini remote (second sears remote) which I soldered the wires to. I have attempted to place the remote in several location (ie: firewall, beside clutch, under the steering column, under the cluster area) but the range is completely gone. I now have to be inside the garage to get to work. I even extended my wire to then mount the remote up higher (near the right side of the cluster) it then gave me 10 feet of range woohoo. Any ideas on how to extend my range ? Any feedback would greatly be appreciated.

I understand if no one responded... it is almost impossible to alter the range of a garage door opener...

Woohoo !!! got it to work from the original distance, I removed the driver side A piller cover and ran the remote along it's side. We're good to go !!