Hidden Garage Door Opener

Here is a pretty simple mod I did for those of us too cheap/poor to buy a Homelite mirror. I have an 05 with the compass so that eliminates the garage door opener holder and since the visor is too thick for the clip I decided to hide it under the dash.

Before we start I am no electrical engineer but figured out how to make this work on my remote. It may not be the best way but the button on the remote works as well as my wired button. I am not sure how similar remotes are but mine is a Genie and is about 3 years old.

I used this momentary ON switch from radio shack but am going to upgrade to this one soon.

First:
I took the remote apart and using an OHM meter figured out what the button on the remote did when it was activated. Once I had that figured out I used some electrical tape to temporarily hold the wires in place while I tested the radio shack button. Once I knew it would work I soldered the wires in place:

Front of remote


Back of remote with wires soldered on


Next
I drilled some holes in the side of the remote housing to let the wires through.


Then
I turned my attention to the radio shack switch. I soldered the wires to the new switch and drilled a hole in one of the blank panels. To get the switch to stay in place I basically filled the back side with hot glue.



Finally
I used a couple of quick disconnects and tucked the remote under the dash board and reinstalled the panel in the dash.



Since I am not very good with a dremel I am going to replace both switched with these. A regular ON/OFF for my amp (on the left) and a Momentary ON for the garage door opener.

 

Nice job! Janster's husband did a similar mod in his corvete but wired to a HomeLink module ripped out of a HomeLink visor. I bought the visor (ebay - $25), ripped out the HomeLink module, but haven't found a suitable place to mount a switch. My '09 doesn't have any of those blank spots to the left of the steering wheel. They're all used.

 

Ok, this mod kicks ass. If you don't have any spaces left in the dash, just drill the switch into the panel under the steering wheel. Check behind before drilling though.

 

Me likey, Small project for this weekend.

 

I as well like it and as stated above, just need that garage....now where'd I put it.....

*wanders off*

 

Nice work harshest. Here's another person that did that as well:
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/6826-garage-door-opener-relocation.html

 

Because we are on the subject on hidden garage door openers, I found this cool method on another forum:

High Beam Activated Garage Door Opener:

http://high-intensity.org/forums/showthread.php?t=306

 

very nice, now i just need a house

 

Good work.

 

Thanks for the thread. Installed mine yesterday with a momentary rocker switch. It is freaking sweet.

 

I debated and debated on doing this MOD as I think it's a great idea. I just couldn't get the motivation and found a more simple solution that doesn't look as factory as what Harshest did. Still a good idea. I may pull it off and paint it black.

Used double sided tape

 

I was doing a search here to see if anyone had done the mod as I'm thinking about doing it this weekend. Did you check your battery in the remote? Yup - most of them are 12v powered, so you can ditch the cell and wire it direct and forget about it =]

I may just pickup a homelink module from fleabay though and put it in the door or visor. I didn't think about retrofitting one of those modules. Gonna think on it...

 

I dont have my truck yet, but you may be able to do the same thing I did on my bike. I have a keychain garage remote hidden in my headlight bucket. I soldered the contacts of the switch (so its always on/circuit closed), then spliced into the power and ground of my high beam to power it on (takes 12v battery). This allows me to open my garage door by flashing my brights.

 

Hears the end result of mine did pretty much the same thing just put mine in between the map lights

 

I wanted to let everyone know that I did this mod on my '11 Sport. I used a dual position momentary rocker switch (Which I had to order off of Amazon because none of the stores I tried had the right switch) so that I could control both of my garage doors. The install was pretty smooth and the rocker switch looks stock. I'm really pleased with the way it came out. Thanks for the awesome idea and the walk-through!

 

same problem here, but all i did was to use double sided sticky velcro and stuck it next to the rearview mirrow wire cap.

 

Sorry for the thread necro. Harshest's photos were deleted and I'd like to do this mod. Does anyone have photos of the process they can post?