DIY Garage Door Opener (non-homelink) - $10

Hi all,
I picked up my 17 TRD Sport MGM last week from the dealership. So far it's been great, learned a lot on this forum so far so thank you to everyone. One thing that I really felt was lacking and frustrating was for being an almost $40k pickup, the lack of a homelink garage door opener was upsetting. So I decided to add my own. Since I have a sport, the blanks in the overhead console were calling to me. So I ordered a push button, used some wire I had around the house and soldered together myself an external switch. Here is my write up. I know others have done it and wired the remote to a power source, but as simple as it is to remove the console, it's easy for me to swap a battery when it dies (which should be years). I also plan to add a second switch for my third car garage, I just only ordered the one as proof of concept at this point.

Parts to order:

-momentary switch: $8

$8 Ulincos® Momentary Push Button Switch U16A1 1NO SPST Black Metal Shell Suitable for 16mm Mounting Hole

Link
-Any 20-22 AWG wire will work (couple bucks tops) , If you want to have wire disconnects like I used, you can order these:

Uxcell a14041500ux1277 10Pairs Black Red 13cm JST SM 2Pins Jack Male to F (Pack of 20)

Link
-spare garage door opener

Tools:
-drill
-5/8" drill bit
-zip ties
-soldering iron
-solder


Wiring the external button to the garage door remote:
1) remove the cover from your garage door opener



2) Identify which contacts will initiate the garage door to open. To do this I simply screwed the wires into the terminals on the momentary switch and held the wire ends to the terminals and pressed the button until the door opened. This told me which contacts to solder too. Once You have identified the contacts to solder to, remove the battery

3) flip the remote board over and solder to the contacts on the under side (this was easier for me with my remote, your mileage my vary)



4) remount the board inside the remote case, and cut a small hole in the corner of the case for the wire to pass through.



Mounting in the console:
1) First step is to remove the overhead console from your pickup. It is held in place by 4 red plugs, simply pull down gently and the panel will remove. There is a single wire harness for the lights that must be disconnected to remove completely.

2) Identify the two square holes on the back of the console, inside these two holes is the middle blank on the face of the panel.



3) Pushing gently from inside these two holes on the backside of the console on this blank, on the edge closest to the lights, the panel will pop loose. There is a middle bracket that will need to be accounted for. With the panel wedged in place mark where this middle bracket is.



4) I centered my spot for the momentary switch on the panel between the middle bracket on the console and the lip on the side that holds the blank in place. This gave me a clean mounting point that is even. Once marked, with a 5/8" drill bit (I recommend a forstner bit) drill your hole for the momentary switch.

in the picture you can see my mark points that I made for determining where I wanted to drill


5) Mount the momentary switch, feed the wire over the middle bracket and through the holes on the back of the console and reinsert the blank into the console. There is a tab that aligns with the console that must be put in first, then the panel will snap in almost like a closing door.





6) Run zip ties under the bracket that is between the two holes on the back of the console, and zip tie the garage door opener to this spot. (I had to move the yellow wire loom and cut the tab that holds the wire so that the garage door opener wood fit snug, this is your decision)



7) Job complete, you can now reinstall the console in your Taco. I recommend testing before reinstalling the console



Here is a video of it functioning for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLHYHnZJIEA

Enjoy this cheap DIY.

 

Was about to go out and do something like this... thanks!
Yours is much slick.

 

Super cool OP!

 

Awesome! I might give this a try.

 

Nice Job. Looks clean.

 

Just did a similar mod to mine. Took the remote apart and hard wired it in. Bought the switch from Air On Board.

 

Nice! I looked for one but couldn't find one. Guess I didnt look long enough. Oh well, I'm still happy

 

Your switch cost less than mine!

 

Hi guys,

I went onto ebay and found a replacement mirror with homelink for $64.00 with free shipping.

 

If you are going to go through the effort to hide your clicker, why would you want to label the button to it?

I did this on my motorcycle and it works great. I just have a basic switch hidden on the bike to activate the clicker.

 

Sub

 

I made no effort to hid the clicker, if someone goes through the trouble to break into my garage I doubt they will be pushing the button on the truck dash to open the garage door, besides it was mounted on the visor before I did this mod. Also, If you have a home Link mirror the buttons are in plain sight.

 

I looked into that but I'm a little OCD so the homelink mirror with blue backlit buttons is $229 which is too rich for me.

 

$20 homelink modules off eBay are another option and have positive/neg terminals for easy hardwiring so no batteries to worry about.

 

I did the same thing on my motorcycle as well. I wired it into my high beams, I would trigger my opener by flashing my high beam. Worked well. I don't know if its necessarily to "hide" the remote, as much as a way to integrate into the vehicle.

 

AOB switches ftw. Decided not to wire the button with the dash lights because I'm OCD and they don't match lol

 

Not so much hiding the button. Just wanted a cleaner solution than clipping it on the visor and it didn't quite fit in the square above the switches

 

Do you have a direct link to the one you installed? Thanks.

 

Sorry OP for the brief thread jack

Bought one like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HOMELINK-RO...ash=item1c81d7b1f5:g:9EAAAOSw8n1XMPeD&vxp=mtr

just search "Homelink rolling code" on ebay and you will find a ton of them listed for ~$20. I bought one that looked to be in the best condition.

If you want to keep it simple here is a relative DIY thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-install-a-homelink-garage-opener-w-pictures.132996/


If you want to rig it up to a discreet toggle switch or something, just like the OP, you have to solder a wire to either side of the switch button on the circuit board but that's all that is required. Then depending if the one you buy has wires coming off of it, one will be power and one ground so you can hardwire to ignition power so someone can't just press it and get in your garage with the vehicle off (I know its circumventable but better than nothing, and my truck is always in the garage).

Here is a thread DIY on how to do the soldering if that is your preference to run an external switch:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-install-a-homelink-garage-opener-w-pictures.132996/page-3

 

Hmmm...might have to have some beers this weekend and have a little Tacoma garage door opener mod party. I'll have to check yours out at the office OP.