Using your garage door opener as a winch remote (1 Viewer)

[linuxgod]

Saw this on Expedition Portal today and thought it was a cool enough hack to share, particularly if you only have one garage door and two unused buttons:

Try This Wireless Winch Hack (Hint: It Involves a Garage Door Opener) - Expedition Portal

Did you know that you can program your garage door opener to operate your winch?

expeditionportal.com

I don't have a wireless winch remote so I can't test this, but the Warn ones operate on 433.92MHz so they likely will work as Toyota's HomeLink is supposed to support 288-433MHz.

The two caveats they mention are:

1. You can't just hold the button down as it'll go into programming mode, so you have to spool, release/stop, spool, release/stop.
2. You should really turn off power to your winch when not in use so that an errant garage door opener (or your fingers pressing the wrong button in the dark) doesn't unspool your winch

But still, seems like kind of a nifty hack to program, and could be handy if you have a wireless winch controller but can't find it or the batteries are dead.

 

[TimCFJ40]

Pretty slick, and an interesting idea. The inability to press and hold the button to keep the winch spooling would limit it's utility for me. Having to winch with short intermittent button pushes to avoid kicking the homelink into programming mode would be awkward at best, and counterproductive at worst. Most pulls I have done have had a few sections of continuous pulling for 10-30 seconds at least, not including the final spool-in.

 

[LALC]

I was pumped about using this to operate the aux lights on the Warn Platinum, but I couldn't get it to work. The controller has to connect to the winch and never sends a continuous signal, it sends the signal once on button de-press. Even if it could somehow allow the homelink to connect to the winch, I think the instantaneous on/off signal isn't long enough for the homelink to detect.

 

[rlynch356]

why?

Just because you can do something does not mean you should...

I really would not want to be working on the cable with anything like this setup.. wireless controls are iffy enough as it is.. I personally unplug the controller if i am working on the rope or have my hands on or near the drum.. for wireless ones, i take it and put it up on the hood where i have physical control of it. even then, i have personally seen some early wireless ones cross talk in a winching class (they do not use that many frequency's to transmit one).

All it takes is to see one accident caused by inadvertent spooling of the winch to see why.

 

[Fisher23]

Cool .. but myself I would be concerned with someone borrowing the vehicle and pushing those buttons.

 

[linuxgod]

Cool .. but myself I would be concerned with someone borrowing the vehicle and pushing those buttons.

Yeah that and interference is why you’d want a beefy on/off switch under the hood to disable the winch completely when not needed.

 

[TheComedian]

This reminds me that i should build a wireless adapter for my factory winch… since I dont have any garage switches on the roof.

 

[Lester did that]

It's an interesting idea? I would just have concerns with accidents. Myself or family accidentally hitting the wrong button. Some sort of hard kill switch for the inch would make it safer for sure. But in a jamb it could prove to be a great fix. The winch I have has a remote and a hard line. But if both failed this could be a back up.

 

[WCDAVE]

Maybe I am not understanding the add here. If you have a wireless winch with controller, don't you already have in-cab winch control that works without the limitations of the homelink hack? Maybe a better solution would be to figure out how to put your wireless winch electronics in where the homelink system is (if you are not otherwise using it (?)) Although in my limited winching experience, the ability to be outside of the vehicle while wincing was a benefit. I am pretty sure that you can buy a second wireless winch controller though that could serve as donor electronics though so you'd have both.

 

[Lester did that]

Maybe I am not understanding the add here. If you have a wireless winch with controller, don't you already have in-cab winch control that works without the limitations of the homelink hack? Maybe a better solution would be to figure out how to put your wireless winch electronics in where the homelink system is (if you are not otherwise using it (?)) Although in my limited winching experience, the ability to be outside of the vehicle while wincing was a benefit. I am pretty sure that you can buy a second wireless winch controller though that could serve as donor electronics though so you'd have both.

It's an interesting DIY hack. Practical? maybe maybe not. But it's a fun fact that it can be done. There is another element to it as well. You could pick up a garage door FAB for less than 20$ if you lost or broke your remote anywhere. You don't have to use the built in sensors on the rig. Same difference.

This could end up as quick cheap fix in a jamb. Brilliant if it works

 

[kcjaz]

I was pumped about using this to operate the aux lights on the Warn Platinum, but I couldn't get it to work. The controller has to connect to the winch and never sends a continuous signal, it sends the signal once on button de-press. Even if it could somehow allow the homelink to connect to the winch, I think the instantaneous on/off signal isn't long enough for the homelink to detect.

Bummer. I had the same thought about using this for lights. So, if if doesn’t work with the aux switches on the Warn Platinum, it must not work for the winch itself either. Right? I don’t quite understand what your saying as to why it doesn’t work. I don’t care about using it for the winch, but don’t get why it doesn’t work for the aux switches if it works for the winch.

 

[bloc]

This brings up the natural progression.. if we can’t use the factory transmitter with warn accessories, how hard would it be to build a receiver that could do the same within a frequency and protocol the toyota transmitter supports?

Personally I love the idea of being able to switch a couple accessories without adding extra wiring and visible switches all over the place.