Mike Poore
03-26-2009, 08:53 AM
This little adventure has to do with the Morton Building and it's newly self installed door opener. The new Navigator will not fit in the under house garage because those useless roof racks make it too tall to clear the opening. So using good Mike logic, it seemed reasonable to move one the vehicles that lives in the Morton Building into the house space and park the Navigator over there. Having a new spare door opener on hand, and having installed various openers several times before, it seemed an easy job of a couple of hours .......right?
Thus began the day and a half from hell. Since I was doing this easy job by myself, the first obstacle was the 10ft ceiling, which required an 8ft stepladder to do anything. Second, was the VTD (very tall door) which required putting the track above the wind up spring for door clearance.
This ladder mounted bit of trial and error only took three attempts, remember, the track, with the 40+ pound motor assembly attached, had to be installed to learn our lessons, each time, requiring me to hoist the entire mess to the top platform of the 8ft ladder, and jockey it in place, only to learn there was not enough clearance, and then take the whole mess down and re-position the backing plate for another failed attempt.
Long story short, after beating myself to death fighting the project from hell, all day, the mechanicals were done, and it looked fairly good. Barb was home by then, and I packed it in and we went out for dinner then a trip to the trap range where I shot clay targets with little garage door stickers on 'em. :mad2:
This morning was a rainy dreary day and perfect for putting the finishing touches on the various wiring parts and switches and controllers. Piece of cake for me; but when it came time to test and teach the remotes their new codes, all the batteries were dead, owing to the long storage of the unit. Upon returning from the store with the $15 worth of batteries, and getting them programed properly, and the door up & down adjustments set, I gave myself a hearty pat on the back, for a job well done.
Think we're done, don't ya? Here's the best part. Do you recall my saying this is a Morton Building? Know what they are made of; Steel, that's what. The roof, sides and doors, ...all steel.
But, this isn't just any Morton building, OH NO, I wanted it insulated, and finished on the inside. It's beautifully done, with nice steel panels on the inside walls and ceiling. The doors also are nice double sided steel with insulation making it a very tight weather and RF proof structure. Yep, that's right steel is a wonderful killer of radio signals, and guess how those cool HomeLink and hand held remotes work. ....not at all, when the receiver is on the inside, meaning the whole thing is useless. :banghead:
AH, but we're saved, hopefully. I just talked to Carroll at the garage door opener company, and they make a remote antenna kit which is on it's way, as we speak. Want to bet I'll have to take the whole works down and go into the circuit boards to install it?
I'll report on that part of the project ...whenever.
Oh, BTW it only cost $34.03 for the shipped kit. :)
Thus began the day and a half from hell. Since I was doing this easy job by myself, the first obstacle was the 10ft ceiling, which required an 8ft stepladder to do anything. Second, was the VTD (very tall door) which required putting the track above the wind up spring for door clearance.
This ladder mounted bit of trial and error only took three attempts, remember, the track, with the 40+ pound motor assembly attached, had to be installed to learn our lessons, each time, requiring me to hoist the entire mess to the top platform of the 8ft ladder, and jockey it in place, only to learn there was not enough clearance, and then take the whole mess down and re-position the backing plate for another failed attempt.
Long story short, after beating myself to death fighting the project from hell, all day, the mechanicals were done, and it looked fairly good. Barb was home by then, and I packed it in and we went out for dinner then a trip to the trap range where I shot clay targets with little garage door stickers on 'em. :mad2:
This morning was a rainy dreary day and perfect for putting the finishing touches on the various wiring parts and switches and controllers. Piece of cake for me; but when it came time to test and teach the remotes their new codes, all the batteries were dead, owing to the long storage of the unit. Upon returning from the store with the $15 worth of batteries, and getting them programed properly, and the door up & down adjustments set, I gave myself a hearty pat on the back, for a job well done.
Think we're done, don't ya? Here's the best part. Do you recall my saying this is a Morton Building? Know what they are made of; Steel, that's what. The roof, sides and doors, ...all steel.
But, this isn't just any Morton building, OH NO, I wanted it insulated, and finished on the inside. It's beautifully done, with nice steel panels on the inside walls and ceiling. The doors also are nice double sided steel with insulation making it a very tight weather and RF proof structure. Yep, that's right steel is a wonderful killer of radio signals, and guess how those cool HomeLink and hand held remotes work. ....not at all, when the receiver is on the inside, meaning the whole thing is useless. :banghead:
AH, but we're saved, hopefully. I just talked to Carroll at the garage door opener company, and they make a remote antenna kit which is on it's way, as we speak. Want to bet I'll have to take the whole works down and go into the circuit boards to install it?
I'll report on that part of the project ...whenever.
Oh, BTW it only cost $34.03 for the shipped kit. :)