Garage Doors Lights - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Larsson55
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2025, 07:45:36 pm
content: I have 2 garage doors (Marantec M-4700, M-4500) and each door has its own wall mounted controls which opens/close the door and light. In the garage ceiling I also have 5 fluorescent light fixtures but at times I also would like to have the lights ON from each door opener.The 120VAC power to each door opener goes at the ceiling and from the attached pictures we see that there is a small 2 conductors cable going from the door opener in the ceiling into each wall mounted control. We also see that each wall mounted control has a PCB. I would have liked to know the voltage of the small conductors going into the PCB but although I do have a meter which measures voltage I don't know how to set my meter (AC or DC?).Is it possible to wire a simple ON/OFF switch between the 2 wall mounted controls to have just the 2 lights ON/OFF?Thanks

author: CaptDon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2025, 10:55:09 pm
content: Your message is somewhat confusing?First off, the flourescent lights I assume are not attached in any way to the garage door opener??? Most openers have a single medium base socket for a screw base 60 watt lamp. Second, the control panel on the wall does not control the light on the garage door opener. The control board in the motor unit energizes the light when the motor runs and starts a lamp time-out timer which usually keeps the lamp on for 3 minutes after the motor stops moving, either going up or down. As for the control signal going to the wall mounted unit, they are proprietory. Some are a simple switch which is normally open circuit and often the switch has an LED wired across it to illuminate the switch. Some switches are multi-function and can turn on the light on the motor unit without running the motor however those are not common.The voltage to the wall unit is probably D.C. sourced through a resistor to limit short circuit current. How did you propose to connect your flourescent lights to anything having to do with the opener???

author: Konkedout
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2025, 11:31:44 pm
content: Quote from: CaptDon on February 11, 2025, 10:55:09 pmI agree. Your original posting is confusing. Please write it more carefully so we can understand what you have and what you want.

author: MarkF
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 12:03:00 am
content: If I understand correctly, you want to have the five fluorescent lights turn ON if either of the overhead doors are open (i.e. their lights are ON)?First, the small wires connected to your Red button are just low voltage to trigger the overhead doors. Inappropriate to use for turning ON the fluorescent lights without some processing. The button just creates a pulse to open or close the door. It doesn't stay ON.A better approach but a little complex would be to use two relays in parallel (one for each overheard). Each relay would have a 120VAC coil connected to the overhead door light. The relay coils would ONLY be connected to its overhead door light. The N.O. contacts of each relay would be in parallel with each other and across the switch controlling the fluorescent lights. When either overhead is open, its contacts will short across the fluorescent light switch turning them ON too.How you package all this safely is the BIG issue.

author: Larsson55
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 12:37:25 am
content: Very sorry for the confusion.....The ceiling fluorescent lights have nothing to do with the openers, I just mentioned them to indicate that there is lighting in the garage besides the 2 lights from the openers. Yes the openers accept a max 60W regular light bulbs.Its true that the door opener light its on timer, about 3 minutes sound right.Each wall control panel has 3 buttons: one is to open/close the door, the other is to turn the light on/off and the last is to lock the opener(never used this one, I assume is for safety to lock the doors when you are on vacations).Having relays as MarkF mentioned I agree it's an overkill...So the idea is/was to have a new on/off switch to turn on/off the lights from both openers but since the lights switch is build into the PCB perhaps is very difficult if not impossible?

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 01:09:17 am
content: simples,as long as the lights are mains voltage,cut the 2 wires to the opener lights.wire them to the common contacts of a dpdt relay,the 2 wires from the pcb to the normally closed contacts and a pair of wires from the existing lights to both the coil and normally open contacts.just make sure the relay coil is suitable for the supply voltage

author: ledtester
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 02:23:19 am
content: If the 60W bulbs have ordinary screw bases you don't need to cut any wires for the relay solutions... just use a "light socket adapter" like one of these below:

author: Larsson55
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 04:07:41 am
content: Quote from: ledtester on February 12, 2025, 02:23:19 amI like this idea and will try to make it workMy thanks to all

author: CaptDon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 01:57:02 pm
content: Be aware of the 60 watt rating of the available current at the screw base socket!!! Some openers have a very feeble relay to energize the light and some have a tiny little triac to do the job. If you start trying to plug in some twin 40 watt 4ft Flourescent fixtures which due to poor power factor have a line current of about 1.4 amps with a lot of inductance you may wreck the lamp control circuit in the opener. An as per my other post it seems you do have one of the more advanced wall mounted switches since you state that it can independently control the lights without moving the door. Often those circuits are fed with a low voltage A.C. signal also with a current limiting resistor. The theory is the opener button may conduct on the positive half of the cycle and the lamp switch conducts on the negative half of the cycle. This is easily done with a pair of diodes in the wall mounted switch. The lock button could be wired to conduct both halves of the A.C. voltage. The opener sees conduction on both halves and enters the 'do not operate mode'. Easily done in the control circuitry.

author: MarkF
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 02:07:22 pm
content: @CaptDon, I didn't suggest driving the florescent lights from the garage door opener.My suggestion was to drive a relay coil from the garage door opener. The contacts of the relays in turn drive the flourescent lights. He just has to pick a relay with a 120VAC coil and contacts that will carry the current for the flourescent lights.Sorry if I wasn't clear before.

author: floobydust
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 05:09:31 pm
content: OP could use a relay or SSR to spoof the wall station light on/off button press. Or get a wireless station and tie into its pushbutton?The garage door opener's wall station is a low voltage 2-wire system. The pushbuttons for door open/close, lights, vacation lock will switch in a resistor or capacitor across the 2-wire bus.Liftmaster, Chamberlain etc. also have the photo-eye obstacle sensors on the bus. For the Marantec 4500/4700 they have an extra pair just for the wall station.PCB pic I would need to see the other side of the board to see what component values you need. It just saves some walking around I guess.

author: calzap
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 06:14:26 pm
content: Curious why the OP wants to do this. For moving a vehicle in and out, it seems unnecessary. If they want to spend time in the garage, the fluorescent lights should do … install more if necessary. As mentioned already, the door opener lights normally stay on for only a few minutes. If they want to do it as an educational project or to impress someone … OK. Modifying the openers may void any warranty or service contract and repairmen may refuse to work on a modified unit.Mike

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 07:44:27 pm
content: What I have read is that the light switch on the wall panel usually places a resistor across the 2 wires coming from the opener, where the door switch shorts them. So you just need to trace the board in one of your wall panels to confirm this and see what the resistor value is. Then you could wire a DPST switch with that resistor value on each side and connect it to both openers.Alternately, take the DPST switch and connect each pair of contacts to the light switch in each wall panel. This will take more wire, but requires no research effort.This won't defeat the timer though. For that, you would have to put a switch across the opener's light relay. I don't recommend that for safety reasons. It would be better just to put up more lights in the garage.

author: Larsson55
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 08:57:05 pm
content: Many thanks to all for the help but it's getting too complicated for me...First of all my knowledge in this field is very limited.....Then my "original idea" was how to splice the existing wires in the wall controls to install an on/off switch just for the lights. This proved to be not possible / complicated based in my experience + I don't want to take a chance and damage the 2 door openers.The garage has very good fluorescent lighting but we also have a large fridge/freezer in there which means we go often in the garage and turning the fluorescent lights on/off every day just for a few minutes is not good for the fluorescent lights. So that's when my idea came on the install an on/off switch to use the two 60W bulbs in the door openers instead the fluorescent ceiling lights.I'm also thinking to replace my existing fluorescent tubes with LED retrofit tubes which I was planning to do last summer but never had the chance so perhaps this summer I will do it.

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 09:03:31 pm
content: Quote from: Larsson55 on February 12, 2025, 08:57:05 pmYeah, just do this. Be sure to get the kind that work with your existing ballasts. (Is your weather really so bad that you have to wait until summer?)QuoteBut why are you worrying about this when you are planning to replace them anyway

author: Larsson55
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 11:05:07 pm
content: .....Is your weather really so bad that you have to wait until summer?But why are you worrying about this when you are planning to replace them anywayAll fluorescent lights are in one breaker, with the doors closed I will need an extension light + its much better to work with the doors open (tons of light + fresh air....).The tubes are very expensive when buying individually, normally I buy in a box of 12

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2025, 11:55:09 pm
content: Quote from: Larsson55 on February 12, 2025, 11:05:07 pmSo turn on the garage opener lamps for the 5 minutes you need to replace the tubesQuoteWhat size do you need? Is $17 each too much?https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/noma-t8-g13-base-non-dimmable-led-tube-light-bulb-4000k-cool-white-32w-48-in-0522362p.html

author: Larsson55
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2025, 04:02:34 am
content: Last year I paid about $60 for a box of 12, at $17 per tube I would rather have no lights lol. I still have I think 4 left in the box and hopefully I will not need them assuming I will get the time to change them to LED

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2025, 11:15:53 pm
content: Quote from: Larsson55 on February 13, 2025, 04:02:34 amThe $17 is for the LED replacements.

author: ahsrabrifat
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2025, 03:44:13 pm
content: You can plan for a Wi-Fi-controlled garage door control and lighting system with ESP8266 and RGB-LED Strips. You can use ESP home assistant.https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/Smart_Garage_Door_control_with_animated_RGB_LED__with_or_without_Home_Assistant_.html