Garage Door Opener Damaged by HF RF?

[KevinC]

Just to add. Maybe a new cell site or new carrier on an existing tower? The front-end on the garage door opener is probably wide open so any strong RF anywhere could be the cause.

 

[AK4PY]

Does any of your vehicles have an issue with an onboard tire pressure monitoring system? I had a car that had a TPMS issue and it jammed my garage door remotes. Had the exact symptoms that described in this thread.

 

[ultravista]

From reading your posts, it seems like you are a bit fixated on the 40 meter antenna being the cause. Don't assume that's the only possible cause.

Only because the end-fed brought a lot of RF back into the shack when keying on 40m. I have a few snap-on ferrites on the coax now to tame the RF feedback. I don't go into 80 or 160m yet. This is the only reason, the RF feedback at my computer (next to the radio).

 

[popnokick]

"Might be a neighbor with noisy Christmas lights."

Christmas lights? At this time of year? And they're never LEDs, right? Oh, wait....

 

[6079smithw]

What Mr. mmckenna said. Did you check all the wall-wart power supplies in your house?
I've had switching circuit components go bad in a few over the years and radiate noise through
the house wiring; drives you nuts. I agree with the other folks here that your 40M rig is not
to blame. Along with the antenna placement, you'd need to be running enough power to heat
a plate of bagels.

 

[6079smithw]

Christmas lights? At this time of year? And they're never LEDs, right? Oh, wait....

"Installation courtesy of Grinch Electric LLC"

 

[BM82557]

It could be damaged.
However, for it to still work when you are close enough, the receiver is probably swamped from noise from something else.
For both of them to suffer from this at the same time, it suggests a common noise source.

As several people have pointed out, something changed, and RFI is a very likely and proven source.

From reading your posts, it seems like you are a bit fixated on the 40 meter antenna being the cause. Don't assume that's the only possible cause.

You need to do some basic troubleshooting. None of us can do that for you.

Figure out what circuit breaker the garage door openers are on.
One at a time, shut off the -other- circuit breakers in your home. If/when you find one that resolves the issue, start looking at -every- device that is plugged into that circuit. Don't overlook anything, and don't assume something can't cause interference.

I've had cheap USB chargers in vehicles cause a lot of RFI and interfere with tire pressure monitoring systems. It might be a USB charger in one or all of your vehicles causing this.

Don't rule out devices at your neighbors homes.

Don't run out and buy all new garage door openers, or call in a repair service without doing some basic troubleshooting. Often, these things are a simple cause and easily fixed.

From the above post -- "As several people have pointed out, something changed, and RFI is a very likely and proven source"

If nothing has changed in your house then perhaps something has changed outside of your house but within reception range of your house. Take a look at the RF spectrum at your location.

 

[Squelchtail]

If I transmit on 40 meters at 100 watts it will make my garage door opener quits working. I have to unplug it and plug it back in to get it working again.

 

[mitbr]

To the OP please let us know what you did if you solve the problem.
Tim

 

[jaspence]

Our entire plat (about 100 houses) had many homes with a similar problem a couple of years ago. It was 24-7, with sometime brief periods of relief. I used some of my meters and frequency devices but never located anything. Even the police were involved as some thought it was someone trying to get into garages. I improved my reception by adding about 15 feet of copper wire to my garage door antenna. Whatever caused it disappeared just like it came and hasn't returned.

 

[bill4long]

It's a gremlin

 

[ultravista]

The garage doors openers are back to normal, operating properly as they did before. As quickly as the receivers went deaf, they can hear again. I never did find the source of the problem.

Using my RTL-SDR and tuning from 300-400 MHz, I found them @ 309.5 MHz. I was expecting to see something else on the waterfall but the only signal present was the door opener transmitter. Not much noise at all from 300-400 MHz actually.

The dead Vizio soundbar ... that too did not emit any noise (that I could see) from 300-400 MHz. I expected it was the culprit by the test proved otherwise.

The neighbors to the immediate left and right of me did not have any garage door problems while mine was acting-up. So the problem was isolated to my house. Again, nothing new in the house, the same bulbs, electronics, and everything.

I am glad that they are back to an operational state and still wonder what the root cause of the problem was.

 

[RichardKramer]

A number of years ago I had a Wx transmitter that stopped working. I figured the batteries went bad, but they checked out good. I thought I may have damaged the unit with amateur tx as my antennas on the back deck are only feet away fromt the wx transmitter. I took the unit apart and there was a large spider with eggs laid inside. I cleaned the unit out and the tx started working again.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

The garage doors openers are back to normal, operating properly as they did before. As quickly as the receivers went deaf, they can hear again. I never did find the source of the problem.

Using my RTL-SDR and tuning from 300-400 MHz, I found them @ 309.5 MHz. I was expecting to see something else on the waterfall but the only signal present was the door opener transmitter. Not much noise at all from 300-400 MHz actually.

The dead Vizio soundbar ... that too did not emit any noise (that I could see) from 300-400 MHz. I expected it was the culprit by the test proved otherwise.

The neighbors to the immediate left and right of me did not have any garage door problems while mine was acting-up. So the problem was isolated to my house. Again, nothing new in the house, the same bulbs, electronics, and everything.

I am glad that they are back to an operational state and still wonder what the root cause of the problem was.

I am guessing you live in an area where there are military exercises from time to time. One just ended, they picked up their commo toys and went home.

 

[eorange]

My new garage door opener came with 2 built-in LED lights which are collectively brighter than the sun and there's zero interference.

 

[KMG54]

New smart meter on your house phoning home and learning your usage?