My Chamberlain garage door opener is vintage 1996, FCC ID: HBW1127 PN: 41A4252-7D. Worked great with decent range when it was new.
In the mean time I have a new garage door and a steel roof installed on my house. Ever since the range has reduced so much that it has become a real annoyance. 🙁
Now I have to be right in front of the garage door with my front bumper almost touching the door for the remote to work.
Well, I got annoyed and my wife complained enough so I finally looked at it. 😀
Over the years of been powered 24/7 eventually the charge capacitor dries up on the board and so this poor performing capacitor contributes to much reduced range.
I replaced the capacitor with a new and much lower ESR one, but that was not good enough to make a noticeable range improvement.
So I shifted gears higher, I installed a RF LNA SMA-67 with 14dB gain (up to 700MHz) and I replaced the stock wire antenna with a HB9CV antenna. This gives additional 4dBi antenna gain, it helps to make the receiver more sensitive & forward directional.
There is a very useful online antenna calculator I used.
For antenna construction I used 1/4" square brass tubing and 1/8" round brass tubing, a SMA connector, a 4/20pF trim capacitor, 2mm hex cap socket screws, 20mm OD x 50mm long PVC rod and solid 1.5mm wire.
I also used BNC panel female connector for the RF input and the Test Signal output.
Now I have easily some 200ft range through the closed garage door. That's good enough for me. I am certain if the antenna would be installed higher or outside range would be much much greater yet.
For those that are in the same boat getting annoyed by the range and that are interested in my tweak, below are some pictures of my construction.
In the mean time I have a new garage door and a steel roof installed on my house. Ever since the range has reduced so much that it has become a real annoyance. 🙁
Now I have to be right in front of the garage door with my front bumper almost touching the door for the remote to work.
Well, I got annoyed and my wife complained enough so I finally looked at it. 😀
Over the years of been powered 24/7 eventually the charge capacitor dries up on the board and so this poor performing capacitor contributes to much reduced range.
I replaced the capacitor with a new and much lower ESR one, but that was not good enough to make a noticeable range improvement.
So I shifted gears higher, I installed a RF LNA SMA-67 with 14dB gain (up to 700MHz) and I replaced the stock wire antenna with a HB9CV antenna. This gives additional 4dBi antenna gain, it helps to make the receiver more sensitive & forward directional.
There is a very useful online antenna calculator I used.
For antenna construction I used 1/4" square brass tubing and 1/8" round brass tubing, a SMA connector, a 4/20pF trim capacitor, 2mm hex cap socket screws, 20mm OD x 50mm long PVC rod and solid 1.5mm wire.
I also used BNC panel female connector for the RF input and the Test Signal output.
Now I have easily some 200ft range through the closed garage door. That's good enough for me. I am certain if the antenna would be installed higher or outside range would be much much greater yet.
For those that are in the same boat getting annoyed by the range and that are interested in my tweak, below are some pictures of my construction.
Attachments
LOL!
Kay, you are a riot! That "fix" is a very well over-engineered and well executed design. Installation is of course, neat and exactly proper as is your custom. 🙂
As always I am impressed by your workmanship and proper diagnoses of the root problem. You took an almost good enough design sold to the masses and just simply did it right. Great pictures by the way.
Best, Chris
Kay, you are a riot! That "fix" is a very well over-engineered and well executed design. Installation is of course, neat and exactly proper as is your custom. 🙂
As always I am impressed by your workmanship and proper diagnoses of the root problem. You took an almost good enough design sold to the masses and just simply did it right. Great pictures by the way.
Best, Chris
