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Garage Door Opener Programming

Ian

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Aug 23, 2006
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This isn't a circuit question, but it's electronics related so I figured it be on topic for this forum ;).

We moved house a couple of months ago, and we've got a RF garage door opener in the new place. We were given a remote key fob to open the door, but I noticed there was a white panel inside the house with two buttons on it. The previous owner didn't know what it was (although it has enough finger prints on it to suggest it has been used).

I popped the cover off and took it to bits, and it looks like a wall mounted RF panel. However, pressing the buttons does nothing and doesn't open the garage. I guess it must be programmable without physically connecting it to anything.

There's a pinhole on the front panel which leads to a tiny surface mount button, which I'm guessing has something to do with cloning an RF device. I've tried pressing this while holding the other buttons, whilst using the other keyfob button at the same time, in the hope that it would be able to clone it that way... but no luck.

Has anyone got any ideas on how I could program this thing? :)

I've attached photos of the wall mounted PCB (front and back), the keyfob and wall mounted housing.

There's no obvious identifying features on the wall mounted PCB, other than a code on the back (0120981A). The keyfob is made by BFT, but the wall mounted remote doesn't appear on the BFT site and seems to be made by a 3rd party.
 

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GreenGiant

Feb 9, 2012
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All wall buttons for garage door openers that I have seen were hard wired into the unit itself

I know it sounds ridiculous but you haven't addressed it... have you checked the battery?

My only other thought would be to get an RF sniffer and see what signals are floating around when you press the buttons on the wall unit and the keyfob.

or maybe google different patterns of programming these things, I know that my friends car had one in it that he could program but it was a 2 minute process involving multiple timed presses
 

Ian

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Yep, I've put a fresh pair of CR2016's in it - it lights up when I press the buttons, but does nothing else. There are the two controller buttons linked up to the front panel, then another button which is accessed through a pinhole on the mount.

I've tried all of the patterns that I can think of to program the unit, but I must be missing a key combo or something. I'm hoping that someone may recognise the unit and know the model # so I can find a manual.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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No, I can vouch for the existence of a wall mounted RF door opener.

Has the door opener been replaced? It may be that the fobs you have are for the new one and the thing on the wall is for a replaced opener. Check for any manufacturer details on both.

Of course it could also be that this remote (the unit on the wall) is for something else...

Oh, it could also be that you need to press a magic button on the door opener as well to allow it to synchronise with this device. The fact that it doesn't have any options to select a "secret code" suggests to me that it uses a rolling code.
 

Ian

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I'm not sure if any of the setup has been replaced before - the previous owner didn't seem to know anything about it (or knew it didn't work and kept quiet!). I've had a good scout around and can't see any markings/manufacturer on the wall mounted RF unit.

You could be right that the unit does something else, but I can't think of anything else RF that we may have. I'll get in contact with BFT who make the keyfobs and see if they've seen this unit before. If it's a rolling code then I may just forget about the wall mounted unit and stick with the keyfob, as it's fine for now :).
 

Ian

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I had some help in finding the manual - it turns out that the wall control was also from BFT:

http://www.bft.it/repository/prodotti/download/D811395_01.pdf

You were right about the rolling code! I'm going to do some more reading up, but looks like I'm all set to start programming :).

Just thought I'd update the thread in case the manual helps anyone else with the same problem in future.
 
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