Just blink!

[antonio_robateau]

I suggest that you give us a CLEAR exact specification of your ideal requirement. There have been many suggestions that seem to meet your original specification but you seem to have found a problem with all of them. One particular thing is not clear. does the door have to be moving to flash the light or just NOT at the fully closed or fully open positions. The fact that you have now told us that it is a roller door means an optical encoder could be fitted to the roller shaft to detect motion. (Either when driven by hand or by the motor.) This could be as simple as painting black and white stripes at some point on the shaft and mounting a reflective opto sensor close to that point on the shaft. Adding sound is not a problem. If you used the limit switch suggestion a push button could be added to cancel the alarm. It could go back to normal next time the door reached one of the limit switches.

Les.

Sorry, it is my first time in this forum and I am a hobbyist. So far I see that the responses have been more specific than my requests.

I want the warning light trigger to be any goor roller motion. No motion, no warning light at all. During motion, blinking warning light (as I stated at the beginning that my knowledge has only lead me to a design that turns it on solid during motion). Blinking has stumped me.

And I do appreciate all your inputs. Every morning before I go out to bake in the hot summer sun (yes, where I am it is now summer while in many other parts of the world it is simultaneously winter) to run wires, I eagerly login to read this helpful thread.

So even before we finish... THANK YOU!!!

 

[AnalogKid]

I vote for the limit switches. These can be magnetic sensors like ones used on windows and doors in alarm systems, or physical switches that can handle 110 V / 10 A directly. Either way, if the door is not firmly positioned at either end of its travel, it is declared to be in motion / in the middle / in the alarm condition. Pretty simple control system.

Separate from that is the alarm condition indicator. A wall wart such as a USB charger plus a piezo beeper will beep continuously until the door is moved to either end. The same wall wart can power a cycle timer relay board (ebay) that can drive any 110 V / 220 V light or whatever. Or a simple 555 oscillator board and a solid state relay. Or or or. Do you want to build a circuit, or just wire up function modules?

ak

 

[antonio_robateau]

I'm assuming it needs to flash when the door is in motion hence the limit switches. However, instead of flashing a rotating beacon could be used.

Mike.

This may have already been clarified further down, as I think I missed this post, but yes, blinking while in motion, however, the garage roller door may at times deliberately be left half open. In that case, it would rest within both limits where no motion is occurring and therefore no warning lights are desired/needed.

 

[antonio_robateau]

Blink once when motion starts; blink continuously during motion, then stop; blink a short pattern then remain on steadily ? ? ? You question needs many more details.

ak

Sorry for replying out of order, I think I had missed this post.

The same way a car turn indicator light blinks is perfect. I am more familiar with cars than this at present. Even the backup signal sound some trucks make when in reverse is perfect.

 

[antonio_robateau]

What make and model of garage door operator are you using?

Some have facilities for external status monitoring, or for connection an optional adapter to do that - eg. the Hormann one I have has a status interface unit available that has relay contact outputs for open & closed, which I've got connected in to my home automation system.

If yours has something like that, it would just need both relay normally closed contacts in series to drive a strobe or beacon.

Thanks for that... that did cross my mind that the installer (who already did a most basic installation) may have such an add-on option in stock.

It is just a matter of time for me to see them again (as they are still waiting for me to finish wiring up the yard to test the controls from inside the house). They already tested it at the motor box outside directly without any wires coming from the house yet. I have been spending every day digging, cutting electrical tubing, bending pipes, and pulling wires thought the yard as fast as I can to then call them again and repeat the yard test from inside the house.

What they installed has only limit settings to stop motion at the limits they set it at, no warning lights, no obstruction sensors, nothing else.

I have purchased 110V AC LED light strips to go down along side the garage door rails (which look awesome!) and thought I could later find a way to make it blink by the time I'm done connecting up all the wires (for the motor, yard outlets, street lights, yard lights, future water pump, etc.). Getting stuck lead me here.

So, in short, I either call them ahead of time and inform them that I'm still delayed in wiring the yard (!!) and want to know if they sell a warning light module, or we press on independently and maybe learn a thing or two. I'm game either way.

 

[antonio_robateau]

I'm assuming it needs to flash when the door is in motion hence the limit switches. However, instead of flashing a rotating beacon could be used.

Mike.

Ah! I finally understand what you meant by a rotating beacon... you mean a rotating light/reflector like a ship light house or old-fashioned police car.

A neighbor has/had that... it terrifies the neighborhood!

 

[antonio_robateau]

He added the requirement that it needed to work if the door was manually opened/closed! See post #5.

Mike.

So much passion! So much fun!

 

[antonio_robateau]

If the manual chain is a built-in part of the drive system (rather than the manual "disconnect" on a linear track type), that should still operate the internal limits.

Not sure where you are going with that, but the manual chain goes up to a gear that is normally disconnected and free-wheeling until an adjacent chain is pulled and kept pulled, which moves the other chain gear onto the roller and decouples the motor from the roller simultaneously, basically moves the drive train from the motor over to the chain while pulled.

 

[antonio_robateau]

Is there any place to mount a photo-detector, rotary encoder or small magnet/hall-effect sensor?

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Simple answer... yes, there is room.
Long answer... I'd have to go open it back up and look around to investigate that further.

 

[antonio_robateau]

Looks like rjenkingsgb read it as "your ideal design (is) where if the garage door is intentionally stopped halfway the warning light blinks forever" as your requirement. The problem is the above sentence can be read in two ways. I'm guessing you mean't the other way.

Mike.

Hahahahahaha!... I now see what you mean... the ambiguous english language!

No motion - no blinking. Up or down motion (same as any roller/motor/gear motion) - blinking.

Sorry.

 

[antonio_robateau]

I vote for the limit switches. These can be magnetic sensors like ones used on windows and doors in alarm systems, or physical switches that can handle 110 V / 10 A directly. Either way, if the door is not firmly positioned at either end of its travel, it is declared to be in motion / in the middle / in the alarm condition. Pretty simple control system.

Separate from that is the alarm condition indicator. A wall wart such as a USB charger plus a piezo beeper will beep continuously until the door is moved to either end. The same wall wart can power a cycle timer relay board (ebay) that can drive any 110 V / 220 V light or whatever. Or a simple 555 oscillator board and a solid state relay. Or or or. Do you want to build a circuit, or just wire up function modules?

ak

Almost a winner... except we accidentally went down the wrong path... I meant to say/mean that I do NOT want any warning when there is no motion, whether it is all the way up or down. The motor controller will already know what all the way up and down should be, and will have a button for that. The warning light is not for the operator of the door but the unsuspecting passers-by or persons leaning on the door posts or talking with their fingers near the rails.

So I may want the door halfway at times. No warning light is needed during no motion.

I just reviewed some of the detector components - light interruption detector (as I call it), rotary controller, and magnet. And the closest so far to an "any motion" device seems to be a light interruption detector, where I would need to figure out some sort of slotted ring around the motor end of the long door roller hub. Hmmm...

 

[antonio_robateau]

Looks like this thread is done for the day, and I have some investigating to do.

Yes, I'd love to build this myself, but I would feel a fool not just asking if such a add-on module already exists EXACTLY as I desire.

So, as I go back out into the hot baking sun (sorry if you're buried in snow reading this) to run the doorbell and side door lock switch wires, I'll call the technicians and ask (and apologize for taking so long in wiring up the yard, having them do the final test, and paying them the last $$$ due upon completion).

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

The threaded magnet will work too with say something like https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/littelfuse-inc/55100-2H-02-A/F11458-ND/4780450 on the static side.

If your lucky, the amount of times the magnet passes by the sensor becomes the blink rate. You'll need a handfull of parts to make a one-shot or monostable and possibly a divide by n counter to get the blink rate. If you need it faster add more magnets. 2x, 3x ... You would probably want it on for at least a second every rising or falling edge.

Analog devices Timerblox may be one way to get "blinks" and "monostables". https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/l/linear-tech/timerblox

 

[be80be]

Just use a

Current switches are used when an application needs to signal when the current flow in a system exceeds or drops below a certain value. ... A current switch is used to monitor this current level. A set of contacts will change state from either a closed condition to an open condition or vice versa

very easy to use and only works when door is moving.