Door Lock Actuator

How to control an electric garage door lock from an Elk M1 (or other) system

There is an abundance of Garage Door posts and some write up's about monitoring garage doors here on CocoonTech.com so I decided to document what I did for others to use, modify, copy, etc...

Disclaimer: This write up is for educational purposes only.

So...I just built a garage. I installed a Liftmaster LM3800 door Opener. It's great. It is a side mount (jackshaft) opener that works very well and is extremely quiet. It comes with an electric bolt that gets mounted on to the garage door track. The operator locks and unlocks the bolt. It works very well. So well that I decided to rip it a part and see what makes it tick as Liftmaster tech support was not very helpful. They had me on the phone for 45 minutes and basically made this locking device sound very complicated.

I ordered a new replacement unit from an online source for about $37.00 plus shipping. The part number is 12-41A6102. This one even came with the two ¼x20 button head screws (the website said screws not included) and a template for easy mounting.

I temporarily hooked up the replacement unit to the existing garage door operator. I tapped in to the bolt wiring and operated the garage door opener with a digital O Scope connected. The device operates on 13vdc from the operator and draws about 1.1 to 1.3 amps. The pulse is so quick that it was hard to get an exact maximum reading so give your self a little wiggle room with the amperage estimates.

I removed the bolt from the garage door opener and installed the unit on the workshop garage door that does not have an opener due to overhead space constraints. I followed the manufacturer's directions but I also added a few components.

I added a small reed switch and magnet to follow the status of the bolt. I used some self tappers to mount the magnet portion to the manual handle after flattening the opposite side (wall side) of the handle a bit so the magnet would sit flush on the black plastic piece. The picture shows the mounting holes and the magnet which is not mounted. If your screws are too long you may have to trim the bottom one down to be able to get to the Philips screw hidden behind the black manual operation handle. The hole to get to the screw is on the bottom. You don't have to take the handle mounting screw completely out to slide the handle off, just loosen it a bit.

Once you install the magnet, temporarily mount the bolt on the door track. Then, connect the reed switch portion to a meter and find the best location on the wall to mount it so that it has continuity when the bolt is out or locked. The reed switch is normally closed with the magnet in place.

2008 Caravan power lock actuator, door panel removal ...

I have a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan minivan with power locks - the locks work fine except the drivers door - when you try to unlock it you can see movement and it trying to pop up to the unlock position - it just doesn't go up. Sometimes it will move a little up and once in a while it does go all the way up, but most times it just sits in the locked position - so it looks like power is getting to the mechainism. First - how do you remove the door panel? Second - is this a common problem? Is replacing the lock actuator the reccomended fix? The door panel comes off by removing the small trim panel adjacent to the mirror, then remove the 2 screws in the door panel, 1 in the pull cup and the other behind the door handle. Both of the screws may be behind small covers. once you have these screws out then slide a plastic trim tool between the door panel and the door and pop the door panel off of the door. This may take some effort as these clips are pretty tight. Some of the clips may stay in the door. Before reinstalling the panel you will want to remove those clips from the door and reinstall them in the panel. OMG - this is a horrible job (but thanks for the great information!). I've replaced windows, doors, handles, locks, ... before in various vehicles and I figured there would be a new twist to this, but I can't believe this is so hard. Is there any easy way out of this - like replacing the top end of the door lock knob (the thing that actually pops up and down when you lock the door) so that you can grab it to unlock it and just use the metal key to unlock the door? Any idea how much a mechanic would charge for this job? I can tell you this they are a PITA!!! I have done several of them for various reasons. Unfortunately not much way around replacing that latch. You can usually expect to pay close to 2 hours labor. Not sure what the labor rate is where you are but here in Hagerstown our labor rate is $93.00. Plus the price of the part. If you want to just use the metal key to unlock the door then that is always an option until it locks up and that no longer works.

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