Hacking the motor on a garage door opener

[seamlyne]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but google isn't helpful. If you google the word "hack" in relationship to anything else all you get is sites showing you how to break the law in some way. That's not what I want.

In summary, what I want to do is turn on/off a garage door opener motor with a light switch. Direction doesn't matter, travel doesn't matter. I just want the motor on.

I've got a project that needs a motor and a gear box to take a fast motor down to low RPM, and a garage door opener has what I need. I picked one up at the local ReStore, and now I'm trying to hack in to power it. Assuming the motor and all the circuitry works, I'm trying to figure out how to get the coded portion out of the circuit and hardwire the power cord straight to the motor. There's some electronics in the way, however, so I'm afraid it's not as straightforward as what I just described.

I can post pictures, but wanted to see if anyone was willing to bite before I did.

Thanks!

- Bill

[gilbdoor]

You can simply bypass the circuit board completely and just wire ground into the capacitor (after the circuit board). All the circuit board is doing is receiving a single and staring the motor in which ever direction it needs to go.

[garagedoctorinc]

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[Speedbump]

Does it matter which direction it turns? The most confusing circuitry in a motor is making it turn both ways. Most other motors have the direction of rotation built in. Two way motors don't. So you have to kick it in the desired direction to get it started. That circuit board might not be just a radio, it probably has something to do with direction of travel.

It doesn't look the Garagedoctor is going to give any free advice!