Using HomeLink to open your garage door

I set up the HomeLink to open up my garage door this past weekend. It went rather smoothly (had to repeat once), but when I tried to use my existing remotes or the outdoor keypad the garage door would not open. The HomeLink still worked though.

I have a Chamberlain Whisperquiet. Luckily, the manual had the answer for me on p. 37, programming for multiple devices. I was able to re-program the key and the remotes.

The moral of the story don't panic and read the manual.

Would seem that you held the learn/reset button down too long on the Chaimberlain opener.
All's well that ends well.

Funny thing, on my 24-year-old openers, setting up the Leaf was no problem. But the 2007 Lexus then wouldn't open the doors. All the handheld openers continued to work.

Of course, I tried reprogramming everything from the ground up. No matter how many times I erased and reprogrammed the door openers, homelinks, etc, the Lexus and the Leaf can not both open a given door, either door, but the handheld openers have no problem coexisting with one or the other. So the Leaf gets one door, and the Lexus gets the other.

I'm blaming the 1980's electronics in the openers, but WTF??

I have it working with a Chamberlain and Genie at the same time.

My only gripe is the range seems a little weak.

arnold

arnolddeleon said:

I have it working with a Chamberlain and Genie at the same time.

My only gripe is the range seems a little weak.

arnold

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I've noticed that too.

Yup. I have to get right up to the garage door for it to open/close. However sometimes it works from the street. :roll:

Edit: it seems that it closes fine from the street but opening requires me to be very close (almost hitting the door) and pressing the button at least 20 times. Maybe it's sending a different code each time I press the button until it finds one that works.

arnolddeleon said:

My only gripe is the range seems a little weak.

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Weird - mine works from the 2nd house down the street - range is WAY better than the remotes. In my Prius the remotes don't work until you're in the driveway, but worked from 1 house down in my old Subaru.

nader said:

Edit: it seems that it closes fine from the street but opening requires me to be very close (almost hitting the door) and pressing the button at least 20 times. Maybe it's sending a different code each time I press the button until it finds one that works.

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Try just holding the button down until it opens. Anyway, that's what it says in the manual.

It may just be the length of time you hold the button down. My handheld opener works with a single quick press, but the other one (formerly used by my wife before she got an Acura with Homelink) took longer. We programmed her Acura with her unit and the Acura requires a much longer hold than my handheld unit did. Then I got the Leaf and had to repeat the process several times to get the Leaf's Homelink to accept the signal. Now both work fine, but the Leaf's Homelink requires a very long button hold just like the Acura. I don't know why this is, but the Homelink seems to add temporal "padding" to the actual sequence required. So rather than pressing 20 times, just hold the button longer and see if this works.

I have found this to be a useless feature I could easily do without. My regular opener clipped to the sun visor does a fine job, just as it always has. I only have one door to open, once a day.

TT

I've had this feature in my Prius too and was never really thrilled with it until I did some research and made some changes. Tips I found online (on the HomeLink website I think) include the following:

• If your garage door opener has a little curled up wire antenna behind it, straighten the wire and bend it so it hangs straight down. This will get it out from behind the metal housing (which can block the signal) and give it a larger area to pickup the signal on.
• When programming the HomeLink mirror, make sure your current opener has a fresh battery.
• Try holding the current opener at varying distances from two inches to a foot when programming the HomeLink and test until you find which one works best.

After doing these, it works MUCH better now. I can open it reliably (with about a 3 second button push) from about 5 or 6 car lengths away. Hopefully this helps you too!

One of the first things I did was program the home link. I found the range limited compared to the transmitter that came with my garage door opener. Also, I had to hold the button longer and the button was a little hard to find at night. After about two weeks it quit working so instead of reprograming, I just use the superior garage door transmitter clipped to the useless visor.

But I really like the car!

I had to replace both my garage door openers to get the Leaf homelink and my wife's Lexus homelink to work simultaneously. I had 10-year-old Genie's and swapped them out for Chamberlains.

The Genies could be programmed to work with any combination of handheld openers and either the Leaf or the Lexus, but not both. The Chamberlains work as you'd expect. Baffling.

The Leaf does have a weak homelink. It generally works if I press the homelink button while the car is in the driveway crawling toward the door (moving through strong and weak spots in signal propagation to the opener).

DeaneG said:

The Leaf does have a weak homelink. It generally works if I press the homelink button while the car is in the driveway crawling toward the door (moving through strong and weak spots in signal propagation to the opener).

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My experience is that the Leaf's Homelink is weak but works adequately when temperatures are cold, but its range is often too short to open the door when the temperature is hot. The control that came with the door installation works fine at all temperatures.

I absolutely LOVE Homelink! No more pulling down the visor to hit the button and no more replacing batteries. My LEAF Homelink actually works much better than our old remote in all temperatures. The door opens quicker (short button hold) and from much farther away. The button for the opener is on the left end, so it's easy to push at night without it being lit. Although, that would be a good improvement. I'll have to read all of those 'suggestions' and see if anyone has mentioned back lighting for the opener and the lock/unlock switches.

LEAFfan said:

My LEAF Homelink actually works much better than our old remote in all temperatures.

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+1 my old remote is pretty old.

Now if someone grabs your keys, the thief can not only get in the car, but the car will tell him how to get to your house and let him in. I programmed our home location a few blocks away, but figure he'll be able to find our address somewhere.

solartim said:

Now if someone grabs your keys, the thief can not only get in the car, but the car will tell him how to get to your house and let him in. I programmed our home location a few blocks away, but figure he'll be able to find our address somewhere.

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If you charge at home, it'll be shown on your nav screen as a charging location. That's why I have a lock and an alarm.

solartim said:

Now if someone grabs your keys, the thief can not only get in the car, but the car will tell him how to get to your house and let him in. I programmed our home location a few blocks away, but figure he'll be able to find our address somewhere.

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Uh, your registration is typically in your glovebox (with address) and even if you don't have homelink, you typically carry a garage transceiver. No new risk here.

drees said:

solartim said:

Now if someone grabs your keys, the thief can not only get in the car, but the car will tell him how to get to your house and let him in. ..

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Uh, your registration is typically in your glovebox (with address) and even if you don't have homelink, you typically carry a garage transceiver. No new risk here.

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Thanks for putting things in perspective and leading me to smile... Meanwhile we auger on in vis a vis too many people and too much stuff.