Garage door open indicator light?

Have any of you got a light/LED in your house which indicates when your garage door is open? Occasionally I leave my automatic garage door open for passers by to help themselves to its contents and I’d really like not to do that. Fortunately so far nothing has gone missing but despite trying my best to remember occasionally I forget and leave it open all night.

I don’t want a chime when it opens and closes but an LED indicator which comes on and stays on all the time it’s open and only goes off when it’s closed.

I have looked at simple plug in solutions but can’t find anything so am thinking of a 12v LED diode, burglar alarm wire, a 12v DC adapter plugged into the mains to drive the circuit and a normally closed magnetic reed switch. I would put the LED into an existing light switch face plate in the living room.

How have you solved this problem without replacing yourself for someone more reliable?

fridges use a simple mechanical switch, don’t they? – get down the local flytipping site and take one off one of the many exhibits

push to break microswitch, old phone charger and some LED lights..

Quite like the idea of a magnetic reed switch as supposed to a switch which requires physical contact so that when wind hits the garage door it is less likely to false alarm.

I’m a bit surprised there’s no plug and play wireless option available to buy or maybe there is and I’m searching for the wrong thing.

I have too many locks on my garage door to consider an electric one.  Paranoid.

Yeah the electric door came with the house and while it’s nice and convenient it’s easier than a manual door to leave open accidentally. I sat on the remote when it was in my pocket once and the door opened until I next went outside :-/

If you’ve got a certain type of motor, you can connect it to a philips hue bulb and have that turn red or something when the door is open. Not sure what brands are compatible with this though. I know mine isn’t!!

Yikes…

If you have the type of door that is an up and over or sectional door then you can attach a magnetic contactless switch like you have for a burglar alarm and have a very simple circuit with an LED or something to indicate if the door is open.

Personally I’m trying to suss out how to have a battery back up for the door. If we were to trip out the circuit breakers the consumer unit is in the garage so wouldn’t be able to open it to get access to it.

Go back to a manual door?

Gogogate2

I use it on mine, does my gate and 2 garage doors. You get an app on your phone,l that lets you can see if it’s open or closed and can use it to close it.

you can even add a camera

Mine can be set to auto close after a set period of time….maybe worth having a look in the manual

The controller often has a light attached?  Use its own switching circuit?

Mine often stays open for extended periods, with a selection of bikes right at the front.

Interested to see what you come up with. Auto closing would likely result in me being locked out the house.

My father has a reed switch and magnet connected to some electronics that modulate a signal onto a carrier superimposed onto the mains wiring between the garage and the house. Inside the house there’s a receiver. It took him years to get the encoding scheme reliable over long distances but it works quite well now, although every so often the magnet and switch go out of alignment.

Me, I’d use an Arduino with built-in WiFi because I’m not very good at drilling holes through walls.

Your proposed solution seems much simpler than both of those. Would be tempted to use a conventional led and resistor just in case voltage drop is an issue (which you wouldn’t expect it to be pushing 30mA @ 12v down a 20m or so run).

My dad & I have both left ours open at times – I think one of those wide view mirrors planted in the opposite neighbours garden would at least enable me to check without going out in the rain 🤔

Last night I was pondering a similar question. I have three external upvc doors, each with a key operated lock. I was wondering if I could somehow hook those up to something that would let me know if the locks were engaged or open. Had a quick look on the net but found nothing, other than electronic locks.

Thinking about the garage door, the best solution mentioned so far would be to replicate the fridge door. The switches they use are robust, don’t need to be super accurately positioned, designed to deal with cold/damp etc. Way simpler than any of the other suggestions.

Ok, managed to get it working 🙂

I’ve set it up like this…

3 pin plug into a socket in the garage leads into a 12V LED driver (£14) with 1.5mm 2 core and earth cable.

+ve output from the LED Driver goes into a Normally Open/Normally Closed Reed Switch (£9) which is mounted at the side of the garage door. From the reed switch is a cable running through a hole I drilled in my garage wall with an SDS drill and a long 10mm bit, across the hall and into the back of the lounge light switch to the LED which has a built in resistor (£5.50 for 5). I drilled a hole in the light switch face plate and mounted the red LED into a holder (£6 for 5) in the hole I made in the switch plate then connected the LED back to the -ve terminal on the LED Driver.

Now as soon as my garage opens, the LED lights up red, the moment the door fully shuts, the LED goes off. Really pleased with it.

I’m thinking of improving it.

1. I’ll remove the 3 pin plug and connect it to my garage light for power instead.

2. The LED not lit up could mean either of two things, it could mean the garage door is closed or it could mean something in the circuit has failed and the door could be wide open! The reed switch I bought was a NO/NC one which means it has 3 wires on it. I’m thinking of wiring up a green LED to the unused wire and mounting it in the same living room light switch so that when the door is closed the green LED will be on and when it’s open the red LED will be on. No LEDs on means circuit not working.

3. Also the LED holders I bought are little crappy black things you see in aftermarket LEDs fitted to car dashboard. I’ve seen some nice chrome ones which will match the light switch better.

Great idea, would love to do the same. Any chance you could post up links to the parts you bought please?

Your idea sound easy, workable and cheap. Go for it.

My only caveat would be that burglar alarm reed switches are surprisingly sensitive and distance and alignment seem critical.  You might still get false alarms when the wind blows (but i suppose your led would just flash a bit).

Do you even need a power supply?  Given the LED is normally going to be off you might get away with a simple Alkaline battery for a few years at a time.

Ooo this really could become first worldly for the terminally idle/forgetful…

I don’t usually forget to close the door  I often forget to turn off the lights… I want a little tell tale on the switch in the hall that lights when the lights are on. Its a normal 3 switch plastic domestic thingy without any tell tales and I can’t find anything suitable on’t net. I’m not a sparky but can use a screwdriver without impaling myself and played with Mecano as a kid.

How do I do that please o wise one’s?

My garage lights are on a PIR, so they turn off by themselves after a while if there’s no-one there. It’s easier to use than having to fumble for the switch every time as well…

The original switch is still there as an override in case I’m doing something that doesn’t involve moving much to avoid being plunged into darkness.

The sensors are only about a tenner from screwfix.

@boblo

What you want to do is described here, look at the answer from Lokkars Daisy on page 2

https://community.screwfix.com/threads/neon-20a-switch-as-light-switch.126791/page-2

It should work in theory but you say you already have a 3 gang switch so you’d need to replace that with a 2 gang and install a new back box next to it for the above solution which uses a neon indicator switch.

These are the parts I bought. I’ve forgotten how to post pics of the setup on here 🙁

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/reed-switches/2897806/?sra=pstk

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/sensor-switch-magnets/2897812/?sra=pstk

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/visible-leds/2285607/?sra=pstk

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/led-bezels/2622999/?sra=pstk

10m of 2 core flux

https://www.cef.co.uk/catalogue/products/3981360-12w-12v-dc-constant-voltage-led-driver?q=1578-9919

That’s great, thankyou

Another easy way could be a cheap eBay Wi-fi camera and an old phone on a stand plugged in with screensaver off.

I have a motion detector alarm set up in my garage so that would alert me if any passer by would be entering the garage.

Ok, spoke to an electrician today who said if I add a relay into the circuit I can have a green led for closed and a red led for open. Picking up a relay tomorrow and I’ve got a mini mock up circuit prepared

Bingo! Using the £15 relay I’ve now got a green led when the garage door is closed and a red led when the door is open (ajar or gaping). Both LEDs are housed in a light switch in my living room.

Connecting all the tiny wires was fiddly. I bought some cool little Wago connector blocks but my wires were too thin for them sadly. Used normal connector blocks instead and a £5 adaptable box to house the relay and led driver on the garage wall.

“Using the £15 relay”

How much!

Did your electrician friend also mention the effect inductive loads have on reed switches?

15.91+VAT to be exact.

No, is there a something I should know?