Basement & Garage > Garage Door Openers 101 For decades, homeowners interested in automating their garage doors had three choices: chain-, belt- or screw-driven openers. That has changed with the introduction of residential jackshaft and direct-drive models. Some of the conventional wisdom about the three standard options has changed, too. Standard Garage Door Openers Chain-driven models include a chain—similar to a bicycle chain—that pushes or pulls a trolley (carriage) that connects to a metal bar, called a J-arm, that is affixed to the garage door. If your garage is situated under a bedroom, the noise generated by metal-to-metal contact and vibration may be a nuisance. If the garage is detached, it probably isn’t. Newer chain-driven units with DC motors and soft start-and-stop technology are significantly quieter than older units. Belt-driven openers are similar in design to chain-driven models, except a reinforced belt is what pushes or pulls the trolley.

The belts may be made of fiberglass, polyurethane, or steel-reinforced rubber. Belt-driven openers are just as reliable as chain-driven openers but quieter. The negative for belt-driven openers is that they cost about $30 to $60 more than chain-driven units. Related: Product Showcase: Garage Doors With screw-driven openers, the trolley rides on a threaded-steel rod as a motor rotates the rod. Because this design has fewer moving parts, manufacturers claim that it requires less maintenance than other systems. Screw-driven openers, however, have run into trouble in regions that have large swings in temperature from summer to winter. In addition, they are noisier than belt-driven openers. That said, manufacturers of screw-driven openers have recently made improvements with regard to temperature sensitivity and noise. In addition, screw-driven openers are among speediest these days as well, opening a door at 10- to 12-in. per second compared to the standard 6- to 8-in. per second.

(For safety, all garage door openers close doors at a slower 7-in. per second.)garage door opener repair league city tx Jackshaft and Direct-Drive Garage Door Openersold doors for sale in greensboro nc Jackshaft openers, unlike the other systems, mount on the wall beside the garage door. automatic garage doors bangaloreA 24-v DC motor drives pulleys and cables that turn the torsion bar and raise the garage door. pella patio door model numberWhen the motor is reversed, cable tension is loosened and the door lowers. This system is reliable and quiet. In addition, it keeps the ceiling free for overhead storage and is well-suited to garages with high or low ceilings.

Jackshaft openers are more expensive than most other types of openers. Direct-drive units are claimed to be the quietest of all garage door units, because there is only one moving part—the motor. Developed and manufactured in Germany, the motor (not a trolley) travels along a stationary chain that is embedded in an overhead rail. A J-arm links the moving motor to the door. Direct-drive units cost about the same as belt-driven units and come with lifetime warranties. DC-Powered Garage Door Openers DC motors are quieter, faster, smaller, lighter, smoother operating, and more efficient than AC motors. Many come with variable speeds, enabling soft-start and soft-stop technology. They can also be equipped with battery backup systems. With newer units, the battery is integrated with the opener motor housing. When the power fails, your garage door openers will continue to function for up to two days, depending upon how often you open and close the door. Battery backup will also ensure the continued operation of other functions, including garage lighting, security, and safety alerts.

DC motors with brushes do not have the same life expectancy as AC motors, but brushless DC motors do. For more on garages, consider: Picking the Right Garage Door Quick Tip: Garage Storage Solutions Video: Dream Garage and Boat Storage Garage Door Opener FAQs Garage Door Opener Questions How do I buy a garage door opener from Overhead Door? Overhead Door products are only sold through authorized Red Ribbon Distributors. distributor locator to find a representative near you. ​​What is the difference between the Screw, Belt and Chain drive garage door openers? Screw Drive — powerful, fast and quiet. Maximum power for heavy doors. Belt Drive — quiet and smooth performance. Ideal for garages adjacent to living areas. Chain Drive — rugged and reliable. Suitable for most garage doors. How can I get a new remote control for my Garage Door opener? How do I program my wireless keypad to open and close my garage door opener?

You can get the programming instructions for the OKP and OWKP wireless keypad in the support section of our website.​​ How can I program a garage door opener to work with my HomeLink® system? To program the HomeLink® transceiver, some vehicles may require the ignition to be turned on or the vehicle to be running. For additional garage door opener help, view the HomeLink® programming instructions. ​​ What are Series I and Series II electronics for wall consoles and buttons?We’ve talked in depth about garage doors and their vulnerabilities on ITS, but today we wanted to highlight a discovery made by Samy Kamkar using a children’s toy and some common materials. The device he’s created, dubbed the OpenSesame, can open a garage door using a brute force attack in less than 10 seconds. Before we get into the details of the vulnerability, let’s explain a bit about how automatic garage door openers developed. The first electric garage door opener was introduced in 1926, but didn’t gain in popularity until after World War II.

These openers usually involved a wired switch being run from the door motor to a keypad or button that could be pressed from inside the vehicle. As technology improved, the wireless remote was created and used radio signals to transmit a code from the remote control to the opener itself. Once the code was transmitted, the opener would receive it and run the motor to draw the door up or down. In the 1960’s, as automatic openers were more widely adopted, it was discovered that the doors all used the same code. Since the doors used the same signal and code, any remote could open any door. Thieves quickly discovered that by purchasing a few remotes from different manufacturers, they could open nearly any door. This led the garage door industry to introduce new openers that featured changeable codes. Manufacturers wanted to design an opener with a code that could be set by the owner in case they needed to replace or add new remotes. These new programmable openers featured a series of 8-12 dip switches that could be set in the up or down position to create a unique code.

This meant that for an 8 switch remote there were 28 or 256 possible codes and on a 12 switch remote there were 212 or 4,096 possible codes. This greatly decreased the chances of the door’s code being matched by a thief armed with a standard remote, as they would need to sit outside and physically set each dip switch and test the new code. This might sound like a large number of possible codes but in binary terms, it’s not much. In fact, using a two character alphanumeric password would be more secure than this and would provide more combinations. The method that Samy Kamkar used to attack these type of garage doors was a brute force attack, in which he sent every possible code (4,096) to the door until it would open. The device he used to perform this brute force attack was a slightly modified IM-ME children’s toy. He found that if he transmitted each code five times with a wait period behind the code, he could transmit every possible code to the door in about 29 minutes.

That’s a pretty scary fact as theoretically, a thief could sit in a car outside your home for that long without being noticed. Unfortunately, that’s not the worst of it as Samy discovered that he could dramatically shorten the length of time it took to open the door using math. Samy found that by transmitting each code only once rather than five times, the time was reduced to 6 minutes. Many times, remotes transmit the code multiple times in case of interference, but there’s rarely ever any, so transmitting it once seems to work just fine. Not only that, he also discovered that removing the wait times between the codes took the time down to 3 minutes. So if there wasn’t a wait time between codes, how could the opener know when one code stopped and another began? The answer lies in the fact that the openers use what’s called a Bit Shift Register, where it’s only looking for a part of the code to match up with the actual code. This is a very insecure method to check the code and results in a dramatic decrease in the overall time it takes to send all the codes to the opener since the opener is checking all possible permutations of a code and doesn’t have a defined start and end point.

Knowing that the opener used a Bit Shift Register, Kamkar was able to apply The De Brujin Sequence to transmit all possible codes much quicker and managed to take the total time down to just 8.7 seconds. Luckily, most automatic openers today aren’t affected by this exploit since they use “Rolling” codes, where the code is changed every time the door is opened. However, there are some manufacturers that are still producing openers with dip switches. These manufacturers include Nortek / Linear / Multi-Code and NSCD/North Shore Commercial Door. Older models from vendors such as Chamberlain and Liftmaster can also be vulnerable so you should double check to ensure that your door does not feature this technology. The best method to check your opener is to check the remote. If you open the remote and find dip switches, you should upgrade the opening system immediately. Look for a system that offers Rolling Codes, Hopping Codes, Intellicode or Security Plus. The remote above is a good example of a Rolling Code remote because it lacks dip switches.