I plan to install a hard wired garage door opener in my 2015 LX. The push button will be a blue LED momentary switch installed in one of the blank positions at the lower left of the dash. The switch is on order; but hasn't arrived yet.

The remote will be somewhat modified and hidden under the dash. The remote is here. The following pictures will show what I have done, so far.

I ordered The Stinger remote from Amazon for $19.00. I chose this one because it is 12V; and is compatible with my Genie garage door opener. I used it for a week just to be sure it worked. It did.



Removal of the cover shows that The Stinger is powered by a 12V A23 battery. The battery is held in place by flat spring steel terminals. The terminals are sized so that 3/16" inch female connectors will slide onto them. Good deal, no soldering required.



Notches had to be ground into the remote case to allow wires to exit the remote.



3/16" female connectors were crimped to 16 gauge wire and attached to battery terminals of the remote. I would have preferred to work with smaller wire; but 20 and 22 gauge were not readily available in my area. No big deal...just a matter of preference.



This is how it looks after it is all buttoned up with the battery cover replaced. Notice the tape holding the activation button down. The button is recessed so I used a piece of hard rubber door stop between the button and the tape to insure electrical contact for the button. The new momentary switch in the dash will become power control switch.



More to follow after the in-dash switch arrives.

EDIT....EDIT...EDIT

OK. Disregard the last picture. The plan was to use the new in-dash switch to control 12V power to the remote while the remote button switch was permanently taped down. That plan didn't work when I tested it. I really can't say why it didn't work; but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that my door opener and remote uses a rolling code that changes each time the door is activated (Genie calls it Intellicode). It operates fine using 12V power from the car instead of the 23A battery; but only if the signal goes through it's internal switch connections.

I solved the problem by removing the circuit board and soldering wires for the new in-dash switch to the existing poles for the original switch.



I Dremeled notches in the case for the two new wires, re-inserted the circuit board, and closed it all up again. This is how it looks now. The black wires will activate the remote through the new momentary switch in the dash; while the red wires will provide 12V power only when the ignition switch is on. The new switch still hasn't arrived. I will update the post when everything is completed.

 

Will the "rolling" code be and issue whith the power interuptions? like when car is off will it loose its sync with the garage opener? if so you could just wire to a constant live source, it runs on a tiny battery so draining a car batt wouldnt be an issue.

Also why the need for an external momentary switch just take the to black wires and lick them to open door .

Like the idea though. I am sick of my remote batteries dying every few months and one remote I have to whack to work 90% of the time.
Battery costs are klilling me!
Due to mother in-law, father in-law and my wife repeatedly losing house keys I decided they shall now unter via garage door.
They all got the nice universal ones and I got the cheap oem battery destroyers

 

I did a few iterations of power interruptions during testing today and it didn't present any problems. My openers have always held memory when without power during battery changes; so I think Genie got that part right.

I wish you had mentioned licking the wires before I cut them. It would have saved me the cost of a switch. I would be afraid to try it now. The wires are cut so short that I would have to take my eyes off the road while leaning forward to lick them.

 

I hope it works. Mine didn't, and I tried two different remotes and soldering to two different points. I even sent it to a professional solderer who volunteered to do the soldering for me. In all cases, operation was intermittent. The Craftsman remotes, at $70 each, are too expensive to keep ruining. I have one for each car and one for the house. I'll leave it like that.

The Craftsman remote is odd, in that it uses a button battery which is kept in the half of the case opposite the circuit board. Unless the case is snapped together, and snapped together just right, the remote will not operate.

 

I had previously read your earlier post; and the soldering was one of my worries. My solder connections aren't pretty; but they do seem to be making consistent contact.....so far. My push button hasn't arrived yet; but I ran the door up and down about ten times yesterday just by touching the ends of the black switch wires together.

 

That sounds perfect.

 

The dash switch arrived yesterday; but college football on TV took priority over the garage door opener project. Today, I did a temporary hookup of the switch to the modified remote to test the function. I also ran 12V power to the switch to be sure the LED worked. All went well with both tests. It rained all day here today; so I didn't work on the actual installation for the car.

The camera doesn't do well at portraying the actual color of the LED. In real life, it is a good color match with the blue of the dash lights.

 

You are going through a lot of effort just to keep from changing a battery every 6 years or so. I have one of those small remotes about (1.5 x 2.0 inches) that has been mounted in my truck since 2008. I have never changed the battery. I use it just about every day because I park my truck inside whenever I return home. I do not even remember what kind of battery is in it.

It is not lighted so that is an added feature you are doing that mine does not have.

I'm not criticizing your good work. I'm just questioning when you really needed to do it.

 

At the present time, I have four vehicles with only a two car garage. The Fit will not always be kept in the garage at night. I am wiring the remote with vehicle power that will only be energized when the ignition is turned on. If anyone should break into the Fit, they cannot activate my garage door with a powerless remote.

I agree with you that the lighted switch may be a little much; but I think it's going to look kinda cool.

 

That is a very good reason that I had not thought of for what you are doing. Around here it is a very different environment. We leave the keys in all of out cars so we do not have to go look for them when they are needed.

 

why not just install a homelink mirror or console??

 

A Homelink setup would probably be just as (maybe more) labor intensive; and I am sure it would be a good deal more expensive.

When all is said and done, I will have about an hour of labor and less than $30 in what I am doing. Actually, I have spent more time writing about it and posting pictures than I have spent modifying the parts.

 

You're right about the Homelink. I thought of that, but it's not compatible with my opener.

Someone else had the remote wired into the car battery. I was aiming for the simpler method of just connecting the pushbutton switch to the contacts on the remote. Too bad it didn't work. I like the looks of that switch. The light will make it easy to locate in the dark. I'm waiting for a picture of the button installed. I have a similar button (without the light) installed in the blank plate, but I can't think of a use for it.

 

The button looked great with the blue lighted circle around it. Unfortunately, you will have to take my word for that. After the installation was complete, I turned on the ignition for the moment of truth. The switch glowed a beautiful shade of blue for about three seconds before the LED burned out. I guess they just don't make things to last in China.

Oh well, on a positive note the switch functions great. It goes dead when the ignition is off and triggers the door when the ignition is on. I'm undecided if I want to try another lighted switch or just leave well enough alone.

Not too impressive without the light; but here it is installed.

 

Too bad about the light, but I've heard that many times about little LEDs. The button looks just like the one I have - mounted the same way. I just wish I could think of a use for it.

 

I'm new on the fit forum, but I did stay in a holiday inn express last night.

Doesn't the loss of power on a remote cause it to lose it's place in the rolling code sequqnce? If you remove the battery from a remote, don't you have to resync it with the opener????

If not, great... just tape the button down and apply power to it when you want to open/close your garage.

I did always think that it'd be really cool to tie the remote button to the headlight highbeams... you could pull up to the garage and flash the high beams to open the door, but if you did that more that 256 times while away from home, it would lose sync.

 

There are too many different types of systems on the market to make a statement that applies to all of them. In my particular case the opener does not lose contact with the remote when power is lost. Prior to this installation, I had never lost the rolling code sequence when changing batteries in the remote. Likewise, I have driven the car multiple times since the installation; and it has not lost sync of codes yet. This may not be true for all manufacturers...I just don't know.

As I mentioned in my original discussions above, the taped down button method didn't work for me. That was my original intent; but when I tested it by applying power nothing happened. I actually had to solder lead wires from the in-dash button to the switch contacts on the circuit board for the system to work. Once again, this may not be true for other brands of openers.

You are correct about triggering the system while out of range. If that is done too many times, the sync for the rolling codes will be lost. I suspect that "too many times" will also vary between manufacturers and system types.

 

There's got to be a way to make one of these work in one of the blank spots in the dash without wiring up anything. I have this exact remote at home. The battery has been in it at least 8 years and never changed so I'm not worried about the power:


The compatible controller for it is only $29. For now it just sits in the tray next to the parking brake.

 

More than likely, it didn't have a current limiting resistor built in. An American or Japanese or German made switch with the same sort of design would likely have suffered the same fate.

(Why, you may wonder, would they omit the resistor if it's necessary for proper operation? One good reason is that the resistor value varies depending on the supply voltage, and the maker doesn't know if you'll be using the switch on a 5V or a 12V or a 31.4V circuit.)