Programming an automatic swing gate opener (China) |
Tips for installing a motorized garage door

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Garage door motor programming - Context of this tutorial

Many Chinese makes offer garage door opening motors at competitive prices and a satisfactory quality.
The purchase can be made online and the kits are well packaged.
The weak point remains the instructions manual which are nothing but a bad translation from the initial language.
It is often difficult to understand what is meant by some instructions. This tutorial helps you understand how these gate motors work and how to program them.

Installation tips for the garage gate opening kits

The installation is not typical however the provided accessories within the gate opening kit are quite complete and adjustable to fit almost any installation.
The below example of an aluminum garage gate shows how the motor fixing brackets are made of two parts that allow the motor to reach almost any fully open or fully closed door position.
All fixing bolts are provided within the kit.

Fix your control box away from direct sunlight and from the vehicle passage.
Install small electric boxes whenever you need to join two cables and have the cable junctions made inside.
Protect the cables which are exposed, do not leave the cable sheath unprotected from eventual mechanical or weathering agressions.
Think well of the photo cell sensor position, whether you'd like it to sense the presence of an obstruction from inside or outside.
Imagine that you're driving your car and check where you would eventually get stuck or slow down or stop in order to fix the photo-sensor at that place.

How a motorized automatic gate opener works

You need to know that these doors are not controlled by time (i.e. opening and closing time if the doors) rather by the force that the motor applies to the door leaf after hitting an obstacle.

It is therefore important to consider a door stop at both ends, one which the door will hit upon opening and another upon closing.

How to connect the wires to the swing gate opener control board

Connect all wires temporarily without making the final fixings or fitting any cable tie yet.
You might need to inverse wires or modify the connection upon testing your gate.
Pull out the connecting plugs so you can work easily and insert the control wires of the motor gate panel as explained further below.
Refit the connectors after you finish connecting the wires.

The minimum connections to consider are as follows:

Connecting the photoelectric sensor of the gate:
Photoelectric sensor wires for both transmitter and receiver go to terminals 5 and 7.
Photoelectric sensor return signal from its output relay goes to terminal 6.
Photoelectric sensor feeding signal goes to terminal 10.

Gate motor wires connection:
Connect the wires of the motor that is supposed to open first to "Motor 2" terminals. Do not worry yet about the polarirty, you will inverse (or not) the wires after making a first try.
Connect the wires of the motor that should open after to "Motor 1" terminals.

Gate Flashing light connection:
Connect the flashin light wires to terminals 12 and 13.

Mains connection:
Connect the 230V supply to its intended terminals at the primary of the transformer.

Programming the board of the garage door opening system

Power up the control panel.
You will hear an initial buzzer and the digital display will self-check until showing the number 99 then turn off.
An LED will remain lit indicating the system is OK.

Step 1: Connect at least one remote control

Press for about 2 seconds the Learn button then immediately after any button on the remote.
Do not forget to fit a battery into the remote, commonly a 12V A23 alkaline battery but different remotes use different alkaline batteries of the 6V or 12V range.
A buzzer can again be heard indicating the remote has been successfully programmed.

Step 2: Make a first test and adjust the motors wiring

Disconnect the wires of Motor 1.
Press the button "1" on the remote control.
If you hear the motor and a strange sound indicating the door is stuck and cannot move, then you need to invert the motor wires.
De-energize the board and invert the wires.
Try again, now the door should move in the right direction i.e. open.
Do not worry yet if it opens till the end or not. It might be stuck at mid-travel.
Connect now Motor 1 and repeat the same procedure while pressing button 2.
Button 1 on the automatic gate remote is used to open 1 door leaf only, button 2 the two doors.

Step 3: Adjust the automatic garage gate door travel

Press and hold the "FUN" button until the display shows "P0".
Press the "INC" button so the display shows "P1"
Set it at the lowest value "01" using the "INC" or "DEC" buttons (increment and decrement respectively).
Repeat the same procedure for all parameters "P2", "P3" and "P4".
Now you have just set the stalling force of the garage gate to the minimum.
Press on the button "2" of the remote control and check if the gate doors are opening on their full travel length.
If not, increase the value on P1, P2, P3 and P4 to 02 and so on until the gate doors are able to reach the end of the travel distance.

You need however to make sure that the door does not hit the door stop you installed at high speed.
For this, you need to set the high speed travelling time of the motors in a manner that such time expires prior of the first doort hitting its travel stop.
Press the "INC" button so the display shows "P5"
Set it at the desired value using the "INC" or "DEC" buttons (increment and decrement respectively).
This value expresses the time in seconds after which the gate motor will shift to the slow speed.

Step 4: Try the photo-sensor of the gate motor

Re-wire your photo-sensor if you had disconnected it as explained in step 3 and proceed to the below re-programming of the sensor.
If your gate closes normally, place an obstacle (could be your hand) in between the photo-sensor emitter or transmitter to make sure the gate immediately re-opens or else this means you should reverse the photo-sensor settings as explained below.
For reprogramming the sensor proceed as follows:
Press and hold the "FUN" button until the display shows "P0".
Press the "INC" button so the display shows "Pd" and change its value from 00 to 01 or vice-versa using the "INC" or "DEC" buttons.
Press the "LEARN" button and try again.

Step 5: Setting the auto-close time of the garage doors

Press the "INC" button so the display shows "P9"
Set it at the desired value using the "INC" or "DEC" buttons (increment and decrement respectively).
This value expresses the time in seconds after which the gate will close automatically.
Set it to zero in case you do not wish the gate to close automatically. In this case the gate will wait until you press again the remote control button for closing.
Press the "LEARN" button when you finish.
Note that the flashing light will remain ON as long as you did not reclose the garage door, or until it recloses automatically.
Do not program the auto-close time (i.e. set it to zero) if you think that for whatever reason, you might stop your vehicle in the middle of the garage gate travel without obstructing the photosensor.

Step 6 and last: Setting the interval time between the two doors of the garage gate

If you installed the two gate motors exactly with the same arrangement of the fixing brackets, you can set the interval between the opening of the first and second door (and similarly the closing) in a manner that they don't get stuck together or that the wrong one opens or closes first.
Press the "INC" button so the display shows "P7"
Set it at the desired value using the "INC" or "DEC" buttons (increment and decrement respectively).
This value expresses the time in seconds after which the gate door powered by "motor 1" will start opening after the opening start of the one powered by "motor 2".

In case the doors do not have the same bracket arrangement, you might face a problem on the closing of the garage gate since the door that is supposed to close 1st would be travelling a longer time and end up closing after. You can only solve this problem by having a gate doors arrangement that allows for simultaneous closing (or irrelevant first closing of right/left door).