Joe writes – “Need to know if the garage door is open? Need to know if you pulled in far enough for the door to close without hitting your bike? Need to know all this with web access… I present the garage monitor 3000. When the car reaches the right spot, the LED turns from green to red.” – Link.
10 thoughts on “HOW TO – Make a garage monitor”
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I have exactly this problem. There is very little wiggle room between closing the garage door and crushing the montain bikes.
Seem like a simpler solution would have been to buy a $10 laser pointer, a scrounged “wall wart” to power the laser and a receptacle adapter to plug the transformer into on of the garage lamps and turn on the laser (which is mounted to the ceiling and aimed at your dashbord when the car is parked corretly)when the door is opened!
Seem like a simpler solution would have been to buy a $10 laser pointer, a scrounged “wall wart” to power the laser and a receptacle adapter to plug the transformer into on of the garage lamps and turn on the laser (which is mounted to the ceiling and aimed at your dashbord when the car is parked correctly)when the door is opened!
I solved the problem by hanging a tennis ball from the ceiling. When I pull into the garage the tennis ball rest against the windshield and I know when to stop. It’s hi-touch not hi-tech.
I used the tennis ball trick (something I learned from my uncle, after my three girl cousins learned to drive), but modified it a bit. After time, the tennis ball can leave a mark on the glass, so I rigged a pulley to the ceiling above the “stopping point” and tied a rope to the top of the garage door. The rope goes through the pulley, and down through a second pulley, and back up to the ceiling. Attach the tennis ball to the bottom of the lower pulley. Now as the door is opened, the ball drops 1/2 the height of the door height. Pull into the garage, stop when it hits the windshield. Close the door, and the ball is lifted up off the car. You can fine tune the resting height of the ball by adjusting the length of rope used to attach the ball to the lower pulley. This also helps when you are using the garage as a workshop, as long as the door is shut.