It’s a common convenience to program your garage door opener to multiple vehicles in your household. Imagine each driver effortlessly accessing the garage without needing a separate remote. However, sometimes setting up your garage door opener to work with more than one car can lead to unexpected issues, such as the door opening when you only intend to open another. This article will guide you through understanding and resolving a common problem when programming your garage door opener for multiple cars, ensuring smooth and independent operation for each vehicle.
Understanding Why Both Garage Doors Might Open
When using a universal garage door opener hub like the MyQ Universal hub to control multiple garage doors, you might encounter a situation where both doors operate simultaneously. This often happens when both garage door motors respond to the same signal during the initial programming phase. The root cause lies in how the garage door motor’s remote control memory stores the programming information. If both motors were powered on and active during the learning process, they might both have enrolled in the same channel or memory slot of the hub.
Think of it like this: your garage door opener hub sends out radio frequency (RF) signals, mimicking the signal from a car remote. During the setup, the hub is essentially “introduced” to your garage door motor as a new remote. If two openers are active and use similar or the same frequencies, they might both mistakenly learn the signal intended for only one. This results in both doors reacting when the hub sends a command, even if you only intended to control one.
The original manufacturer, in this case LiftMaster, highlights this issue in their instructions for Alarm.com integration. They point out that if both motors are plugged in during the learning phase, they can both learn the signal, leading to unwanted simultaneous operation. Even factory resets might not solve this if the underlying issue is that both motors’ remote control memories have inadvertently enrolled the same hub signal in their available slots, specifically mentioning “821LM slots” in the context of MyQ hubs.
Step-by-Step Solution: Programming Your Garage Door Opener for Multiple Cars Correctly
To fix this issue and ensure each of your garage doors operates independently when programmed to your cars via a universal hub, you need to clear the remote control memory of the garage door motors and then re-enroll each door one at a time. This process will ensure that each door responds only to its designated command.
Caution: Clearing the remote control memory will erase all existing remote programming. You will need to reprogram all car remotes and keypads after completing this process. Consult your garage door motor’s manual for specific instructions on erasing and re-learning remotes for your model. A simple test to confirm successful memory clearing is to try your existing car remote – if the door still opens, the memory was not cleared correctly.
Here’s how to resolve the simultaneous opening issue and correctly program your garage door opener for multiple cars using a universal hub:
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Clear the Garage Door Motor’s Remote Control Memory: Follow the instructions in your garage door motor’s manual to erase the remote control memory. This step is crucial to remove any potentially conflicting programming.
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Remove Existing Door Information from the Wi-Fi Hub: For MyQ Universal Hubs (like the 821LM), you need to clear any previously learned door information from the hub itself. Typically, this involves pressing and holding the programming buttons on the hub for each door slot. For the 821LM, this means:
- Press and hold the [1] button for 10 seconds.
- Press and hold the [2] button for 10 seconds.
You should observe a yellow light indicating the process, and it will turn off when the memory for that slot is cleared. Release the button once the yellow LED turns off.
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Enroll One Garage Door Motor at a Time: This is the most important step to prevent recurrence of the issue.
- Power Off the Motor Not Being Enrolled: Physically unplug or disconnect the power to the garage door motor that you are not currently programming. This ensures only one motor is active during the enrollment process.
- Enroll the First Garage Door Motor: Follow the instructions for your universal garage door opener hub to enroll the first garage door motor. This usually involves putting the hub into programming mode and then pressing the “learn” or “smart” button on your garage door motor.
- Power Off the First Motor and Power On the Second Motor: Once the first motor is successfully enrolled and tested, power it off. Then, power on the second garage door motor that was previously disconnected.
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Enroll the Second Garage Door Motor: Repeat the enrollment process for the second garage door motor, ensuring only this motor is powered on during its enrollment.
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Power On Both Motors and Test: After enrolling both motors separately, power both garage door motors back on. Now, test the remote commands from your universal hub (and your car remotes, after re-programming them). Verify that each garage door opens and closes independently and as intended.
By following these steps, you can effectively program your garage door opener to work with multiple cars using a universal hub without the frustration of both doors opening at once. This method ensures each garage door responds individually to commands from your programmed devices, enhancing the convenience and security of your garage access system.
