I live in a condo with a separate garage. It's a roll-up door with a Liftmaster Chain-Driver opener from the late 90's
The whole system works fine, but lately we've been having issues with break-ins at my complex.
Earlier this week a thief pried off my neighbor's emergency release lock and got into his garage.
I'm thinking it's time to disable mine, but with only 1 way in/out need to have some sort of backup if there's a power failure.

Does anyone know of a retro-fit battery backup for older openers?

I see lift master makes a newer opener that has a Battery backup built in. Can I mount just the power unit to the existing chain drive assembly? With everything working fine I really don't want to replace the whole thing.

 

Not sure what you mean.....

The emergency release. Is that a little rope that hangs from where the door hooks up to the chain and you pull it than the door can move independent of the opener?

Could you use a computer server back up battery?

 

You are correct on the Emergency release.
On garages that only have one door (the main one) there is a cable that runs to a lock on the face of the door.
To activate the emergency release you turn the lock, which ejects with the cable attached and you can pull from outside.

 

Could you just put a large pad lock on the outside? Inconvenient because now you would have to get out of your car to pull in but a lot more safe.

Or hook this up to the garage door and have it call your cell when ever the garage door is opened. I have a bunch of these at my house and the work GREAT.



Alarm Phone Dialer with MT8880 and PIC 16F84A

 

unfortunetly since it's a separate garage, there is no phone hook up

 

That looks awesome. I would totally want that, except I no longer have a landline

 

FRYS.com | PHILIPS


Or what about a pad lock??
Or a computer back up battery, It should only draw current when the door is used.


At my condo we had people breaking into the garage because you could reach the emergency rope through the gate. I used a pulley and routed the rope further away from the gate. Does not help you as the emergency deal is on the outside with a key.




The people that broke into our place smashed my wagons rear glass, $1500 piece of glass. They stole a ammo can with oil, flares, a few tools, and emergency supplies in it but left a $1000 fishing pole!! They also stole the wheels of my neighbors 350z. I figured it was the people that live across the street in the "projects" so I went snooping around and saw dudes wheels on someones patio. JUSTICE!! Dude was smart and had stamped a unique number on the back of his rims.

 

I don't think a Padlock will offer me any more security than the existing setup for the EM release.

I like the Computer Power supply idea, gonna have to stop by Fry's today...

Hmm
http://www.frys.com/product/5582260

 

Just keep the box and receipts in case it does not work.

 

Right idea, but gotta be careful - those computer UPS (uninterruptable power supplies) are not meant to drive heavy AC motor loads. You might cook the UPS (better scenario) or worse, cook the motor/circuits of the opener as they put out "dirty" AC power (a PC can handle it but a motor may not).

By the time you paid for a UPS of high enough power and quality to drive a GDO, then you prolly might as well buy the new GDO system that has battery built in from the mfr.

 

that Model in the link is grossly under-rated for even a 1/4 HP GDO

You *may* get by with this one, as it at least approximates a sine wave output (like PGE produces), if your GDO is cord-plugged (not hardwired to house power) and less than 1/2 HP rated:

FRYS.com*|*APC


"Requirements

Output
Output Power Capacity 865 Watts / 1500 VA
Nominal Output Voltage 120V
Waveform Type Stepped approximation to a sinewave"

still a risk that it damages something or just causes the UPS to save itself, thus shutting down and being useless. And because it works safely once, does not mean that it will in the future, AC motors are variable things...

Good luck man!

 

A car battery (deep cycle prefered i believe), a AC/DV converter (of appropriate size) wired up to the batt, a battery charger to keep the car battery charged up when the battery is used or a solar panel wired up to charge it. yes this is a rigged setup but it should provide you with ample power. UPS's while they are great at providing power for computers to be gracefully shut down they are not so good at running power hungry devices. I have used Multi batt ups devices that are meant for large servers and the amount of time given to drive a heavy load was crap as mentioned by others above.

 

Get one of these & call it a day.

 

Than I have to replace all of the bracketry and the chain guide

 

Why not just disconnect the emergency release? No access when the power is out but how often does that happen?