SMA Inverter and garage door openers

[UkiwiS]

Great, do you have pictures? Bruce Roe

Let's see if this works

[bcroe]

Ant Fix

Anyway, here's my simple yet effective fix.
1. Purchase can of Pringle chips
2. Eat Pringle chips
3. Slice can in half length ways
4. Slice a V in the bottom of one half of the can to accommodate the antenna.
5. Using duct tape, tape can to door opener, shielding antenna and point open portion of the can to street.

I can now open the door when I have line of sight to the garage door from approximately a block away...woot woot.
KIWI

Great, do you have pictures? Bruce Roe

[UkiwiS]

The issue remained after dark, although door did seem to work a little better so not 100% certain that it was the inverter. Anyway, here's my simple yet effective fix.

1. Purchase can of Pringle chips
2. Eat Pringle chips
3. Slice can in half length ways
4. Slice a V in the bottom of one half of the can to accommodate the antenna.
5. Using duct tape, tape can to door opener, shielding antenna and point open portion of the can to street.

I can now open the door when I have line of sight to the garage door from approximately a block away...woot woot.

Cheers
KIWI

[silversaver]

If your garage remotes work in the night time without any issue, then it might be the inverter. If you are having same issue at nights, then the problem isn't the inverter since inverter is shut off during night time. simple test

[UkiwiS]

Thanks for all the responses. I have a few things to try and I'll report back if/when I figure it out.

Cheers
KIWI

[silversaver]

I have SMA TL6000US-12 inerter that using Locus monitoring, the communication is through Dlink powerline adapters to my router in living room. I have Lifemaster opener and recently upgrade to Chamberlain wifi belt drive, never have an issure with remotes, wireless keypad or homelink on my Mercedes. The only issue I had is lost connection in every 6 months and unplug - replug the powerlinr adapters to gain access.

The inverter and monitoring installed within garage.

[bcroe]

I have an SMA inverter mounted inside my garage, about 8 feet away from my Garage Door opener. Since going live I've had issues with the door openers, all of them, 3 handheld remotes and 2 in card modern HomeLink systems. They all now work on a very intermittent basis and I typically have to get out of the car to close the door and to open it when I get home. With the addition of the Solar PV system I also have a powerline adapter providing LAN access to the SMA INverter and a Rain Forest Eagle, also plugged into a powerline adapter. I've unplugged both the those devices and notice no change so I'm blaming the inverter. I have not powered it off entirely to test that theory and I'll probably do that at some point to confirm it....simply haven't got around to it yet. Anyway, it's a total PITA and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this sort of issue before and if so what's the fix? Even if it is the inverter as I suspect, I'm not going to get rid of it, obviously so I do need to figure out a solution.

The Garage door is a LiftMaster and is about 5 years old and worked flawlessly previously...from a block away. KIWI

I would first see if your door radios start woking again when the inverter shuts down for the night. No,
eliminate any overnight radiation by pulling the AC disconnect. If none of this matters, it must be
something else. Conduction from the inverter AC output can be dealt with by a minimum level line
filter, capable of the the inverter voltage & current. Another one might be needed on the DC input
side, different ratings. Radiation from the inverter itself needs a tight metal box enclosing it. Use
hardware cloth with 1/2" openings for ventilation, soldered wire junctions.

Or find out what frequency your radios work. I'm expecting 315 MHZ, some earlier (mine) were 390
MHZ. I had severe range problems too, for different reasons. You can get a different radio set and just
connect it to the push button input. A significantly higher frequency might help.

My receivers have their own 120VAC plug, very low power. The range can be greatly increased with
a proper antenna. I modified my receivers to allow ant connection, but there are radios already
equipped with an ant jack. You may be able to buy your own ant for the frequency, but I made my
own from a design off the internet, scaled to the frequency. My problem was range, but yours is
interference. So you need the ant to be pointed toward the drive and away from the inverter; the
receiver & ant could be located as far as practical from the inverter, using a long button wire pair.

I have a Yagi (TV ant style) ant for use inside a building, and a colinear designed to be mounted on
the outside of a metal building. The Yagi is adequate; the collinear is actually too good. I only have
a picture of the colinear here, but the Yagi is on my PHOTOBUCKET . Bruce Roe

[SunEagle]

I agree with inetdog

Sounds like you have a conflict between the wireless garage door openers and your inverter LAN communication.

I found similar conflicts with my home security system components and my computer wireless access. I ended up having to change the "channel" on my computer wireless equipment which eliminated any conflict.

[inetdog]

Your best workarounds for an inverter which produces a high level of RF interference will depend on whether the interference is mainly radiated and picked up by the receiver antenna or mainly conducted over the power lines.

To eliminate the latter, you would need to completely disconnect the AC wires from the inverter output (both hot(s) and neutral, not just the hot wires) and see if that makes a difference.
If it does not, the interference is probably radiated. You could add an RF filter on the DC input of the inverter to rule out that possibility for conducted RF too.

If it is radiated (through the cover of the inverter) you are very limited in what you can do. If the garage door openers have a provision for a remote antenna, then hook one up and locate it as far from the inverter and as close to the front of the garage as possible.
If it does not have a provision for an external antenna, a local radio amateur (ham) may be able to show you how to hook up a remote antenna anyway.

A different garage door opener whose RF input is in a different frequency band might work better too. But hard to predict without trying it.

Good luck!

[UkiwiS]

I have an SMA inverter mounted inside my garage, about 8 feet away from my Garage Door opener. Since going live I've had issues with the door openers, all of them, 3 handheld remotes and 2 in card modern HomeLink systems. They all now work on a very intermittent basis and I typically have to get out of the car to close the door and to open it when I get home. With the addition of the Solar PV system I also have a powerline adapter providing LAN access to the SMA INverter and a Rain Forest Eagle, also plugged into a powerline adapter. I've unplugged both the those devices and notice no change so I'm blaming the inverter. I have not powered it off entirely to test that theory and I'll probably do that at some point to confirm it....simply haven't got around to it yet. Anyway, it's a total PITA and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this sort of issue before and if so what's the fix? Even if it is the inverter as I suspect, I'm not going to get rid of it, obviously so I do need to figure out a solution.

The Garage door is a LiftMaster and is about 5 years old and worked flawlessly previously...from a block away.

Thanks for any ideas.

Cheers
KIWI