High-Beam Flasher Button Garage Opener Install - Tutorial

[Colobraska]

Below is a tutorial for my high-beam flasher button garage opener mod (anyone have a better name for this thing?). Basically, this mod turns your high-beam flasher into a button that will open/close your garage. Sorry for missing a few photos, I did not take any while first putting this together and went back afterwards to take some. I hope everything is clear enough!

 

First off, here are the parts that you'll need:

- Garage door remote opener - This universal remote is the one I used, but really any opener that will work with your garage will do

- Approx. 8 ft. of 24 AWG stranded wire - This length may be overestimated, but it is far easier to trim off excess wire than it is to add it when you need it

- Electrical tape / Heat shrink

- Soldering iron / solder

- Connectors - I used this connector and its mating part because I had some laying around. Any connector will do, and you can get by with no connector if you'd rather do that, it will just make servicing the remote later more difficult.

 

Step 1:

Remove left-hand controls assembly (I am not 100% sure what this is called, but the thing that houses the button itself) by removing 2x Phillips head screws.

Step 2:

Un-solder the two wires that connect to the button, they are yellow and red. To do this, lightly pull on the wire and touch the tip with the soldering iron. It should come up after a second or two. Wrap each exposed tip in electrical tape, then wrap them together. Doing it this way will also allow you to return the bike to stock later if you want to.

Step 3:

Solder new wires to each pad. I started with approx. 2x pieces of 4ft 24 AWG wire and ended up cutting off maybe a foot or so at the end. You might be able to get away with a shorter length to start, just approximate it by running the wire along however you plan to route it. Again, it is better to have the wires be too long than too short.

Edit: I want to add that it does not matter which wire goes on which pad as this is a simple open/closed circuit. There is no need to worry about the pin-out for the button here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 4:

Run the wire out of the controls assembly following the existing wiring harness. I wrapped the lines together in electrical tape, then taped them to the existing harness.

Step 5:

Remove the left fairing and the plastic cover that surrounds that gas cap. Note, it would probably be possible to get by without taking the fairing off, but I think it'll make it a lot easier to route the wiring.

Step 6:

Run the wires to under the seat. I followed the existing harness and basically went from the controls assembly into the headlight to under the tank to under the seat. I wrapped the entire length of the new wires in electrical tape, and anywhere they could be visible from the outside I taped them to the existing harness. In places where you couldn't see them (like under the tank), I just zip-tied them to the existing harness every so often.

 

Step 7:

Terminate the wires into a connector somewhere under the seat, at whatever length it makes sense to do so. The connector I used is not waterproof or anything, so after it was connected I placed a large piece of heat shrink over the connectors and then wrapped it in electrical tape for good measure.

Step 8:

Program your garage door opener remote to your garage.

Step 9:

Open up the remote and find the button that controls the garage. Solder 6" or so of wire to each end of the button. To test that it is working, strip the ends of each of the new wires and touch them together. The garage door should open/close.

Step 10:

Drill a hole/remove the plastic button/allow the wires to leave the enclosure of the remote in some way. I ended up removing the plastic buttons and running the wire out of the hole where the buttons would sit. Wrap the remote in electrical tape to help waterproof it. Attach the mating connector to the ends of the remote wires. Note, if you choose to not use connectors, you will just need to connect the wires to the ones from the flasher button in another way, or just use one set of wires and run them all the way from the button to the remote.

 

Step 11:

Connect the two connectors together and hide the remote somewhere. I found the remote fit perfectly on top of the battery under the strap that holds the battery down.

 

After the remote is installed, just tidy everything up and put the fairings and controls assembly back together and you should be good to go!

Edited May 26, 2021 by Colobraska
Re-formatted image

[D.A.]

20 minutes ago, Colobraska said:

... the remote fit perfectly on top of the battery under the strap that holds the battery down. ...

Great post!

Just curious: What powers the remote?

[Colobraska]

1 minute ago, D.A. said:

Just curious: What powers the remote?

The remote has its own battery, similar to any standard garage opener you may keep in your car (it’s the coin shaped thing in the image of the PCB). It’ll probably need to be replaced at some point, but it should last a few years. 

[mjh937]

Thanks for the great write up @Colobraska.  I pinned it so it will stay on the first page and not get lost in the depths of the thread  .

[Colobraska]

1 hour ago, mjh937 said:

I pinned it so it will stay on the first page and not get lost in the depths of the thread  .

Awesome, glad it’s been well received! I’m happy to explain anything in more detail if anyone has any questions. I just need to get my ECU back from 2WDW now and put this mod to use!

[JayMT07]

This is really slick. Great write up. I’ve been using a Mo-Door opener (black button on shifter clamp) for years now but may have to do this. 

[TimmyTheHog]

Going full noob on this...

what Solder gun do you use??? mine cheapo one doesn't seem to want to melt the solder on the circuit board????

[Pursuvant]

On 5/26/2021 at 1:48 PM, Colobraska said:

Below is a tutorial for my high-beam flasher button garage opener mod (anyone have a better name for this thing?). Basically, this mod turns your high-beam flasher into a button that will open/close your garage. Sorry for missing a few photos, I did not take any while first putting this together and went back afterwards to take some. I hope everything is clear enough!

 

First off, here are the parts that you'll need:...

 

Step 1:...

Step 11:...

 

After the remote is installed, just tidy everything up and put the fairings and controls assembly back together and you should be good to go!

Another creative thinker, this site is the bomb!, thx to all who have helped me sort out an xsr700 over this (first winter 0f ownership)...

 

[Colobraska]

5 hours ago, TimmyTheHog said:

Going full noob on this...

what Solder gun do you use??? mine cheapo one doesn't seem to want to melt the solder on the circuit board????

I have a fairly decent soldering iron, but it shouldn’t take a nice kit to do the job, I would think most soldering irons would work well enough. One tip is to melt a little bit of fresh solder onto the tip of the iron, then touch that to whatever you are trying to solder. Make sure you have also tinned the wires before trying to solder them to the button. You can also leave the existing button on the circuit board, it won’t hurt anything if it’s there, it doesn’t need to be removed. 

[DewMan]

17 hours ago, TimmyTheHog said:

Going full noob on this...

what Solder gun do you use??? mine cheapo one doesn't seem to want to melt the solder on the circuit board????

Make sure your tip is clean for best heat transfer along with everything @Colobraska said.

[TimmyTheHog]

Thanks!

 

I will try tinning the wires & clean the tips again.

 

was having a hella time trying to get the wires stick back to the original solder point.

[Devilman]

Thanks for the write up, I just completed it yesterday and so far so good. But I have a dumb question. How the hell do you get the clam shell or pod to line up like stock? I always have a gap even had the same problem on my Honda. I tried tightening the screw a little bit at a time, I worked on it for a half hour and still have a  gap. Ahhh! LOL.

[Colobraska]

On 5/30/2021 at 7:51 AM, Devilman said:

How the hell do you get the clam shell or pod to line up like stock?

Make sure the wires are really tucked out of the way and aren’t interfering with anything when you try to close it. Mine only went back together in one very specific orientation. I didn’t check to see if there was something that indexed it or anything, but I could only get it to fully close back up in one spot. 

[nozeitgeist1800]

i just did this, totally stoked to not have to struggle to get my garage door opener out of my jacket. i actually changed one thing, though; i wired the garage door opener to the horn button on the control unit, and wired the flasher button to the horn, so i dont have to go searching for the horn in an emergency. there is enough room in the control that i was actually able to contain the cable joint inside the control unit. im also completely useless at soldering, so i used some little heatshrink solder tube things that worked great and still fit inside the control unit.

i will also add that if there isnt enough space in the unit, you can always go downstream a bit to the connectors behind the headlight, as long as your goal is NOT to use the flasher button. for whatever reason, the 2 wires from the flasher go into the shrinkwrap tube with the other wires but they dont come out the other side.

Edited October 11, 2022 by nozeitgeist1800

[a4tek]

amazing write up!! I will give this a go very soon.

[crakerjac]

I opted for a dedicated button... But I like the idea of using the high beam switch. 

I also stuffed my remote in a small (but still too big) waterproof box. I was hoping I could zip tie it behind the plastics, but ended up going underneath the passenger seat. 

It's also tied into the accessory plug for switched 12v power... So bike needs to be on for it to work.