I finally got around to replacing my chamberlain, LiftMaster garage door motor with a new model. I have been controlling the old garage door with an Insteon I/O low voltage controller successfully for years. The controller does not seem to trigger the new garage door opener to open or close however. I can hear the controller clicking when I send it a command so I assume it’s working and l I need to wire the new garage door opener differently than the old one? Perhaps it’s a normally-open or normally-closed kind of issue?

Any advice or tips and tricks on how to go about troubleshooting this?

The new chamberlain and lift master doors do not support simple contact closure as a method to open and close the doors. Lots to read on it but I elected to

I use the RATGDO device and the plugin that supports it.

19 minutes ago, hart2hart said:

The new chamberlain and lift master doors do not support simple contact closure as a method to open and close the doors. Lots to read on it but I elected to

I use the RATGDO device and the plugin that supports it.

I feared that was the case. Not quite sure where to find more info on your solution. Can you point me to anything? I found the hardware but what plugin are you referring to? I particularly miss the Alexa integration that i had ("Alexa, close the garage door"). I have the MyQ B2310 Garage Door opener FYI. Thanks for the help!

works if you solder the contacts to the wall panel to the pads for the push button

1 minute ago, bgrubb1 said:

works if you solder the contacts to the wall panel to the pads for the push button

Oooooo. Please tell me more! Do you mean running a wire from the I/OLink contacts to the wall mounted panel that came with the garage door opener?

correct basically the iolinc closes the same contacts as pressing wall button.

you have to connect to the pads that the switch closes, not the normal wires that go to opener

Edited Monday at 03:43 PM3 days by bgrubb1

If the new controller has other features like a clock and has only two wires back to the main unit. It probably has more then power on the two wire. The I/OLinc would short the messages back to the main unit. Another clue would be the clock in the wall mounted interface would reset to 12:00 every time the I/OLinc was triggered.

I hove seen similar fixes. Where the I/OLinc was connected to a registered remotes internal push button pads. At one time the vendor made an interface module that took the simple dry contact pulse from an I/OLinc to control the new openers.

My understanding of the wall mounted panels on the old Chamberlain openers (which is what I have) is that they have only two wires but have three buttons: open/close, light, and lock. The open/close button shorts the two wires together, which what we do when we use a IO Linc to operate the door. The other two buttons would put capacitors across the wires, altering an oscillator circuit that the main controller board in the opener could distinguish to know which button was pressed. With the newer openers, the wall mounted panel only receives power, and the buttons make the panel transmit rf commands, just like a remote. This would mean that you need to open up the panel and wire the IO Linc across the contacts of the open/close button itself, instead of the external wires supplying power to the panel.

I had to do a similar solution when I replaced my ancient opener with a new Chamberlain a year or two ago. Don’t know why Chamberlain changed their design to the RF type link. The simple pushbutton open/close design was much simpler. I ended up taking a RF remote opener module and soldering leads to its push button terminals and wired those to the old momentary-closed push button already on the garage wall. Pushing the wall mount button closed the circuit on the RF remote opener (mounted up on the garage opener motor brackets) and opens/closes the garage door. I also attached the open/close relay connections from the Insteon I/O Module garage door control to the same contact points. It all works and Alexa commands function properly too, just a hassle all because Chamberlain and other manufacturers, went to a more complicated opener design.

16 minutes ago, slimypizza said:

I had to do a similar solution when I replaced my ancient opener with a new Chamberlain a year or two ago. Don’t know why Chamberlain changed their design to the RF type link. The simple pushbutton open/close design was much simpler. I ended up taking a RF remote opener module and soldering leads to its push button terminals and wired those to the old momentary-closed push button already on the garage wall. Pushing the wall mount button closed the circuit on the RF remote opener (mounted up on the garage opener motor brackets) and opens/closes the garage door. I also attached the open/close relay connections from the Insteon I/O Module garage door control to the same contact points. It all works and Alexa commands function properly too, just a hassle all because Chamberlain and other manufacturers, went to a more complicated opener design.

I am going to try this: I picked up an additional single button remote (CH361). I will open it up and see if i can get the I/O to trigger it off soldered button contacts in the remote. Then tape it to the I/O link as i saw someone else do.

I did similar with old RF remotes so I could control ceiling fans and a sun setter awning before Bond device. Some of the solder points were tiny but worked great.

You can also use this button and connect to it.

https://www.amazon.com/883LMW-LiftMaster-Button-Control-Security/dp/B07W5RMN56/ref=asc_df_B07W5RMN56?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80401905752479&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=m&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=98088&hvtargid=pla-4584001431278556&psc=1

I have a security 3.0 garage door opener so I’m not sure if that would work or not but thank you.

I picked up an extra one button remote from the big orange store. I soldered on a wire to the button contacts and connected it to my Controller. It’s now working as hoped. Thanks for your advice and tips y’all. I suppose if I was being really fancy. I would try to solder on the 12 V power from the controller to the remote so it never ran out of battery…

I have the magnetic contact that came with the garage door kit installed as well, but frankly never figured out how to do the programming to make that useful. So basically I just use basic relay-on commands that open or close the door without any real intelligence or programming.

The way I did mine was I bought an extra garage remote programmed it to work with the liftmaster and then I soldered my i o link onto that to trigger it. And with it being a remote you can basically put it anywhere as long as it's within range of the LiftMaster

Edited yesterday at 05:32 PM1 day by thtguy

That’s what I did. Working great so far. Hardest part was soldering the tiny contact.