Help get this topic noticed by sharing it on Twitter, Facebook, or email.

Opener Lights Come On Automatically

I just installed a pair of 888LM control panels with an 828LM gateway at my house. For some reason I can't figure out, the light on one of the openers keeps come on by itself and it seems to have gone off by itself a few times. Would any of you guys know if there is any setting in the control panel I accidently enabled without noticing? Everything else seems to be working as expected.
2 people have
this question
+1
Reply
  • Dawn (Official Rep) October 14, 2015 15:15
    Celso - It sounds like the security light feature. This makes the light come on when the sensor beam is crossed on your garage door opener. I have included an article to assist you in turning off this feature. Let me know if you need further assistance. 

    Answer Title: Why does the light turn on when I enter the garage?
    Answer Link: http://chamberlain.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/157
  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. kidding, amused, unsure, silly indifferent, undecided, unconcerned sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • Thanks for the link to the article. It does provide some valuable information on how to troubleshoot this issue.  I went home for lunch and swap out the control panels. Now the light on my other garage door opener is the one coming on. It stays on for about 4 1/2 minutes, goes off  and stays off for about 30 seconds. This is not the result of someone crossing the reverse safety beam because it is happening with nobody in the garage. There are no windows in the garage either, so it is not light coming from outside, reflecting off the car and hitting the sensor. I do have a door bell switch right below those control panels which emits light. Could the sensor on that particular control panel be sensitive to that light source? Aside from that I am wondering if this control panel is defective.

  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. kidding, amused, unsure, silly indifferent, undecided, unconcerned sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • Dawn (Official Rep) October 15, 2015 15:55
    Celso - I looked into this a little further and it looks like there is an issue with these door controls when they are too close to one another. When the MyQ Control Panel is connected to the Internet Gateway, it creates a two-way communication system which randomly sends out a burst signal of information through the 900MHz radio system.This burst signal has been found to potentially trigger motion sensors of secondary door control panels if they are too close.This close proximity may cause the lights on garage door openers to become erratic.

    How close are the 888LMs to each other? They should be installed at least 12 inches apart horizontally and 28 inches vertically. The other option is you could turn off the motion sensor on the door control.  
  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. kidding, amused, unsure, silly indifferent, undecided, unconcerned sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • 1
    Hey Dawn, that might be my problem, and that didn't even cross my mind. They are butted against each other horizontally. Maybe too close to each other for comfort!  :-) I don't think you could slide a credit card in between them. :-) That is how my previous door controls were installed, so I just used the same screw mounts. I will separate them this evening when I get home and report back to you guys. The only inconvenience with separating them is that the wires run inside the wall. I should have some slack in the wire enough to move them 12 inches apart. The gateway on the other hand is inside the house almost 20 feet away. One thing I did do last night was to turn off the motion sensor for that particular door control to keep it from coming on.
  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. kidding, amused, unsure, silly indifferent, undecided, unconcerned sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • Hey Dawn, I was able to separate the door controls by about a foot. There was not much slack in the wire. The door controls are about a foot apart on the center, so a bit less side-to-side. Unfortunately that didn't seem to have had any effect on the issue I reported. The light on the door opener attached to that particular door control still comes on for about 4 1/2 minutes and goes off for about 30 seconds. It just keeps doing that unless I set the sensor switch to off.
  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. kidding, amused, unsure, silly indifferent, undecided, unconcerned sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • I replaced the door control that was working as expected with a basic door control with no WIFI and no motion sensing feature. That was done yesterday in the afternoon. I kept the 888LM door control that was having the issue with the light hooked up. Thus far the light on the opener attached to that particular 888LM has not come one like it was doing.

    Considering that I am having the interference issue with only one of the 88LM door controls, does that mean it is defective?

     

    • view 1 more comment
    • Dear Dawn,

      I am having nearly the same exact issue with my Internet Gateway and two 888LM units controlling two 8500 garage door openers (I have two garage doors next to each other in my garage). The differences with my situation are when I close the one garage door, the garage door opener light for that garage door never goes off until I manually push the "LIGHT" button. Plus, this same light will come on by itself without any action of the garage door opener and when it turns on by itself it never eventually turns itself off; the light stays on until I manually push the "LIGHT" button again.

      It is unacceptable to suggest to customers to turn off a feature they paid for and need or even want to use (i.e. in this case the motion sensors for lights) due to poor design and testing of your product as well as it is totally unacceptable to require customers who have more than one garage door/opener, multiple Model 888LM controllers, and an Internet Gateway to relocate the controllers AT LEAST 12 inches apart horizontally and AT LEAST 28 inches vertically to achieve proper operation of the devices, especially AFTER an authorized LiftMaster dealer/installer installed the controllers adjacent to each other. Actually think about that for a minute. By relocating the controllers using the late communicated and not well thought out location requirements, one controller would at the least end up being relocated below the owner's waist, the other at the least relocated to eye level, if not higher, and one of the controllers would be nearly out of reach horizontally due to the fact controllers are 95% of the time placed adjacent to each other (vertically or horizontally) and at the chest level of the owner(s), which is where most authorized LiftMaster installers position the control panels and authorized installers of other brands do as well. The locations used by installers for garage door opener control panels is nearly exactly the same location used for light switches since the ergonomics, form, fit, and function are virtually the same as light switches. NOTE: Since you posted the absurd solutions 3 weeks ago, I contacted several dozen authorized LiftMaster - as well as other brand - garage door distributors/installers in varying regions across the U.S. to acquire the aforementioned data.

      To further demonstrate how absurd these newly communicated control panel location requirements are, think about homes - like mine - that have a door that leads from inside the home into the interior of the garage. As the owner passes through the doorway into the garage, they will immediately turn to their left or their right to use the control panels that should be within an arm length at most horizontally and without needing to bend over or reach up (again, think of multiple light switches located right next to each other when you enter a room in a house). Now picture what the home owner would have to do physically to get to these same control panels if they are 12 inches apart horizontally and 28 inches (over 2 feet by 4 inches) apart vertically as you communicated in your post from 3 weeks ago. Imagine having to do this for light switches in rooms of your home; you would not be pleased at all. The relocation fix LiftMaster is communicating as of three weeks ago is totally unacceptable and absurd, not to mention should have been fully and wide-spread communicated to authorized sellers/installers well before the LiftMaster products involved were released to be sold/distributed/installed. Furthermore, these products should not have been released for sale to the public with this issue; the issue should have been resolved before the products hit the street. Being an electrical engineer myself and because of the nature of the issue, it is quite clear that a little bit of standard product testing would have caught this issue; very disappointing to say the least for a company of LiftMaster's (Chamberlain Group's) size and caliber.

      A different, intelligent, well-thought-out, and user friendly solution needs to be devised and provided to your Internet Gateway and 888LM customers. Something like a firmware upgrade for the Internet Gateway so that the periodic signal bursts from the Internet Gateway do not inadvertently trigger the motion sensors of control panels. And, the ability to turn garage door opener lights on and off from the LiftMaster MyQ Home Control mobile application and the MyLiftMaster.com website even if the motion sensors are turned off and/or the safety reversing sensor light feature is turned off. For the aforementioned mobile application and website enhancements, they both would also need to be able to indicate the current state of the garage door opener lights (i.e. on or off).

      I'm looking forward to LiftMaster commenting/replying with a path forward that actually solves the problem instead of providing additional very poor workarounds for its customers.

      Regards,
      Fabio
       
    • Older post, but very well communicated!!!
  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. kidding, amused, unsure, silly indifferent, undecided, unconcerned sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • 1
    You do have a good point with regard to the recommendation of moving the wall control panel 12 inches apart horizontally and 28 inches vertically. I did find that request wild to be honest with you specially regarding the recommendation for the vertical separation! However, I was interested in helping them out by troubleshooting the issue along with them in order to get more acquainted with the product itself.

    There is definitely a design issue here that should have been caught during the development cycle of this product line. Unfortunately, it might not be an issue with this product line alone. I got a hold of a motion sensing unit without the MyQ technology, and in one of my tests, both the 888LM and this other unit were causing lights to go on/off randomly.

    I don't have the electrical engineering background you do, so I am not sure if this issue is pertinent to the product/technology itself in light of the nature of wireless frequencies, or if it is a design issue. If the first, I do strongly disagree with your statement regarding turning off the motion sensing feature in one of the units.

    I believe you have a single garage like mine with 2 doors, so I don't really believe you and I (or anybody else for that matter)  really need to have the lights on both openers come on automatically when someone enters the garage through a service door. I sure doubt you bought the MyQ devices because of the motion sensing feature. You purchased them because of the Wifi feature which was the reason I purchased mine. All that is working as expected.

    One final thought here is that I suggest you contact their customer support directly about your issue if you haven't done so. I did that and had a very pleasant experience. I am not going to go into details regarding the outcome of my particular case, but it was very positive. This channel of communication is an unofficial channel despite the fact that is hosted under the LiftMaster domain name. It is just a channel LiftMaster has made available for customers to exchange ideas and help each other as a community. Like the case with many other companies providing the same type of customer interaction, I believe their support/customer service personnel are only required to monitor and answer questions within their availability.
  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. kidding, amused, unsure, silly indifferent, undecided, unconcerned sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • 1
    The products are pretty basic.  Was able to get fully acquainted with them all in under 2 hours. 

    Personally I have no desire to pay for a product and then have to utilize valuable time and resources to assist the manufacturer in refining it to production levels when it should have been that way when released for public sale.  I understand and respect others' views may be different.  We all have the prerogative to communicate those views.

    If the issue persists across product lines like you communicated (I believe you), that strengthens the point that LiftMaster (Chamberlain Group) botched this one up for themselves, but more importantly for their customers.  And, should rectify the issues instead of communicating inadequate workarounds to say the least.

    It is a design issue.  There are plenty of production examples in the world where wireless interference and/or noise are filtered out.  If this wasn't the case, we'd have more than LiftMaster garage door opener lights going erratic on us. 

    I'm sorry.  I cannot determine at all how being made to turn off a feature you paid for is acceptable for the consumer.  Would this be acceptable to you for larger purchases?  Probably not.  If turning on the air conditioner in your brand new car during the hot summer made your headlights turn on and off erratically while driving down the road in the evening, would you stop using your air conditioner and be OK with that?  Probably not.  So why accept it for any purchase that you make with your hard earned dollar?   

    As a matter of fact, the motion sensing capability was a selling point among others for me.  My garage is quite oversized than the standard home garage due to the fact I use it for recreational vehicle storage, vehicle repair, electronics lab space, sportsmen equipment servicing & repair, etc.  I need the control panel units to sense heat and turn the lights on for safety if nothing else due to the amount of foot traffic in and out of the garage from folks that are not friends or family, but rather customers.  One 8500 LiftMaster unit light bulb is not adequate for the whole garage; two is barely enough.  I do not need any litigation for a slip, fall, etc.  More importantly I don't want to see anyone get hurt.

    As for the telephone customer support, unfortunately for me it was sub par at best.  The English spoke on the other end was broken at best and the troubleshooting was purely from a basic script.  Essentially, a waste of time.  I ended up taking the units apart myself and doing what needed to be done and I troubleshot connectivity and pairing issues alone. 

    To your point of the intent of this site, I am well aware of the intent; hence, why I posted in another thread on this site the steps I took to resolve the Internet Gateway network connectivity issue I experienced as well as the 888LM control panel pairing issue I encountered.

    Like posting on Facebook and/or on Twitter, sites like these are also mediums to communicate customer feedback (another intent).  Of course I'm not expecting the Chamberlain Group to require constant monitoring of the site.  However, based on how active their employees are on this site to date there is a good chance they are reading most of the feedback and issue reporting posts.

    I appreciate the intelligent dialogue.  I hope both of our issues eventually get resolved. 

    Take care.
  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. kidding, amused, unsure, silly indifferent, undecided, unconcerned sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • I have the same problem, it's driven me nuts trying to figure it out.  Unfortunately the solution—moving one of the 888LM controllers—is not appropriate for my situation.  Chamberlain/Liftmaster needs to replace these defective units or offer a mount that blocks the radio interference.
  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. kidding, amused, unsure, silly indifferent, undecided, unconcerned sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • The solution to separate the two wall control panels should be taken as a troubleshooting step and not as a permanent solution. I agree with you it is a wild suggestion, and I would rather turn off the motion sensing feature on one of the units than do that. The best thing to do is to open a support case with them and work with them and NOT against them. I opened my case, and the engineers and I troubleshot my problem and everything turned out fine with regard to my case. If you are going to talk to them in the same tone I think Fabio approached them, you are not going to get anything out of them aside from frustration. Thus don't go into the support case acting like you know more than they do, that they are a bunch of useless, incompetent and moronic people, etc."  Work with them, and I guarantee you they will work with you.

  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. kidding, amused, unsure, silly indifferent, undecided, unconcerned sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. kidding, amused, unsure, silly indifferent, undecided, unconcerned sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • This is a duplicate post, but, I thought it was important enough to post in this thread as well:

    Looks like I have the same issue.  Just installed the remote light switch (and had to pay an electrician to change my 4-way switch to single pole), located directly under the MyQ Control Panel and now the the controlled light and the garage light were, so I thought, staying on all the time.  However, when configuring an alert of "light stays on" for more than 10 minutes, no alerts were being sent.  I have both motion and entry sensor turned on with 4.5 minute timeout to turn off.  In attempting to troubleshoot this issue, I then set alerts for immediate turn on and immediate turn off.  I started receiving alerts every 4.5 minutes that the light was being turned on and then turned off.  This continued throught the evening until I turned the alerts off.  I sure wish there was a better solution to this issue as opposed to turning the motion sensor off (this defeats the purpose of buying the remote switch) or moving the MyQ Control panel (not practical or convenient).
  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. kidding, amused, unsure, silly indifferent, undecided, unconcerned sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited

  • It would be nice if they took ownership of the issue...I guess losing busineness, slowly over time, will have to do the trick.
  • (some HTML allowed)
    How does this make you feel?
    Add Image
    I'm

    e.g. kidding, amused, unsure, silly indifferent, undecided, unconcerned sad, anxious, confused, frustrated happy, confident, thankful, excited