Entering the Z-Wave Zone One Step at a Time (Continued)

WAYNE-DALTON Car2U Garage Door Opener Converter

The first step for me was to install the Car2U converter. This turned out to be a great problem solver since my vehicle, which came with a HomeLink® remote control, does not want to work with my Sears Craftsman® garage door opener. I still need to have a separate remote to open the door, but at least it will be a Z-Wave compatible one.

4.0 Ease of Installation Documentation Ease of use Value

Installation was elementary in nature but a lot of little starts and stops pushed a 20-minute job well past two hours. For example, the documentation is as clear and easy to read as you could hope for, but then everything came to a halt when I installed the twin-lead wire connecting the Car2U module to the door opener. The illustration of the existing door opener was different from reality.

Note in Figure 1 that the Car2U installation document (left) refers to a "typical" terminal connection as being two or three clearly labeled holes. What I had (right) was four leads with no markings at all. This required that I trace every wire to determine what I was dealing with. The documentation did offer me two clues that I managed to interpret correctly. The first was to specify that the "P.B." label referred to in the manual was the "Push Button" opener on the wall. The other was the "Hint" to "Connect to the same two terminals used by your existing wall control." From that I deduced that the first and second terminals from my opener should be connected in the same order to the Car2U receiver. I seemed to have guessed correctly.

Figure 1. Documentation vs. Reality

Another addition to the overall project time was the fact that I did not have the original documentation for the garage door opener. This required some digging on the Sears web site looking for the correct manual.

There is one point that the Car2U document really does not clarify well enough. There is a long screw that you need when attaching the module to the power outlet. While it does explicitly state to "Be careful not to over tighten," it does not specify why. I bounced that statement off of three people and each one felt it was a warning not to break the unit. However, when I did overtighten the screw, I didn't realize what I had done until I did a visual inspection. It turns out that the caution not to overtighten is not a reference to the tension but rather to the fact that the module can and will become partially unplugged from the outlet. This is especially problematic since the outlet is almost always upside down. (See Figures 2 and 3.)

Figure 2. Too tight

Figure 3. Just right.

The fact that I had to somewhat guess about the terminal connections (and I tend to be overly cautious around electricity), added more time to the project. Therefore, I had to turn the main power off and on several times. While this is hardly an issue if you are living in California, where the panel is usually in the garage, I live in a colonial style home in New England. The main power panel for the house is deep in the basement so that it will not freeze in winter.

In the end, the Wayne-Dalton Car2U Converter worked the very first time. It should be known that the device itself is very basic and quite easy to deal with. The place where it needs to be installed is not.

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