Thanks Adam. Your video got me on the right path which led to a successful outcome. My garage door wouldn't open and there was no green light on the wall button until one day by accident I pressed on the white circles and noticed a clicking sound and saw that the green light was on. It would stay on for a while and the go off until I pushed there again and got it to come back on. I did this for about a month and noticed that it would stay on when it was colder but eventually that stopped working. I watched your video this morning and decided to give it a try. The first attempt failed so I took it apart again and noticed the wires connecting to the light bulb (from the other board) looked burned in places so I remove them from the board (melting the solder back over the holes) and went over the other plug connections, reheating the solder as per your directions and now everything works perfectly!. The light bulb works on the other side of the opener so Hallelujah! Back in business. Thanks again!
Adam thanks so much for the help! You made this video several years ago and your still helping people! The soldering was the trick, would've never figured that out if it wasn't for you.
CONFIRMED solution for a Sears 139.53914! Same exact board markings but with a Red Learn button (390 MHz) vs the Purple button (315 Mhz) on the video. I am impressed! Excellent sleuthing Adam, and a nice plain simple video. And, no, I did NOT see the hairline cracks on the same Molex pins, even using my smartphone for closeups. Just re-flowed the solder as suggested. Makes me wonder how much money this video has actually saved people over the years.
Bro! My garage door opened a few inches today then stopped. Pressing button would only make a single "click" like a relay. Watched your video and then looked for broken solder. Found a single broken solder connection. Added a tiny dab and its working again!! I appreciate you!
THANK-YOU! This video along with another one on TH-cam allowed me to fix my opener! On the "other" board, there were visible cracks on one of the solder joints. I never soldered before but I bought a kit and was able to re-solder the joint. It FIXED my garage opener that would intermittently stop while opening or closing. This video helped so much on my FIX!!! AMAZING!
Same problem with my Craftsman opener. I had suspected a loose connection at the plugs a few days ago and sprayed them with CorrosionX but that made no difference. So I ordered a new logic board. Then I saw your video and tried the fix. It seems to have worked! It's only been 30 minutes, but in the dozen or so cycles, it hasn't failed. It used to fail every time or every other time. I've canceled the order for my replacement board. Kudos to you for this video! You da man! Now with this fixed, I saved $100 and my wife thinks I'm da man, too! WTG!! I owe you a beer!
Same board on my 2008 Craftsman opener. Suddenly my opener was forgetting my remotes. I check out your video and although I didn't see an issue with the solder joints, I added some liquid flux and hit them with my soldering iron. Now it works great. Thanks you really helped me out.
I appreciate you taking the time to post this tutorial. I had ....HAD, the exact same issue. Remote works about 6 inches from the opener, but would not work from my vehicle. followed your instructions and now my remotes and keypad all work beautifully!! Thank you so much!! ......not to mention you saved me a ton of money on calling a repairman or buying a new unit
Your video helped me fix my door opener board. I had the same symptoms of initially sporadic operation and then finding that deflecting the housing cover that the board was attached to reliably connected or disconnected electrical power to the board. There was one thing different about my board that I would like to share. I noticed that the board in your video where solders had cracked had a white plastic plug-in connector that held all the pins in the same alignment on the board so that their individual alignment stayed pretty fixed during reflowing the solder. In my case I had pins that were all individual, not held together by a plastic connector. So when I reflowed the solder, it re-established the electrical connection and it would work for a while and then eventually break again. I finally realized that during reflowing solder the pins could shift alignment and be stressed when the plug-in was reconnected or even after several cycles of operation and the opener experienced normal operational deflection (transmitted to the board via the plug) that pretty soon would break the solders again. Maybe other viewers who also have individual connector pins might want to watch for this. The connector holding pin alignment needs to be attached when reflowing solder in these situations so that all the pins stay stress-free. I even found that I had to leave my opener cover off because attaching it would stress the troublesome solders and cause it to fail, which I don't like doing because it makes it easier to forget about the 110 AC and reach in there without unplugging power.
It took forever to find your video among all the standard problems...blocked door sensors, breaker, etc. *I call it The "Fonz" HIT TEST, I figured this must be the answer to my problem. AYYYYY👍🏻👍🏻 My unit would completely turn off. Giving it a wrap sometimes made it work. I knew it was either the board, relay or connector. While open I lightly tapped spots and as soon as I gave the board a tap, it worked! Now I'll try the solder joints and come back with an update! .................... OK! It was the Other plug connection! Soldered it and it worked. One thing I also noticed was the screw close to the connector placed extra stress on the area, so I didn't use it. Thanks Adam!
Incredible. After you observation of cracked solder joints I started to take a close look at my circuit board after the garage door stopped working. Sure enough a solder joint on the power circuit board for the relay that lifts and turns the light on had broken loose. I heated it up for solder re-flow and added a little more and it is FIXED! Thanks for the video.
Exactly my problem and exactly the solution- happened after a hot spell in the summer which makes sense and it cited elsewhere on the web. I didn't even look for the cracks - just touched up the 5 you show in the video. 15 minutes and I am a household DIY hero once again! My circuit board housing unit snapped off rather than unscrewed.
Thank you for the most excellent video, and your time. Not only did you save me $200 but you saved me the time it would take to install a new opener. Your fix took me about 20 minutes for the whole job.
AdamDIY, thanks for posting this. I'd never have thunk! Only after you showed the cold solder joints, now this makes total sense. That connector area over the years is subject to not only temperature changes, but vibration from operation. So 💡placing 2 + 2 together is how that happened, after about 20 years! One of these months will get around to working on mine. Door started this nonsense of going part way & reversing, then finally quit working altogether. Will keep this in mind to try first. Original plan was to try to get into what appears to be mechanical relays on the power supply board, which are next the transformer, and make a cameo appearance in this video. Good job on the presentation as well.
Holy cow! I can't really believe that worked! For 2 weeks we have been banging on the side of the opener with a broomstick until the sensor light came back on to show that the unit was working; many times it cut out before the door was completely closed and would need to return to the up position before coming down again. I tried opening up the housing to look for loose connections but everything looked pristine and proper - jiggling some wires would have mixed success but none of the wires consistently restored the connection. After watching your great video and explanation, I got my soldering iron and in a little less time than it took to heat it up, I remelted some suspicious contacts and it worked! I didn't even need to take it down. Last year we had similar symptoms and I was able to seen an electrical arc on the circuit board to discover an unsoldered connection, and was so happy to fix that with a drop of solder. I was ready to call it quits on this unit and am so glad that I found your video first. You save me hundreds of dollars and hours of installation time. Thank you!
I just experienced the exact same issue with the same model garage door opener. Thanks to your video, I removed the board, re soldered the same area that you did as well as the solder for the antenna and.......the remotes work again! Thanks for your video Adam, it saved me some money and relieved a major headache at the same time.
I wanted to thank you for posting this - you cannot believe what a God send it was. I was about to replace the circuit board when I came your video. I could not see any cracks with my solder joints but I resoldered them anyway. Guess what - it worked! Thank you so much for sharing this simple fix with the world!
THANK YOU!!! I was just about to buy a new $200 garage door opener but thanks to your video I checked the circuit board and there was an obvious spot where the solder broke from a pin, I touched the solder with a hot soldering iron, re-melted the solder and the opener is working fine.
I had a broken Solder on board going to the contact. Thanks so much for giving me the direction! Now it's working perfect after finding the bad Solder. Appreciate it!
Thanks for this vid. My opener was randomly changing direction. Didn't matter if it was going up or down, at the top, bottom, middle. The board in the vid was fine. I found another post that said my issue might be the rpm sensor. Pulled that and found a cracked solder joint like you showed. I reheated it, put it back in and sonofa-b, it's working!!!!
Adam, You ARE "THE MAN"! I had the same problem, Googled remote not working distance cold and came up with your original video. I was contemplating adding a new wire but couldn't figure out why the old one was not good enough since I could get a block long range for the past several years and now can't open it in front of the door! Changed batteries and that made no difference. I followed your link from your first video to this video and went right for the 4 leads. Re touched them, put it back in and Viola! Thank you for taking the time to post your solution!!!!!! Bob in "frigid" Illinois.
Thank you! I suspected the same problem but didn't find it until watching your video. I am an electrical engineer and have seen this same problem in consumer electronics over the years. The temperature and mechanical vibration cause the problem. This is the first time I have seen it on a multi pin connector and a mounted relay. I will remove and replace the solder on all of the larger mechanical components that interface with the logic board.. It's ALWAYS a circumferencial break around the pin. Thanks again.
Holy crap. So this girl resoldered in 5 minutes and it all works again! I didnt undu any wires tho, did 3 and 3 screws, unplugged the main unit but just held it and flipped it all still connected and soldered it right there, screwed it back on and that was it!
What a fantastic video! Thank you for the tips. I've had a couple boards go bad, in this same way, and I bet it's the exact same problem. Thank you for showing what broken connections look like--they are not visually obvious if you don't know what you're looking for! Next time the opener starts being finicky with the remotes, I'll try this fix!
My unit was intermitent on the close mode.On average 1 fail out of 4 closures. I removed the electronic boards and couldnt see any broken or cold solder connections. I added a small amount of fresh solder to all the socket and male connector pins where they solder to the circuit board on both of the circuit boards. Now works fine, crack in solder must have been too small for my eyes to see. Thks for the video it solved my problem.
Fantastic video! I went through the board searching and fixed several possible loose solder connections. That made my garage door opener working again. Very useful advices! Thank you very much for sharing the knowledge!!!
+AdamDIY hey ,if anyone else is searching for electronic repair center try Saankramer Electronic Magazine System (do a google search ) ? Ive heard some unbelievable things about it and my m8 got great success with it.
None of my devices or the wall remote was working. I pulled the side off, check the connections. Put it back together and the opener is working again. I think one of the connections to the board was loose. Thanks for the video to give me a kick to check out some possible issues. The Button on the side was originally telling me the board was the issue. It was right. Keep up the good work with the helpful videos.
This video is awesome! I had the same exact issue, slap my Camberlain on the side and it would work. Twice before I pulled motor head completely off the track, touched up solder joints and it would work again for a day or two. 3rd time was a charm after seeing your video, I sucked out all the solder on the connector you showed, resoldered them and it works great. THANKS FOR SAVING ME $280 BUCKS!!!!
Hey, Thanks for confirming the diagnosis of a hard to see cold solder joint. I had a similar problem when I pressed on the transformer of the power supply board. I couldn't see any cracks with the solder joints, but I went ahead to touch them up and it solved the problem. Thanks for taking the time to post the video. Nothing worse than having an intermittent problem with the garage door opener that occasionally left the garage partially open.
Hi Adam. Thank you for your video. It gave me the idea to check the boards, which happens to be the broken solder joint on the AC transformer. This saved me from replacing the unit which is a big job
Thank you so much for posting this. Resoldered antenna and the top connector. Now it works every time and has much greater range. Antenna had visible cold solder joint.
Wasn’t sure whether it was cracked solder joints or bad capacitor but went ahead and reflowed solder on all connectors and replaced capacitor with spare that I had removed from other electronic devices. Symptoms before was wall button switch had green light continuously flashing, lights wouldn’t come on and basically it was dead. Green and amber sensors at door still worked though. After repair, everything worked. Thank you for sharing.
Glad I found this video! I was looking for exactly this type of problem. One loose solder connections on the same plugin leads you showed. Classic loose solder, shorting when colder and as it warms up, less shorting. When I would push on the outside of the opener cover that the circuit boards mount on, the lights would go in and off, so I assumed a problem with a solder connection. I used my Army Knife for Android App Magnifying Glass to get a good close up of the problem connection. Thank you again!
Adam, LOL I also had a bad solder joint joint. I used an eye loop to find the issue. Your close up shot helped me determine what a fault looked like. Thanks! I used a solder iron as you did and now she works. The board maybe fatiguing from the vibration during operation. Thanks again for the insight.! I would have been in the hole for $34 into a new transformer, then I would have bought a motor $72, then probably the board.
Adam thank for the video. I had the same problem and I have the same problem. Just had to touch it with a sauntering iron and works like new. Thanks man!!
Thanks so much for your video, I had the same issue exact issue and re soldering any ribbon connections on the board fixed the problem, good as new! Saved me a lot of money and time.
OMG!!! Thank you sooo much for this!!! I was about spend money on a new garage opener. Thank goodness for this video because after doing this now both my remote and keypad remote work flawlessly!!! Doing this just cost my time...which was only 15 minutes!
Thanks for this. I was hoping this would be the fix for mine, but I wasn't so lucky. At least we have a second garage door that doesn't get used, so combining the good parts into one fully functional garage opener is the way to go now.
Saw your article, been having issues for the past 4 weeks fighting the garage door opening. Sometimes it would work then it wouldn't. Last night actually had to enter house and then open door. Followed your advice, retrained all my remotes and they all now open the door as they should. I had previously tried the antenna extension idea but it only worked a few times.Thanks for the tip. .
Thank you so much for posting this! My Sears garage door opener was randomly shutting off and most of the time hitting it with a stick would make it power back on. The problem you had on yours was exactly the same as mine, a little bit of solder touchup and all is working well now!
Hi Adam, Excellent repair video on your garage dr. operator. Check your remote too - I too have been having perplexing, varied operation experiences w/ my 5 year old garage dr. for some time. On and off again! Last night I compared my wife's remote operation to mine and discovered the problem was my remote! Turns out that the operation buttons in plastic case , which are made w/ very close tolerances, had ceased to make contact w/ the little electronic buttons mounted on the remote's printed circuit board. I cut out a 1/8" square of one sided Gorilla tape and placed it inside the plastic button where the electronic button had been seating. That little bit of tape closed the gap which had formed and the contact was restored. An easy fix if your remote has ceased to work w/ a fresh battery.
I have the same opener. Mine would shut off and not work at all. A few smacks on the side with a board and the light would come on and it would work, maybe. I finally got tired of whacking it. After looking at every solder, they all looked good. As I was putting it back together, one of the two wires than came off the one board, under the other board, to the light socket, had a shiny spot. Found it was rubbing and wore through the insulation. Taped it up and it’s working well again. Since the parts are obsolete now, I found a used one on Amazon and bought it for the future.
thank you Adam ,after reading your note. I just find out its LED light bulbs caused problems with the my opener. I was thinking to replace the Logic board or replace new opener , thanks a lot.
Thank you so much. I had similar symptoms and even tried the longer antenna with the same results as you got. I tried the solder fix and it worked. Your video was the perfect help and now my remotes are working great. Again, can't thank you enough.
Finally, someone with a soldering iron in hand helping me to feel a pulse in my ol tech hands again. So-many bad connections i've soldered in consumer electronics, concluding the piece of equipment's repair within moments. I wanted to ask how old the unit was that this was found? My system is 11 years old now, think I'll put a micro camera app on my phone and look for them old rings that i used to see so much of in the 90's-2000's, after-all, looking at all those intricate circuits and schematics for so long is what did my eyes in. Happy Teching, and thx for this video reminder of simplicity. (gawd i love the other guy on here's hack of the transformer)
My opener works fine if I use the wired opener button mounted in the garage. But I cannot get the hand-held remotes to program. Is this an indication that I may have solder issues on the board like you addressed in the video? I'm think that the operation of the wired button must be a different function from the remote buttons, but I would like to confirm. Great video, and I wish I was as handy as you are!
Just repaired my Craftsman GDO using the same techniques. No obvious damage to caps or resistors, must be in the traces / plug connections. YEP. That was it. Thank you
Adam - Great tip but even greater reading in comments thread about how LED bulbs in the opener can cause intermittent closing issues. That was my problem, LED's out ... all back to normal.
thanks Adam, ours was much the same with very erratic operation. Door would stop at various heights in its travel and other times it would work normally. Problem was the socket numbered P1. this marries the relay board to the printed circuit board. At 1:33 of your video it can be seen on the extreme left. Six sockets only 5 are used. On the solder side one of the pins for this socket was loose. Soldering iron melted the solder and added a drop of 60/40 and let it re-harden. all good. Hope this helps someone.
Thank you very much , you got me thinking and the re- soldering of the power connections worked like a charm. Same situation vibration and shock was disconnecting power and it just got worse. I could not even see the cracks but it did work and has been working.
Hi Adam. Thanks for this video. You are awesome. Opener would not work and I figured it to be in the logic board. After seeing this video I checked the solder on the pins and sure enough cracks just like you show. Thanks again.
Thank you for taking the time to show us this I've had a keypad that wouldn't connect to the liftmaster took it apart and found those hairline cracks fixed it and now all connects great job
Great explanation, thanks. I'll try this and see if it works on my Craftsman 172hp. The problem It has started last winter, when it was really cold it didn't work, but when temperature raised, above 75, it was working all day... but now it is not working at all, despite the hot weather.. so your tips about unseen broken connections seems the right path to solve. Thanks.
I already figured out that digital bulbs (LEDs) emit RF frequency so I replaced the ones I had recently installed back to incandescent ones. It worked for a while but now its hit and miss again. Didn't think of broken solder joints so thanks for the vid!
My door was sometimes stopping on the way down. Seemed like getting cut off with an obstruction in the way. Usually another click and it would go down the rest of the way. I pulled the power board and did the same thing. Touched up the solder points on the connection clip. Works like new!
I just repaired board 41A5021-C circa 1998. I reflowed the connector pins as described, but that was probably not the problem. Both capacitors around LM340TS were dead. These are Elna RE2 330/35 and Paccom 4.7/50 electros. Both showed very high ESR. Replaced and now the unit works fine. Symptoms were the remote failing to work at all and could not reprogram them.
In the phone company there are lots of plug in connections for electrical components. Many times just unplugging something and plugging it back in will fix a problem. We called it reseating. A little contact cleaner on that plug could do wonders.I appreciate the video. At least it gives me an idea of what to look for. Thanks!
We were having a similar problem with three remotes. Closing the door worked just fine. Upon returning home it was a crap shoot if the door was going to open. It was the same with all three remotes and a key pad. I talked to a local garage door company about the receiver going bad but he said they either work or don't work. He said it could be interference from something like an invisible fence, which we have. So I turned it off. Didn't fix it. I checked the antenna and re-soldered the terminals. Still had the problem. Finally I extended the antenna wire across the garage ceiling all the way to the door and made a T across the door. Now I can stand across the street and it works. Extending the antenna did the trick!
Tom Acquilano , try installing an external reciever. You'll need a new remote too, because the mhz is usually different. Its a much easier fix than the soldering.
Tom Acquilano What type (copper/steel) and gauge of wire did you use as the extension? Did you strip the plastic sheathing off? Also, did you tie the extended wire to the existing wire or did you solder the new extension to the base board and remove the original antenna? Sounds like you didn't run the wire out of the outside of the garage, but kept the wire internal. Thanks in advance! :)
Thanks for the easily overlooked issue with the remote board ! Once it was identified correction is manageable ! * An unrelated yet a circuit board issue, spray clean its gum/dirt build up with ' Electrical Contact Cleaner ' and a soft brush before going into previous describes steps !
Wanted to say I watch your video and did my main board like you did and now my remote works great also the homelink I'm our auto works also once again thank adam
Over the top ELECTRONIC MAN. This stuff gives You Tube a good name. Unfortunately, one usually has to grind to find Gold Nuggets like this, TYVM. Read manual Troubleshooting and it should be the Logic Board i.e. plug power, but unit totally dead. What do you think and thank you for your valuable time ADAM.
Thnx soooooo much mine had the same issue but it was under the power supply I was about to go buy either new parts or new device you saved me time and money great video !
Works great so far, thanks for your time and energy in putting this vid together. You saved me much time and grief. Even though I had already smashed one remote... :D
Bravo. Well done. The problem I have is a bit different. Time seems to be a factor. If I haven't used the remote garage door opener for an hour, it responds, opening or closing. It will not respond to either of the remotes immediately after doing either one opening or one closing. It will, though, still respond to the outdoor and indoor panels.
I've seen bunch of videos to replace logic board. None of the other videos talked about a very important issue like this one did. Label your wires, so that you know which wire goes into each slot. All the wires look same color in my garage. I used post-it and stick them to the wires (eg: this wires goes into first red slot, this wire goes into third red slot). Once I did that, it was hardly 5-10 mins work to pull out the old logic board and put a new one.
At first I cleant the circuit with alcohol and put it back. But there was no tmprovement. Then I retouched the soldering points as you did plus some doubtful points. Re-installed and it seems to go back to normal. Have to see whether it really fix it or not. Anyway thank you for your post.
Thanks for your video. Very helpful. I did your soldering iron fix on both connectors (also on that one that plugs into the power board). What I noticed when plugging the board back into the power board was the pins felt kind of loose. Wasn't crazy about that. Not really a fix for that other than coating the pins with a very thin layer of solder. So far works at the end of driveway but have to test it more. It's worse in cold weather and today is warmer. I'll keep an eye on it and post back.
8 years later and you helped another one. thanks for leaving this up.
Thanks Adam. Your video got me on the right path which led to a successful outcome. My garage door wouldn't open and there was no green light on the wall button until one day by accident I pressed on the white circles and noticed a clicking sound and saw that the green light was on. It would stay on for a while and the go off until I pushed there again and got it to come back on. I did this for about a month and noticed that it would stay on when it was colder but eventually that stopped working. I watched your video this morning and decided to give it a try. The first attempt failed so I took it apart again and noticed the wires connecting to the light bulb (from the other board) looked burned in places so I remove them from the board (melting the solder back over the holes) and went over the other plug connections, reheating the solder as per your directions and now everything works perfectly!. The light bulb works on the other side of the opener so Hallelujah! Back in business. Thanks again!
Adam thanks so much for the help! You made this video several years ago and your still helping people! The soldering was the trick, would've never figured that out if it wasn't for you.
CONFIRMED solution for a Sears 139.53914! Same exact board markings but with a Red Learn button (390 MHz) vs the Purple button (315 Mhz) on the video. I am impressed! Excellent sleuthing Adam, and a nice plain simple video. And, no, I did NOT see the hairline cracks on the same Molex pins, even using my smartphone for closeups. Just re-flowed the solder as suggested. Makes me wonder how much money this video has actually saved people over the years.
Bro!
My garage door opened a few inches today then stopped.
Pressing button would only make a single "click" like a relay.
Watched your video and then looked for broken solder.
Found a single broken solder connection.
Added a tiny dab and its working again!!
I appreciate you!
THANK-YOU! This video along with another one on TH-cam allowed me to fix my opener! On the "other" board, there were visible cracks on one of the solder joints. I never soldered before but I bought a kit and was able to re-solder the joint.
It FIXED my garage opener that would intermittently stop while opening or closing. This video helped so much on my FIX!!! AMAZING!
Same problem with my Craftsman opener. I had suspected a loose connection at the plugs a few days ago and sprayed them with CorrosionX but that made no difference. So I ordered a new logic board. Then I saw your video and tried the fix. It seems to have worked! It's only been 30 minutes, but in the dozen or so cycles, it hasn't failed. It used to fail every time or every other time. I've canceled the order for my replacement board.
Kudos to you for this video! You da man! Now with this fixed, I saved $100 and my wife thinks I'm da man, too! WTG!! I owe you a beer!
Same board on my 2008 Craftsman opener. Suddenly my opener was forgetting my remotes. I check out your video and although I didn't see an issue with the solder joints, I added some liquid flux and hit them with my soldering iron. Now it works great. Thanks you really helped me out.
I appreciate you taking the time to post this tutorial. I had ....HAD, the exact same issue. Remote works about 6 inches from the opener, but would not work from my vehicle. followed your instructions and now my remotes and keypad all work beautifully!! Thank you so much!! ......not to mention you saved me a ton of money on calling a repairman or buying a new unit
Your video helped me fix my door opener board. I had the same symptoms of initially sporadic operation and then finding that deflecting the housing cover that the board was attached to reliably connected or disconnected electrical power to the board. There was one thing different about my board that I would like to share. I noticed that the board in your video where solders had cracked had a white plastic plug-in connector that held all the pins in the same alignment on the board so that their individual alignment stayed pretty fixed during reflowing the solder. In my case I had pins that were all individual, not held together by a plastic connector. So when I reflowed the solder, it re-established the electrical connection and it would work for a while and then eventually break again. I finally realized that during reflowing solder the pins could shift alignment and be stressed when the plug-in was reconnected or even after several cycles of operation and the opener experienced normal operational deflection (transmitted to the board via the plug) that pretty soon would break the solders again. Maybe other viewers who also have individual connector pins might want to watch for this. The connector holding pin alignment needs to be attached when reflowing solder in these situations so that all the pins stay stress-free. I even found that I had to leave my opener cover off because attaching it would stress the troublesome solders and cause it to fail, which I don't like doing because it makes it easier to forget about the 110 AC and reach in there without unplugging power.
It took forever to find your video among all the standard problems...blocked door sensors, breaker, etc.
*I call it The "Fonz" HIT TEST, I figured this must be the answer to my problem. AYYYYY👍🏻👍🏻
My unit would completely turn off. Giving it a wrap sometimes made it work. I knew it was either the board, relay or connector.
While open I lightly tapped spots and as soon as I gave the board a tap, it worked! Now I'll try the solder joints and come back with an update!
....................
OK! It was the Other plug connection! Soldered it and it worked.
One thing I also noticed was the screw close to the connector placed extra stress on the area, so I didn't use it.
Thanks Adam!
Incredible. After you observation of cracked solder joints I started to take a close look at my circuit board after the garage door stopped working. Sure enough a solder joint on the power circuit board for the relay that lifts and turns the light on had broken loose. I heated it up for solder re-flow and added a little more and it is FIXED! Thanks for the video.
Exactly my problem and exactly the solution- happened after a hot spell in the summer which makes sense and it cited elsewhere on the web. I didn't even look for the cracks - just touched up the 5 you show in the video. 15 minutes and I am a household DIY hero once again! My circuit board housing unit snapped off rather than unscrewed.
Thank you for the most excellent video, and your time. Not only did you save me $200 but you saved me the time it would take to install a new opener. Your fix took me about 20 minutes for the whole job.
AdamDIY, thanks for posting this. I'd never have thunk! Only after you showed the cold solder joints, now this makes total sense. That connector area over the years is subject to not only temperature changes, but vibration from operation. So 💡placing 2 + 2 together is how that happened, after about 20 years! One of these months will get around to working on mine. Door started this nonsense of going part way & reversing, then finally quit working altogether. Will keep this in mind to try first. Original plan was to try to get into what appears to be mechanical relays on the power supply board, which are next the transformer, and make a cameo appearance in this video. Good job on the presentation as well.
Holy cow! I can't really believe that worked! For 2 weeks we have been banging on the side of the opener with a broomstick until the sensor light came back on to show that the unit was working; many times it cut out before the door was completely closed and would need to return to the up position before coming down again. I tried opening up the housing to look for loose connections but everything looked pristine and proper - jiggling some wires would have mixed success but none of the wires consistently restored the connection. After watching your great video and explanation, I got my soldering iron and in a little less time than it took to heat it up, I remelted some suspicious contacts and it worked! I didn't even need to take it down.
Last year we had similar symptoms and I was able to seen an electrical arc on the circuit board to discover an unsoldered connection, and was so happy to fix that with a drop of solder. I was ready to call it quits on this unit and am so glad that I found your video first. You save me hundreds of dollars and hours of installation time. Thank you!
Edward Lu That's great! I'm glad you were able to fix it. Without even taking the board off none the less!
I just experienced the exact same issue with the same model garage door opener. Thanks to your video, I removed the board, re soldered the same area that you did as well as the solder for the antenna and.......the remotes work again! Thanks for your video Adam, it saved me some money and relieved a major headache at the same time.
9yrs later and Bam! You just helped another middle class family save some $$$$
I wanted to thank you for posting this - you cannot believe what a God send it was. I was about to replace the circuit board when I came your video. I could not see any cracks with my solder joints but I resoldered them anyway. Guess what - it worked! Thank you so much for sharing this simple fix with the world!
THANK YOU!!! I was just about to buy a new $200 garage door opener but thanks to your video I checked the circuit board and there was an obvious spot where the solder broke from a pin, I touched the solder with a hot soldering iron, re-melted the solder and the opener is working fine.
Thats what I like to hear! Awesome!
I had a broken Solder on board going to the contact. Thanks so much for giving me the direction! Now it's working perfect after finding the bad Solder. Appreciate it!
Thanks for this vid. My opener was randomly changing direction. Didn't matter if it was going up or down, at the top, bottom, middle. The board in the vid was fine. I found another post that said my issue might be the rpm sensor. Pulled that and found a cracked solder joint like you showed. I reheated it, put it back in and sonofa-b, it's working!!!!
Adam, You ARE "THE MAN"! I had the same problem, Googled remote not working distance cold and came up with your original video. I was contemplating adding a new wire but couldn't figure out why the old one was not good enough since I could get a block long range for the past several years and now can't open it in front of the door! Changed batteries and that made no difference. I followed your link from your first video to this video and went right for the 4 leads. Re touched them, put it back in and Viola! Thank you for taking the time to post your solution!!!!!! Bob in "frigid" Illinois.
Thank you! I suspected the same problem but didn't find it until watching your video. I am an electrical engineer and have seen this same problem in consumer electronics over the years. The temperature and mechanical vibration cause the problem. This is the first time I have seen it on a multi pin connector and a mounted relay. I will remove and replace the solder on all of the larger mechanical components that interface with the logic board.. It's ALWAYS a circumferencial break around the pin. Thanks again.
Adam, you are a rock star! Your video and about 10 minutes of work just saved me at least $100. Thank you so much!
Holy crap. So this girl resoldered in 5 minutes and it all works again! I didnt undu any wires tho, did 3 and 3 screws, unplugged the main unit but just held it and flipped it all still connected and soldered it right there, screwed it back on and that was it!
What a fantastic video! Thank you for the tips. I've had a couple boards go bad, in this same way, and I bet it's the exact same problem. Thank you for showing what broken connections look like--they are not visually obvious if you don't know what you're looking for! Next time the opener starts being finicky with the remotes, I'll try this fix!
My unit was intermitent on the close mode.On average 1 fail out of 4 closures. I removed the electronic boards and couldnt see any broken or cold solder connections. I added a small amount of fresh solder to all the socket and male connector pins where they solder to the circuit board on both of the circuit boards. Now works fine, crack in solder must have been too small for my eyes to see. Thks for the video it solved my problem.
Fantastic video! I went through the board searching and fixed several possible loose solder connections. That made my garage door opener working again. Very useful advices! Thank you very much for sharing the knowledge!!!
You really did a good job of showing me EXACTLY what to do without too much commentary. Loved the way you used your iphone!
Maciej Piotrowski in my latest garage door vid I address a problem with LED bulbs and garage door openers. You may want to look into that.
+AdamDIY hey ,if anyone else is searching for
electronic repair center
try Saankramer Electronic Magazine System (do a google search ) ? Ive heard some unbelievable things about it and my m8 got great success with it.
None of my devices or the wall remote was working. I pulled the side off, check the connections. Put it back together and the opener is working again. I think one of the connections to the board was loose. Thanks for the video to give me a kick to check out some possible issues. The Button on the side was originally telling me the board was the issue. It was right. Keep up the good work with the helpful videos.
Happy your video is still up. Will try your soldering method tomorrow.
Great fix, thank you. Resoldered those connections and put on a new antenna and garage door works perfectly now!
This video is awesome! I had the same exact issue, slap my Camberlain on the side and it would work. Twice before I pulled motor head completely off the track, touched up solder joints and it would work again for a day or two. 3rd time was a charm after seeing your video, I sucked out all the solder on the connector you showed, resoldered them and it works great. THANKS FOR SAVING ME $280 BUCKS!!!!
Hey, Thanks for confirming the diagnosis of a hard to see cold solder joint. I had a similar problem when I pressed on the transformer of the power supply board. I couldn't see any cracks with the solder joints, but I went ahead to touch them up and it solved the problem. Thanks for taking the time to post the video. Nothing worse than having an intermittent problem with the garage door opener that occasionally left the garage partially open.
Hi Adam. Thank you for your video. It gave me the idea to check the boards, which happens to be the broken solder joint on the AC transformer. This saved me from replacing the unit which is a big job
Good eye! Happy to hear you fixed it. Such a small issue and so easy to fix! Glad you took a sec and did a close-up inspection. Nice.
Thank you so much for posting this. Resoldered antenna and the top connector. Now it works every time and has much greater range. Antenna had visible cold solder joint.
Wasn’t sure whether it was cracked solder joints or bad capacitor but went ahead and reflowed solder on all connectors and replaced capacitor with spare that I had removed from other electronic devices. Symptoms before was wall button switch had green light continuously flashing, lights wouldn’t come on and basically it was dead. Green and amber sensors at door still worked though. After repair, everything worked. Thank you for sharing.
Worked for me today. I just reflowed the connections shown. Thank you.
Glad I found this video! I was looking for exactly this type of problem. One loose solder connections on the same plugin leads you showed.
Classic loose solder, shorting when colder and as it warms up, less shorting. When I would push on the outside of the opener cover that the circuit boards mount on, the lights would go in and off, so I assumed a problem with a solder connection.
I used my Army Knife for Android App Magnifying Glass to get a good close up of the problem connection.
Thank you again!
Adam, LOL I also had a bad solder joint joint. I used an eye loop to find the issue. Your close up shot helped me determine what a fault looked like. Thanks! I used a solder iron as you did and now she works. The board maybe fatiguing from the vibration during operation. Thanks again for the insight.! I would have been in the hole for $34 into a new transformer, then I would have bought a motor $72, then probably the board.
You’re an evil genius. Thanks for saving $80
You're a stud!! Man! Those are teeny, tiny cracks. Well done!
Adam thank for the video. I had the same problem and I have the same problem. Just had to touch it with a sauntering iron and works like new. Thanks man!!
Man... where were you before....? 😁 Thanks for a video....fixed mine. You saved me $150. 👍
Thanks so much for your video, I had the same issue exact issue and re soldering any ribbon connections on the board fixed the problem, good as new! Saved me a lot of money and time.
OMG!!! Thank you sooo much for this!!! I was about spend money on a new garage opener. Thank goodness for this video because after doing this now both my remote and keypad remote work flawlessly!!! Doing this just cost my time...which was only 15 minutes!
Thanks for this. I was hoping this would be the fix for mine, but I wasn't so lucky. At least we have a second garage door that doesn't get used, so combining the good parts into one fully functional garage opener is the way to go now.
Saw your article, been having issues for the past 4 weeks fighting the garage door opening. Sometimes it would work then it wouldn't. Last night actually had to enter house and then open door. Followed your advice, retrained all my remotes and they all now open the door as they should. I had previously tried the antenna extension idea but it only worked a few times.Thanks for the tip. .
Thanks Adam!!... After 10 years it's usfull to me.
Thank you so much for posting this! My Sears garage door opener was randomly shutting off and most of the time hitting it with a stick would make it power back on. The problem you had on yours was exactly the same as mine, a little bit of solder touchup and all is working well now!
Thanks for taking the time to make this video. It worked for me!
Watched a few videos and yours were the best and thank you for posting the detail instructions. life saver... revived it in 30mins.
Hi Adam,
Excellent repair video on your garage dr. operator.
Check your remote too -
I too have been having perplexing, varied operation experiences w/ my 5 year old garage dr.
for some time. On and off again! Last night I compared my wife's remote operation to mine and discovered the problem was
my remote! Turns out that the operation buttons in plastic case , which are made w/ very close tolerances, had ceased to make contact w/ the little electronic buttons mounted on the remote's printed circuit board. I cut out a 1/8" square of one sided Gorilla
tape and placed it inside the plastic button where the electronic button had been seating. That little bit of tape closed the gap
which had formed and the contact was restored. An easy fix if your remote has ceased to work w/ a fresh battery.
I have the same opener. Mine would shut off and not work at all. A few smacks on the side with a board and the light would come on and it would work, maybe. I finally got tired of whacking it. After looking at every solder, they all looked good. As I was putting it back together, one of the two wires than came off the one board, under the other board, to the light socket, had a shiny spot. Found it was rubbing and wore through the insulation. Taped it up and it’s working well again. Since the parts are obsolete now, I found a used one on Amazon and bought it for the future.
thank you Adam ,after reading your note. I just find out its LED light bulbs caused problems with the my opener. I was thinking to replace the Logic board or replace new opener , thanks a lot.
Thank you so much. I had similar symptoms and even tried the longer antenna with the same results as you got. I tried the solder fix and it worked. Your video was the perfect help and now my remotes are working great. Again, can't thank you enough.
Finally, someone with a soldering iron in hand helping me to feel a pulse in my ol tech hands again. So-many bad connections i've soldered in consumer electronics, concluding the piece of equipment's repair within moments. I wanted to ask how old the unit was that this was found? My system is 11 years old now, think I'll put a micro camera app on my phone and look for them old rings that i used to see so much of in the 90's-2000's, after-all, looking at all those intricate circuits and schematics for so long is what did my eyes in. Happy Teching, and thx for this video reminder of simplicity. (gawd i love the other guy on here's hack of the transformer)
Edelectro V For an iPhone, simple triple click the home button it will magnify quite a bit.
I just saw your video before ordering a new board. I'm going to give it a shot. I'll let you know how it comes out.
Thank you! This fixed my issue. Working good now and didn't cost me a thing!
My opener works fine if I use the wired opener button mounted in the garage. But I cannot get the hand-held remotes to program. Is this an indication that I may have solder issues on the board like you addressed in the video? I'm think that the operation of the wired button must be a different function from the remote buttons, but I would like to confirm. Great video, and I wish I was as handy as you are!
Just repaired my Craftsman GDO using the same techniques. No obvious damage to caps or resistors, must be in the traces / plug connections. YEP. That was it. Thank you
One of your other videos was so helpful thanks so much for doing this filming😊
That's really cool how you identified the hairline circular cracks in the solder breaking the connection.
I learned a new thing. Thank you.
Thanks, same here with bad solder. Reflowed and 2 months later still good.
This video saved me a lot of money. Thank you!!
Adam - Great tip but even greater reading in comments thread about how LED bulbs in the opener can cause intermittent closing issues. That was my problem, LED's out ... all back to normal.
thanks Adam, ours was much the same with very erratic operation. Door would stop at various heights in its travel and other times it would work normally. Problem was the socket numbered P1. this marries the relay board to the printed circuit board. At 1:33 of your video it can be seen on the extreme left. Six sockets only 5 are used. On the solder side one of the pins for this socket was loose. Soldering iron melted the solder and added a drop of 60/40 and let it re-harden. all good. Hope this helps someone.
Used the exact method today and fixed my garage door. You are awesome. Thank you, sir
Thank you very much , you got me thinking and the re- soldering of the power connections worked like a charm. Same situation vibration and shock was disconnecting power and it just got worse. I could not even see the cracks but it did work and has been working.
Hi Adam. Thanks for this video. You are awesome. Opener would not work and I figured it to be in the logic board. After seeing this video I checked the solder on the pins and sure enough cracks just like you show. Thanks again.
I have 24 years experience.. u are so good !!!
Thank you for taking the time to show us this I've had a keypad that wouldn't connect to the liftmaster took it apart and found those hairline cracks fixed it and now all connects great job
Thank you for the visual It's immensely helpful
Great explanation, thanks. I'll try this and see if it works on my Craftsman 172hp. The problem It has started last winter, when it was really cold it didn't work, but when temperature raised, above 75, it was working all day... but now it is not working at all, despite the hot weather.. so your tips about unseen broken connections seems the right path to solve. Thanks.
I already figured out that digital bulbs (LEDs) emit RF frequency so I replaced the ones I had recently installed back to incandescent ones. It worked for a while but now its hit and miss again. Didn't think of broken solder joints so thanks for the vid!
I’m going to do this tomorrow. Thanks so much.
thanks mate. you’re the best
My door was sometimes stopping on the way down. Seemed like getting cut off with an obstruction in the way. Usually another click and it would go down the rest of the way. I pulled the power board and did the same thing. Touched up the solder points on the connection clip. Works like new!
Thank you so much for sharing this great video. You just saved me $65.00! I reflowed those solder pads and its good as new!
I just repaired board 41A5021-C circa 1998. I reflowed the connector pins as described, but that was probably not the problem. Both capacitors around LM340TS were dead. These are Elna RE2 330/35 and Paccom 4.7/50 electros. Both showed very high ESR. Replaced and now the unit works fine. Symptoms were the remote failing to work at all and could not reprogram them.
In the phone company there are lots of plug in connections for electrical components. Many times just unplugging something and plugging it back in will fix a problem. We called it reseating. A little contact cleaner on that plug could do wonders.I appreciate the video. At least it gives me an idea of what to look for. Thanks!
We were having a similar problem with three remotes. Closing the door worked just fine. Upon returning home it was a crap shoot if the door was going to open. It was the same with all three remotes and a key pad. I talked to a local garage door company about the receiver going bad but he said they either work or don't work. He said it could be interference from something like an invisible fence, which we have. So I turned it off. Didn't fix it. I checked the antenna and re-soldered the terminals. Still had the problem. Finally I extended the antenna wire across the garage ceiling all the way to the door and made a T across the door. Now I can stand across the street and it works. Extending the antenna did the trick!
Tom Acquilano , try installing an external reciever. You'll need a new remote too, because the mhz is usually different. Its a much easier fix than the soldering.
Tom Acquilano What type (copper/steel) and gauge of wire did you use as the extension? Did you strip the plastic sheathing off? Also, did you tie the extended wire to the existing wire or did you solder the new extension to the base board and remove the original antenna? Sounds like you didn't run the wire out of the outside of the garage, but kept the wire internal. Thanks in advance! :)
Thanks for the easily overlooked issue with the remote board ! Once it was identified correction is manageable !
* An unrelated yet a circuit board issue, spray clean its gum/dirt build up with ' Electrical Contact Cleaner ' and a soft brush before going into previous describes steps !
The repair from your video worked perfectly for me. Thanks much.
Wanted to say I watch your video and did my main board like you did and now my remote works great also the homelink I'm our auto works also once again thank adam
Over the top ELECTRONIC MAN.
This stuff gives You Tube a good name. Unfortunately, one usually has to grind
to find Gold Nuggets like this, TYVM. Read manual Troubleshooting and it should
be the Logic Board i.e. plug power, but unit totally dead. What do you think
and thank you for your valuable time ADAM.
Great job fixing that
Thnx soooooo much mine had the same issue but it was under the power supply I was about to go buy either new parts or new device you saved me time and money great video !
Great video - saved me $69 on a new board....those cracks were incredibly small....great find!
Works great so far, thanks for your time and energy in putting this vid together. You saved me much time and grief. Even though I had already smashed one remote... :D
Bravo. Well done.
The problem I have is a bit different. Time seems to be a factor.
If I haven't used the remote garage door opener for an hour, it responds, opening or closing.
It will not respond to either of the remotes immediately after doing either one opening or one closing. It will, though, still respond to the outdoor and indoor panels.
Very helpful video. Thanks so much for taking the time to make it.
I've seen bunch of videos to replace logic board. None of the other videos talked about a very important issue like this one did. Label your wires, so that you know which wire goes into each slot. All the wires look same color in my garage. I used post-it and stick them to the wires (eg: this wires goes into first red slot, this wire goes into third red slot). Once I did that, it was hardly 5-10 mins work to pull out the old logic board and put a new one.
Nice one my friend, thank you so much for this info.
At first I cleant the circuit with alcohol and put it back. But there was no tmprovement. Then I retouched the soldering points as you did plus some doubtful points. Re-installed and it seems to go back to normal. Have to see whether it really fix it or not.
Anyway thank you for your post.
Thanks for your video. Very helpful. I did your soldering iron fix on both connectors (also on that one that plugs into the power board). What I noticed when plugging the board back into the power board was the pins felt kind of loose. Wasn't crazy about that. Not really a fix for that other than coating the pins with a very thin layer of solder. So far works at the end of driveway but have to test it more. It's worse in cold weather and today is warmer. I'll keep an eye on it and post back.
Thanks man, I couldn't see any problem, but it works great now!
Thanks for posting this video. I found a cracked solder joint just like in your video. I soldered it and it works perfect now. :-)