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Thread: Garage Parking Sensor Idea

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    Default Garage Parking Sensor Idea

    Hi all,

    I'm having a panel garage door fitted soon (It was a car port but I had enclosed it yonks ago to make it a man cave). As I have purchased a new (second hand), car; this car won't survive any hailstone damage like my old 1994 Magna
    Last year there were 7 cars that got dimpled on the street.

    So I have just removed the front (large double Patio window) from the car port - and what a damn hard job that was - took us 4 hours!!), and as of yesterday, decided to park the 'new' car inside to see how it looks...

    And would you believe it!! The new car is BIG! There's only about 35cm at the rear and about the same at the front!
    As the car has a motorised tail gate i will need to be able to park it - JUST RIGHT - as close to the garage door as possible. So walking around the rear of the car is possible and the tail gate can lift easily.

    I've scanned eBay and You Tube for a suitable 'stopping' solution, but not sure which way to go and thought I'd post here and ask the experts.

    The car will be reversed in, facing forward to the new garage door.

    I'd like a Light to illuminate and show as the driver is looking forward.
    I don't want anything that stands upright on the ground at the rear as the tail gate has to have room to lift.

    I don't want to put any fixed stop bars into the concrete.

    Thanks,
    GT250.



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    Hi Mate,
    I've hanged a small "tennis ball" from the roof beam so when it hits the back window of the car I (SWMBO) know to stop.
    This winter, found that it was easier if it actually made a noise when reversing, so we did not have to stare at it when reversing, so I replaced the tennnis ball with a couple of old plastic hose couplings that "plonk" when they hit the rear windscreen.
    The string can be temporarily moved out of the way if I need to work on the garage and let han loose again when I'm done (hang the weight on the wall of the garage).

    It does not use batteries, but it works for me.
    Cheers.

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    Put a bit of timber(off cut of sleeper) on the floor so the wheel hit's as you back in.
    Death smiles at everyone. Grumpy old men smile back.

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    I build one a couple of years ago.

    Its powered by the roller door motor which sits in the middle of my garage, i tacked power off the little light on the motor that stays powered for 3min it is 24V DC

    The sensors themselves are linked below



    These are mounted on two mounting blocks on either side of the garage the door end. On the wall facing the opposite side of the garage roller door i have an amber light mounted up high on a mounting block that lights up if there is anything in the way of the beam, once the light goes out i know i'm good to stop the car.



    Hope this helps

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    Silicon Chip did a kit for this exact situation.
    As SS Dave said, the simplest solution is a piece of timber bolted to the floor that the rear wheels stop at.

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    I'd go with the tennis ball, cheap, easy, and unlikely to ever fail.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    Quote Originally Posted by fandtm666 View Post
    fandtm666, very nice! Only issue (just as I'm replying to other people), i can see is that this car is driving forward.
    I assume that mounting this laser couldn't be mounted on the garage door (as the door would be in the horizontal position. And power to the laser?
    I'll have to look them up.




    Ammlione and SS Dave
    My car has this 'Privacy' glass on the rear and rear quarter sides. When it would enter (Reverse), into the garage the rear visibility will be low.
    I'd rather not have any hanging things as the area at the rear of the car would be the only way to get around it and we would need the use of the tail gate.
    I rather not want anything fixed to the floor.
    SS Dave: I fitted a piece of timber to the oldies garage. They just drive straight in and they NEED to 'hit' something to know when to stop LOL!!!


    VNBoost:
    Now that could be the way to go..!!
    I could put these on the inside of the brick posts. I'll have to wait until the door is in (two weeks), and see where the rails actually lie and how the door travels.

    So if the the beam is being broken as the car is reversing back, then the (a light), would be on. Then the light would go off as the car fully entered the garage, then after the door has closed, drive forward until the light comes back on again...?
    Hmmm!!!

    The car in the photo is only about 30cms from the rear and the tail gate will not open. The garage door (apparently), will be flush with the front of the brick posts.
    If this is the case, then access to to the other side of the garage and the tail gate will all be ok - as long as I (well not me there is a chromosome XX at play here, LOL!), can drive the car forward safely once the garage door is closed.


    GT250

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    One for a car stop, drive in, approx 40mm to spare, going to be less soon when the winch goes on
    Have hit the plaster wall a few times in the past but this has stopped that
    Thought i would trip over it but has never occurred, nice reassuring stop
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    You don't need to bolt the timber to the floor. Just glue it in place with some liquid nails or even silicone. You only need it not to slide and if you get the right size timber, the wheels tend to hit the top and press it down more than push it out the way so does not need much to secure it.

    When you want to remove it you just put something like a paint scraper under it to break the glue and it will come up easily.

    I did some stops for a friend once in her unit car park. Drilled holes in the concrete and secured the bump stop with bolts that were like pins coming out the wood. The stops weren't fixed to the concrete, you could lift the stops right out of the holes so there was no interference on the floor and then sit them back in again. When she left I put a few tablespoons of concrete back in the holes to fill them and that was it. In this case if you wanted to remove the stops to sweep or get them out the way temporarily, you could just lift them out of the holes and then replace the stops when you were finished.

    The other thing you can do is make a rectangular frame so the timber is secured by the wall behind. it will push up against that at the back and can't move any more. You could make the timber at the front larger than the rest as it would only need to stop the timber moving back. This would also be easily removable.

    Vehicle looks pretty new. Does it not have a reversing camera? If so you could just paint a target patch on the floor to line up with the grid on the camera so when you centred it, you knew you were in precisely the right place.

    Given it appears you are reversing up to a door or window and you say visibility out the vehicle is low, I'd suggest some sort of physical stop would be the safest method and may help in the inevitable case of a slight misjudgement.


    I had the same thing with my first house. Small old shed Modern large wagon barely fitted in. Due to the narrow Driveway, I always Reversed in as that put the house on my side and I could look out and see exactly how close I was and I had about 300MM at best to spare before the other side hit the fence. I put large bumpstops in the shed as I had about 300mm if that to play with between the back of the wall and the roller door not closing. They worked really well.

    One night I went up the shed to get something and as I squeezed past the car, I turned on the ignition and put it into reverse so the lights came on and I could see as the light switch was at the far end behind the car anyway. When I walked out, I just turned off the ignition and closed the door .
    Next morning I went to start it and the starter wasn't engaging. That had happened before with a sticky solenoid and I had a jumper wire made up for the purpose in the glove box. I got it and jumped the starter and the warmed over V8 Immediately fired on the fast set auto choke and tried to drive itself out the back of the garage which it surely would have done if not for the bumpstops.

    Nearly shit myself when I saw it lunge back but luckily it didn't go over although it was trying. Took a couple of seconds to process what happened but I was able to run round and turn it off through the window. Would have been one of those things you see on the news where the car ends up in a swimming pool which the neighbours had in their yard behind and there was nothing between the 2 that would have stopped it as the fence was really the back of my shed anyway.

    Never made that mistake again! :0(

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    What about mounting a mirror in the back corner of the shed at approx 45deg angle.
    That way you could see directly across the back of your car.
    Last edited by loopyloo; 16-07-20 at 11:38 AM.

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    You could always get one of those sensors like they use in pub drive thrus. It goes mad when the beam is broken. Mount it where you want the front of the car to be. As you back in, it goes mad. When you've gone far enough, it will turn off again.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    Hi all,
    Thank you so much for your ideas. But I'm going (after a chat with the missus - stuck in the UK!), to go the strip on the floor way. (allover).

    As George65 has said, i can just glue it and depending on the shape, it shouldn't move. Just has to be One strip (maybe two as a back stop).

    So as the car reverses in there would be a rear wheel 'bump', then the front wheel 'bump', then drive slowly forward to the strip/stop.
    Wondering if I should get that Beveled 45º Flat 45º type. I wonder if Clarks Rubber would have some stuff...!!

    As for lasers: The door motor control box supports the 'Optional' Laser safety kit, $200 installed.
    I'm thinking that there's probably some empty terminals for the wiring on board for this kit

    So I'll wait until the door is fitted and then have a look.

    Thank you once again for all your help and advise people.
    I'll provide a update re the laser idea...

    Stay safe,
    GT250.

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