Well I got the homelink in the truck today. What a PITA. I mounted it the same as BAMORRIS2's. Before I started drilling and trimming I hooked the homelink up to a cig lighter adapter to make sure it worked, and it did. I actually programmed all 3 buttons to my garage door opener. Long story short, I attempted to program another G-door opener to the middle button and now I cant reprogram it back to mine. The other 2 are still programmed for mine. All I did the first time was hold the button in and press my regular opener and it worked, but wont work now. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong here?

 

Use it to open a remote lock___ Just a wild thought

 

I would like to do this mod as well - either in the existing space in my '05 Lariat visor or the overhead console - trouble is that I'm fed up with the "acution" nonsense on e-bay. Spent time finding the right visor, put in a bid (and a maximum bid) only to find out that someone had waited until the very last minute and out bid me by $1.00......sorry guys - but what a stupid way to buy something - waited a week only to find it gone I travel and am very busy with work and don't have time to check e-bay every 10 minutes to see my bid......(sorry - off rant now).....anyone know where I can get a used Ford HomeLink that I can mount in my visor or console w/o having to deal with e-bay?

thx

 

If you buy from ebay, put in your maximum bid you would pay. If you get outbid, then so be it. It went for more than you were willing to pay, or get a bid sniper to ensure you get it. That is what happened to you.

Brian

 

Yeah most guys use the bid sniper type programs. I don't, I have them, but maybe I'm just old fashioned. You got any pickaparts near you? look in the visors of upscale cars. easy to yank. easy to setup.

When I recommend e-bay, I am usally recommending vendors, buy it now stuff. There are tons of good deals from regular vendors that sell cheap on e-bay.
Chris

 

The visor I bought to scavenge the Homelink unit was from a 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis. I figured who drives one of those thats going to be bidding on this. The auction started for $24.99 and my max bid was $25.99. I got it for $24.99, no other bids were made by anyone else. Plus I figured since it was a Ford product that it should at least be close in color. It was a perfect color match. It did take a bit of work to make it fit right, but it looks like it came from the factory.

 

All this talk about homelink, and I decided to see how hard it would be to get one without bothering with e-bay.
Not too hard. I went down to the local pickapart, and found one. 99 dodge van.





I left the housing for it there. They wanted five bucks for the housing. Heck with it. I just got the guts. No charge. It did cost me a buck to get in the yard.
I expected to pay another buck or three for the guts, but when I showed it to the guy, he just waved me past. I think he was suprised I didn't just drop it in my pocket. Notice the size.
This is not like the one I bought for 25 new from e-bay, but you could use the new one to replace this one. There are 4 led's rather than just one, one for each button you push, plus the forth one to program with. It also has a light wire, rather than just hot and ground. I bought this one just to play with, may make a tiny box for it and put it in one of my cars, might just put it on e-bay (kidding, these are too cheap and easy to get). I am going to find some better looking buttons, without paying the five bucks.
Anyway, these are a good mod, and they can be had cheaply.
Chris

 

Brian - I guess my issue with the "Auction" is that when I want to buy and someone wants to sell - we should be able to consumate the transaction....not have to mess around and wait a week to see if I'm the "lucky" winner.....seems silly to me - guess I'm going to have to hire an assistant to watch my e-bay auctions (NOT)......I travel quite a bit in my career and time is $$$ - just don't have the time nor desire to track e-bay....by the way - what is a "bid sniper" and where is that on e-bay?

 

GB150 - so then your "max bid" is only used if the "auction" gets that high? If others bid - but don't reach your max bid - then you get it for what....one dollar over their max bid? Say it was listed at 10.00 and you bid 11.00 with a max bid of 30.00....then the bidding got up to 25.00....would you win the bid at 25.00? Thanks for the help - as you can tell - I'm not an e-bay regular

 

Yep. Say it's got a starting bid of 99 cents. Shipping is five bucks
(watch the shipping, and never take it for granted, more bucks in shipping than selling.)
So anyway, 99 Cents, plus 5.00 bucks. You want it for no more than say, 15.00 bucks. So if you are willing to buy it for 15.00 bucks, and don't have time to 'nurse' the auction, then bid 10.01. Remember, it's gonna cost you five more for shipping. Oh, yeah, the penny. I've won a few by that penny. And then forget about it. They will e-mail you with your win, if you do.

Biggest newbie mistake is getting excited. The dingus you want is going for 5.00 bucks, you are willing to pay 10.00 bucks. You think you got it, and someone bids 10.50.
Dang, nobody beats you, now it's a competition.
You bid 11.00 two minutes out. He bids 11.50. Next thing you know, you paid 20 bucks for something that you were not going to bid more than 10.00
Vendors love this.

Remember, most of the bids take place in the last five minutes of many auctions.
So put the amount you will feel good winning at, and walk away.
Hope this is some help.
Chris

 

Chris - yes it is a great help I've just jumped back from 45 mins on e-bay trying to figure all of this out and actually taking the time to read all the bidding info, etc......still wish I could just purchase what I want - but if I must "play the game" I have my g-friend set up to monitor the auction at her work computer now - so we should be in it to the last second.....man what a bunch of work just to by something! I'm about ready to go down to the junkyard myself and pull out a ##@$! sunvisor and be done with it!!

 

HEY GB150, I hope you see this post. I just picked up a homelink and want to install it in my truck. What did you do as far as drilling and/or cutting in your overhead console? I took my homelink apart, and I'm not sure to drill a few holes, or cut out one big hole? (for the homelink buttons to stick out)

Also, what did you do for a ground? Did you find a ground wire to tap into, or did you ground it by itself to metal somewhere?

thanks,
Steve

 

bump for GB150, I'd email you but you don't allow emails through your profile?

 

I drilled 6 holes. 3 for the buttons, 2 for the tabs to hold the button cover to the box and 1 for the LED. I also had to trim the tabs off of the case the circuit board is in and some off of the inside of the overhead console. I also used an electric sander to thin down the case and also to thin the back of the console piece that fits between the dome lights in console. Then I used some hard rubber and glued them on the inside ends of the buttons so they would reach the real buttons on the circuit board. I had to make up the difference of the thickness of the console piece. The glue was similar to super glue. It seemed like a PITA at the time but from start to finish was probably about 2 hours. Sanding the circuit board case and inside of the console piece took the most time. bamorris may have done it differently than I did so there may be an easier way. Mine does look identical to his. I hope this helps.

As far as wiring, I just tapped into the dome light wires.

 

Thanks for the reply. I did pull down my console last night and thought it seemed a little thick and wondered how to make up the difference.

one more thing, can you remember about the wiring? The dome light harness has 4 wires: a green wire, 2 solid black wires, and a black/blue stripe wire. I found an old post were someone said the green and 2 black wires were hot/power. So is the black/blue wire a ground or not? What did you do for a ground?