Skip to content
blog.jacq.cc

Guide

GE-RCV1: open the garage with the gate remote

Published · Updated

Our gate remotes have spare buttons. A small 433 MHz receiver at the garage motor turns one of them into a garage opener, so there’s one remote on the key ring instead of two.

A white garage door halfway open

Not our garage: any opener with a push-button input works the same way. Photo: Oleg Alexandrov, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

What you need

Section titled “What you need”
Part Notes
GE-RCV1 receiver, 1-channel (label GE-RCV1 AC-DC-12V-24V, code SC2504004) 433.92 MHz. Sold as an add-on receiver for Richmond gate kits
A gate remote with a spare button Mine came with a Richmond GTR156 sliding gate
A garage motor with a push-button input A Steel-line SD1200 here. Most openers have one: it’s where a wired wall button goes
Multimeter, small flat screwdriver, a short insulated wire
Optional: a 12 V DC supply To bench-test the receiver before it goes near the motor

About 45 minutes, including the bench test.

A sliding gate with its electric motor, backup battery box and toothed track

A sliding gate motor like the one whose remotes this uses (this one isn’t a Richmond). Photo: NJR ZA, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How it works

Section titled “How it works”

A garage motor’s push-button input is a pair of terminals. Shorting them for under a second does the same as pressing a wall button: open, stop, close, stop, in turn. The receiver has a relay that closes for a moment when it hears a paired remote button. Put that relay across the push-button terminals, and the remote button becomes a wall button.

Step 1: Test the motor’s push-button input

Section titled “Step 1: Test the motor’s push-button input”

The SD1200’s terminal block reads Receiver | Receiver | com | +24VDC (installation manual, page 7).

  1. Clear the door’s path: it will move.
  2. Touch an insulated wire across the two Receiver terminals for under a second, then take it away.
  3. The door starts. Each short moves it to the next step: open, stop, close, stop.

On my SD1200 this worked first time.

Step 2: Find the common side of the input

Section titled “Step 2: Find the common side of the input”

The receiver’s output isn’t a floating contact (step 3 shows why): one side of it is the receiver’s own power wire. So in step 4 one Receiver terminal gets joined to com. That’s only safe if the motor already joins them inside.

  1. Switch the motor off at the wall.
  2. Multimeter on continuity. Test com against each Receiver terminal. One should beep (close to 0 Ω): that’s the common side. Mark it.
  3. Switch the motor on. DC volts between com and +24VDC should read about 24 V. That’s the receiver’s power.

If neither Receiver terminal beeps to com, don’t use the wiring in step 4. Make the receiver’s output a dry contact first (below).

Step 3: Know the receiver’s wires

Section titled “Step 3: Know the receiver’s wires”

The closest manual is for Richmond’s GTR197, the 4-channel version. That one has a 2-core power cable and a 5-core output cable. The 1-channel unit has 3 wires (red, black, yellow) plus the antenna, so the manual’s wire colours don’t apply. I opened it to see where they go.

The GE-RCV1 1-channel receiver, closed: LEARN button, LED, three wires and the antenna

The board: one relay (K1, right), empty spots for K2 to K4, and the J3 connector on the left

Inside there’s one relay, K1 (a Y14H-1C-5DS). The spots for K2 to K4 are empty. The wires plug into connector J3, printed AC, AC, CH1, COM, CH2, CH3, CH4:

J3 pin Wire
AC (1) black, plus a short black jumper to CH1
AC (2) red
CH1 the other end of that jumper (inside the case only)
COM yellow
CH2 to CH4 nothing

J3 close-up: the black jumper loops from AC to CH1, yellow sits on COM

What that means:

  • Power goes in on red and black. Both AC pins feed a bridge rectifier (the B6S next to J3), so 12 to 24 V, AC or DC, either way round, works.
  • The output is the relay switching COM to CH1, and the jumper ties CH1 to AC (1), the black wire. So the output is yellow to black: open at rest, shorted while a paired button is pressed.
  • Polarity matters for the output. Black is both a power wire and one side of the output, so black must go to the motor’s common side.

Step 4: Wire it to the motor

Section titled “Step 4: Wire it to the motor”

Motor off at the wall first.

GE-RCV1 wire SD1200 terminal
red +24VDC
black com, and the Receiver terminal that beeped to com in step 2
yellow the other Receiver terminal

When the relay closes, yellow joins black, which shorts the two Receiver terminals: the same as the wire in step 1. Mine is wired exactly like this, and it works.

Looking up at the Steel-line SD1200 on the garage ceiling, with the black GE-RCV1 box mounted on top of the motor and its wires running to the motor’s terminals

Mine, wired and working: the GE-RCV1 (the black box on top) on the Steel-line SD1200.

Step 5: Pair the spare remote button

Section titled “Step 5: Pair the spare remote button”

These are the GTR197 manual’s steps (page 2). Pairing the 1-channel unit worked for me.

  1. Press LEARN on the receiver once. The LED stays on.
  2. Press the spare remote button twice. The LED flashes 2 or 3 times, then goes off: paired.
  3. Press the button again. The garage door starts.

Optional: bench-test it first

Section titled “Optional: bench-test it first”

Power the receiver from a 12 V DC supply on the bench (red and black, either way round) and pair the remote as in step 5. Put the multimeter on continuity between yellow and black: it beeps briefly on each press. Now nothing can surprise you at the motor.

Want a dry contact?

Section titled “Want a dry contact?”

Take the short jumper between AC (1) and CH1 out of J3, and bring CH1 out as a fourth wire. Yellow to that new wire is then an isolated contact, and it can go across any push-button input, whichever way round.

Next: Home Assistant control

Section titled “Next: Home Assistant control”

Not built yet. The push-button input happily takes a second trigger in parallel with the receiver. The parts are here: a Seeed XIAO ESP32-C6 and a 3 V relay module (Songle SRD-03VDC-SL-C) for each motor. The C6 has a Zigbee radio, so it joins Home Assistant over Zigbee, like the door’s contact sensor already does.

A Seeed XIAO ESP32-C6 in its plastic tub, and a 1-channel relay module with a blue Songle relay and screw terminals

The parts for the next step: the XIAO ESP32-C6 (still in its tub) and the 3 V relay module.

  • A button in Home Assistant pulses the relay for about half a second.
  • The relay must stay off while the ESP boots, so a reboot or power cut never moves the door: a pin with no boot role (D0 to D3 on the XIAO), and firmware that starts with the relay off.
  • Door state comes from a Zigbee contact sensor, not the relay. One input does open, stop and close in turn, so the relay alone can’t know where the door is.
  • Power from the motor: a 24 V to 5 V buck converter on the SD1200’s +24VDC and com.
  • The gate’s controller (Richmond GTR156) has a 15 V accessory output and two inputs: open/stop/close, or open only, which can never close the gate on someone. Its manual says changes inside the controller are for a licensed electrician.

A grey Richmond GTR156 gate motor at ground level beside the gate

Our gate’s Richmond GTR156 motor, enlarged from a wider photo, so it’s soft.

That gets its own guide once it’s built.

Manuals

Section titled “Manuals”

Change history

  • : First published.