Home link button disappears too quickly?

[HFh]

So I suppose this discussion could go into firmware fixes, but I have a question. When I arrive at home, the home link menu pops up so I can open my garage... but the button disappears by the time I stop my car. Similarly, when I get in my car before I leave the menu pops up just fine when I start but disappears by the time I back out. So in both cases, I have to call up the menu again.

Does this happen to anyone else?

 

[Patrick]

Yes, that happens to me too. There may be a coded time delay that closes the drop-down after you select. I'll have to test when I return home. On a related issue, the Homelink's proximity sensor must be forward-facing. I can't back into my driveway then open my garage door.

 

[Lloyd]

Try deleting the location, and adding it again but this time be a little farther away from your garage. It is very sensitive and accurate. Be sure and let the position of the cars GPS stabilize also before programing.

 

[sp4rk]

I'd agree with forward sensing. I do a 90 degree turn to get into my garage and the pop appears just before I make the turn and never works until the car is straight on.
I have no other issues with it. Love it!

What I would also like though, is this same feature on raising the car. Every time I do pull in I raise the car to VERY HIGH to ensure adequate ground clearance. Right now I have to bring up controls, height. WOuld be lovely to tell the car to "rise" when at this spot?

 

[kendallpb]

@Patrick & @sp4rk: My car's always backed towards the garage and HomeLink works perfectly every time. Someone else on TM said that same thing. I figured it must broadcast in both directions, but it might broadcast from the side--which would explain sp4rk's experience. But that doesn't explain why Patrick can't back in and then open the door, which I do every day (and close it every day when I leave, from outside and aimed away--my garage is still cluttered, so I don't park in there).

 

[mark]

I have the issue of disappearing too fast - I have a gate and a garage door and the button is gone before I can close the gate.

 

[sp4rk]

@Patrick & @sp4rk: My car's always backed towards the garage and HomeLink works perfectly every time. Someone else on TM said that same thing. I figured it must broadcast in both directions, but it might broadcast from the side--which would explain sp4rk's experience. But that doesn't explain why Patrick can't back in and then open the door, which I do every day (and close it every day when I leave, from outside and aimed away--my garage is still cluttered, so I don't park in there).

Have you got that back to front? Upside down? Oh ...
For me it doesn't work when I am perpendicular to the door.

 

[NigelM]

Homelink works fine coming home. When I leave home, I start the car and the home link button pops up; I hit reverse and back out of the garage but as I'm moving the home link button disappears although I want to close the garage door before I drive away. It's a #firstworldproblem but does anyone have an easy solution?

 

[kendallpb]

Have you got that back to front? Upside down? Oh ...
For me it doesn't work when I am perpendicular to the door.

LOL, Sorry, I meant to write "it may not broadcast from the side"...not "it might broadcast from the side."

I have it in a space warp most of the time, actually. ;-)

 

[HFh]

Homelink works fine coming home. When I leave home, I start the car and the home link button pops up; I hit reverse and back out of the garage but as I'm moving the home link button disappears although I want to close the garage door before I drive away. It's a #firstworldproblem but does anyone have an easy solution?

This is my problem.

 

[Sigma4Life]

@Patrick & @sp4rk: My car's always backed towards the garage and HomeLink works perfectly every time. Someone else on TM said that same thing. I figured it must broadcast in both directions, but it might broadcast from the side--which would explain sp4rk's experience. But that doesn't explain why Patrick can't back in and then open the door, which I do every day (and close it every day when I leave, from outside and aimed away--my garage is still cluttered, so I don't park in there).

I'm fairly certain it only broadcasts forward. The reason it works for you when backing up is the signal bounces off the house or object across the street from you and reflects back towards your garage door. As long as there is a perpendicular surface in front of your car the signal will bounce back to your garage door opener.

I have found that if my neighbor across the street parks his truck at an angle in front if his house I have a hard time getting my garage door to open / close from behind my car. I think this is because the signal is being deflected by his truck. When his truck is gone or parked perpendicular to the front of my car the garage opens just fine.

 

[ElSupreme]

I use the homelink in 3 seperate positions. All of which work very well.

• Inside my garage directly under the opener. I am too lazy to move the physical button the previous house owners installed to a non-horrible location. I use this to open and close the door.
• Directly outside my garage, trunk towards door (I back into my garage). I do this to close the door as I am leaving.
• On my street perpendicular and slightly beyond my driveway (back passenger side towards door). I drive beyond my driveway, stop, open the door, then back into my driveway which is on the right.

The road is about 60' from my garage door. So distance from the car to the opener is about 80'. I also have rescued my garage door antenna and have it very exposed below the opener. I think this helps a lot.

 

[kendallpb]

I'm fairly certain it only broadcasts forward. The reason it works for you when backing up is the signal bounces off the house or object across the street from you and reflects back towards your garage door. As long as there is a perpendicular surface in front of your car the signal will bounce back to your garage door opener.

I have found that if my neighbor across the street parks his truck at an angle in front if his house I have a hard time getting my garage door to open / close from behind my car. I think this is because the signal is being deflected by his truck. When his truck is gone or parked perpendicular to the front of my car the garage opens just fine.

I hadn't thought of that. Although...whether I'm backed up against it and pretty much level, or if I'm at the bottom of the mini-hill my driveway makes, pointed essentially down (not across)...it still works. But maybe it bounces off several things. (shrug) ;-)

 

[KenEE]

Mine goes away too fast also. Funny it pops up instantly before I've even begun to back out of the garage. Then I back out and am ready to close the garage and drive off, but it pops away before I can get to it. It's like its teasing me.

I don't think its a gps position thing, because it pops up when arriving much further away from the garage. This all occurs in a very tight area.

 

[HFh]

Mine goes away too fast also. Funny it pops up instantly before I've even begun to back out of the garage. Then I back out and am ready to close the garage and drive off, but it pops away before I can get to it. It's like its teasing me.

I don't think its a gps position thing, because it pops up when arriving much further away from the garage. This all occurs in a very tight area.

Right. Getting back to the original topic, this issue doesn't appear to be a simple GPS thing nor a simple timeout issue. For me, I come up to garage, and use the already open home link menu, but to close I have to get the menu back. When I leave I can use home link to open the garage and sometimes if I react really quickly I can use the already open menu to close it again before the menu disappears. My current theory is that the menu stays open longer when backing up. In particular, the back up camera hides it but when switching to drive (thus making the camera app go away) the home link menu stays open for another second or so, giving me enough me to hit the button again.

So weird.

 

[gtimbers]

Timing is way too short. I can't both open and close my door without calling the button up on screen manually. Sometimes I can get in and sometimes I can get out, but never both without it going away. I'm going back to the handheld clicker. My Lexus and former Infiniti would work from 2 to 3 times as far away, and with a button it was always accessible. Tesla went too far with the lack of direct access buttons.

 

[Doug_G]

I don't think it's timing per se; the GPS range where the HomeLink pops up is simply much too tiny. I can open the door long before the menu would have popped on its own.

 

[KenEE]

I don't think it's timing per se; the GPS range where the HomeLink pops up is simply much too tiny. I can open the door long before the menu would have popped on its own.

No reason for the GPS range to be longer for me, as it pops up the HL links before I am within its too short (and inconsistant) range. And it's going away doesn't seem to have anything to do with location. I'm within the GPS activation range the whole time, but the pop-up goes away much to soon.

A little firmware tweaking and either a longer timeout or a settable timeout will hopefully fix it right up.

 

[fizzazle]

While we are asking for a longer timeout for the home link why don't we also ask for larger font on the popup? I'm only 30 years old and I can barely see/click it!

I have to say the touchscreen is very good/responsive and is extremely intuitive. Only complaint is that there are some clicks that require too much focus/precision (like those little boxes to go full screen). All those very small icons should be enlarged so one can click without having to take eyes off the road! I have found this is certainly true for the majority of the on screen functions...

 

[kendallpb]

I hadn't thought of that. Although...whether I'm backed up against it and pretty much level, or if I'm at the bottom of the mini-hill my driveway makes, pointed essentially down (not across)...it still works. But maybe it bounces off several things. (shrug) ;-)

Huh. I was almost exactly perpendicular to the garage, down at street level (my driveway makes a small hill), and pressing Homelink opened the garage. I'm not convinced it's really ahead-only, bouncing off 500 things to make it back to the garage; I don't see how, in that situation, it would've reached my garage. Maybe my car is just weird. ;-)