Garage Door
What is the difference between Dip Switch garage door openers and Rolling Code Technology garage door openers?
So you have an old garage door Remote Control and it doesn’t seem to work. Thinking of calling a garage door repair company? Hold on, not just yet. Open it up at the battery compartment and you will see a bunch of little up down switches. Maybe 8 or 12 of them in there? Well those are the old school Dip Switches. The New School uses rolling code technology so those old things are going the way of the dinosaur.
Here we at Cincinnati Garage Doors will try to explain the difference between the two. We understand that old habits- like old products- die hard and these will probably still remain in use for the next 100 years…
Garage Door Openers that use Dip Switches
So what are DIP switches? DIP switches are the small up/down position switches built into the remote that allow it to communicate to the motor hanging from your garage ceiling. Initially, all garage door remotes communicated with the same radio signal, which meant that anyone with a remote could enter your home! People of course did not like that so a code system was invented. DIP switches are a series of switches in the remote and on the back of your motor that are connected to a circuit board. There can be 8, 12 or 16 dip switch operators. Whatever you have, the exact up/down configuration MUST match the remote and the one on the back of the motor. Even if one of them is off, the remote will not work and you will not get into your garage.
The one on the back of the motor hanging from your garage ceiling is called the receiver. Both have to be set to the same combination in order for the garage door to work correctly. Even though this code security is a decent barrier for criminals so as not to break into your garage and home, its not perfect. Since technology has become so sophisticated these days, this analog code system which prevents others from using a remote to get in is not actually that secure anymore. If someone happened to get the code right or had a way of finding it out then they are in!
21st Century Rolling Code Technology
Rolling code technology is a digital solution for the analog dip switches. Remember you can only choose up/down for 8, 12 or 16 switches on those old garage door remotes. Rolling code actually can choose one of a billion codes! How does it work? Well a small computer chip goes into both the receiver and the remote, then every time you click on the remote to open your garage door, it sends out a code to the receiver. That code is not just an up/down combination of 8 switches (about 256 possible combinations). We are talking a code that has over a billion combinations! Try figuring out or guessing that garage door opener code!! Even better, that code gets changed every single time you open your overhead garage door! So you have a code that is generated every single time you click to open your garage door and that code is one in a billion. Great use of technology huh?
Both Dip Switch garage door openers and remotes as well as the new rolling code technology openers are on the market. The more old garage door openers that get ripped out and thrown in the dump, the more rolling code openers will take over. But those old openers are really built to last. Many people just want to find a new remote- not because they don’t work but maybe they just got lost. So dip switch remotes and receivers for garage doors will be around a long time. How long do you think it will take to never see a jagged metal key go into a Door Lock??
About the Author
Mark Richardson, Garage Door Experts of Cincinnati
For Cincinnati garage door repair with same day service, call (513) 318-4601 and a professional technician can help you with your garage door opener.
GARAGE DOOR
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