by John Kingery
I've installed this on my '95 740, and thought others might appreciate it too.
I hate having the Garage Door Opener Box/Switch hanging off my visor. Decided to put in the UGDO (Universal Garage Door Opener) from BMW, but hated the price and have read too many issues with them.
About 20 minutes, a soldering gun, and less than $5 gave me a result I like a lot better than the UGDO.
I have a standard Sears garage door opener, but all openers are basically the same.
Take the opener apart, and remove the printed circuit board. Unsolder the LED, added about 8" of wire to the two leads, and soldered the wires into the board (where the LED was).
Buy a small, momentary closed pushbutton switch. (Got mine at Radio Shack for $2, but any electrical place will have them.)
Pop out the cloth-covered panel right behind the overhead light (the one that gets replaced if you use the UGDO). Remove the overhead center light panel.
Drilled holes for the switch and LED in the light panel. (Picture shows where I put mine.) Mount the LED and the switch in the panel.
Solder "extension wires" between the switching contacts of the opener, and the new switch.
Wrap it all in plastic, and put it up where the UGDO goes. I left the battery toward the outside, so that can be easily replaced.
Here's what it looks like, just before wrapping it and putting it in. The end result is an ultra clean single button and LED. Looks far better than the UGDO, no programming issues to fight, and saves $$$ to put to more rewarding items.
(ALTERNATIVE: You can also eliminate the battery and hook it directly to the power in the connector, but I figured for the one battery change every 3 years, it's not worth it.)