Liftmaster Laser Parking Assist - Garage Goes High-Tech!

For whatever reason, the garage has been a focal point for gadgets over the last couple of years. 

And as of this weekend, we'll have LASER BEAMS guiding us to the perfect parking spot! 

Talk about high-tech! 

Over the last year, we've turned our existing "dumb" garage door into a fully-integrated garage door system. 

And we aren't done yet!

We have a Raynor Aviator garage door opener. 

It's compatible with all Chamberlain and Liftmaster accessories - most brands are.

We recently added a MyQ garage control system. 

Just to bring you up to speed - CLICK HERE for the overview of products needed for a MyQ retro-fit, or CLICK HERE for the AAAD MyQ review. 

MyQ allows us to raise and lower the garage door from an iPhone app, and provides warnings if the garage door is left open for some reason. 

Chamberlain is listed as a partner for Apple HomeKit, so it's likely that MyQ will work from the Home app, but it's uncertain as to whether that will require new hardware.

Anecdotally - MyQ came in VERY handy last Thanksgiving, when we had to let a friend into our house to use the oven, after his went out of commission mid-turkey.  

We also added a remote keypad to our garage door opener - really, a simple and almost required addition. 

This laser assist - not particularly required or necessary. But WAY cooler. 

Liftmaster (and Chamberlain) sell the 975LM Laser Parking Assist. 

I recently picked up 2 of them for about $15 each. Mine are "Liftmaster" branded, because I'm weird like that and try to make all of my brands match. But they appear to be completely interchangeable. 

The 975LM mounts on your garage ceiling, and connects to your garage door opener by connecting 2 wires, 1 from the laser, 1 from the garage opener. 

If you're installing 2, as I am, you need to connect the 2 laser wires to the garage door opener wire with a wire nut. Pretty basic.  

So Why Do You Want a Garage Laser?

What kind of question is that? I want a garage laser BECAUSE THEY EXIST. It's like my entire garage is going to be the art gallery that Catherine Zeta-Jones' jewel thief squirmed through in "Entrapment"!

The 975LM projects a visible laser beam line onto to your car's dashboard, to let you know when you've pulled far enough into the garage.

It's triggered by the "invisible eye" infrared beam that stops the garage door if someone is in the way. 

You pull the car into the garage, the laser shoots for a while, you park in the same spot. 

That's basically it. 

But in our garage, space is REALLY at a premium. It's a tight fit, side to side - so the space in the FRONT of the garage is at a serious premium. 

It's where we keep our bikes, and our tools, and the recycling bin, and whatever else. 

Basically, if we park too far forward, we can't move our bikes around, or take out the garbage.

But we're scared to park too far BACKWARD, because then the garage door could potentially hit the back of one of our cars and scrape it up. 

So the garage laser should solve all those problems!

Install will be this weekend - I'm really looking forward to seeing this in action. I'll update with another post, on the install, and a review.