I'm starting a new thread to get more techies to respond. In another thread, we chatted about garage lifts ( link)

My four post does not come with a limit switch like some two post lifts with overhead bars. When lifting my car to the maximum allowable height, I can't go to the ceiling. I need to leave 4-5 inches so that the lift can continue up and past the welded "resting" blocks and I can disengage the safety mechanism and lower the car. My concern is that I'll be distracted and get too close to the ceiling and have enough cushion to increase height to release the safety mechanism. For now, I've got a piece of tape on the post marked "1959 - do not exceed!."

Two post lifts appear to use a limit switch that is wired into the motor. BendPak sells a kit that can be added under the ramp which tracks the position of the hydraulic ram and shuts down the motor. To keep this simple, I'd rather not get into wiring a switch into the existing setup.

I'm looking for a simple laser/photo sensor that, when the light beam is broken, will sound an audible alarm.

Any ideas?

Something like the garage door safety feature rigged to kill instead of reverse?

Otherwise there are alarms that would work. Google break beam alarms. Most are for driveway use. You need one for indoors.

That makes sense.

I found Seco-Larm company that has tons of this stuff. Basically, I can get an entry alarm system that chimes/alarms when the single beam is broken. Kind of when you enter a business, you cross the sensor and it chimes/beeps to alert the business owner that someone has crossed the entry. Same principle that I would need.

Entry alarm

quote:

Originally posted by Russ59:
I'm looking for a simple laser/photo sensor that, when the light beam is broken, will sound an audible alarm.

Any ideas?

I think I could put that together for you from some goods I have here in my box-o-goodies. How soon do you need it, Russ? Feel free to email me.

ETA, now that I've looked at the Seco-Larm link you provided: that setup looks like a very affordable alternative.

Vthoky, I appreciate the offer. I’ve got some Amazon credit, so I’ll order the kit from Seco. Should work just fine