Using Hidden Door Sensor as Sliding Glass Door Latch Sensor

Posted on
Tue May 06, 2014 9:16 am
akimball offline
Posts: 559
Joined: Aug 07, 2013
Location: Sandy, Utah

Using Hidden Door Sensor as Sliding Glass Door Latch Sensor

Hi, I have several sliding glass doors on my home. After a couple of attempts to put the hidden door sensor 2845-222 under the latch, I finally came on a solution that works best. In my first two attempts I modified the hidden door sensor itself to force the hidden door sensor to fit under the latch of the sliding glass door. This was awkward and I really mutilated a couple of door sensors (one requiring superglue to hold it together).

In this last solution, I use a small loose lever arm. This has turned out to be the most reliable solution, working very well, so I thought I'd share it.

http://www.machomestore.com/catalog/pro ... cts_id=328

EDIT: A couple of additional thoughts.

If you make the lever arm just a little longer so that the loose screw holding it in place is accessible beneath the latch's extrusion plate, then when the battery dies in the hidden door sensor you will never have to remove the extrusion to replace the battery. You will only need to remove the lever arm and the hidden door sensor itself. The hidden door sensor has a low battery warning that gives you a heads up.

Finally, I cut my lever arm from the thick plastic white channel that they sell for installing 8x8 glass blocks (Owens Corning). Very suitable material, but almost any plastic will do. You could probably use metal or wood but wood splits and metal cuts like metal.
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Finished
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The latch tonge
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This last figure is about how everything fits into the channel.
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-Al

Posted on
Sun Jun 29, 2014 7:58 pm
dshj offline
User avatar
Posts: 84
Joined: Jan 16, 2010
Location: San Francisco, CA

Re: Using Hidden Door Sensor as Sliding Glass Door Latch Sen

Looks great! I've been thinking about the same thing to monitor if our sliding glass doors are locked.

Did you do something similar to this for doors with a deadbolt?

Posted on
Sun Jun 29, 2014 8:39 pm
akimball offline
Posts: 559
Joined: Aug 07, 2013
Location: Sandy, Utah

Re: Using Hidden Door Sensor as Sliding Glass Door Latch Sen

Thanks! No, not exactly the same for deadbolts. But I have 4 of these HDS (hidden door sensors) on exterior "normal doors" in the deadbolt pockets... (and on these same doors four additional door sensors to tell me when the door opens and closes).

For a normal door's typical deadbolt sensor, you remove the strike plate for drilling and drill the hole directly into the existing deadbolt pocket, deep enough to typically go through two 2x4's. Then, trim the plastic of the HDS sensor just enough to insert the sensor into the deadbolt hole. In doing this you generally have to cut away the single mounting screw flange but the plastic is soft and whittles nicely with a standard box-cutter knife. Leave enough flange so the sensor won't fall all the way through the hole. :) The depth of the sensor is set using 1 or 2 rubber bands wrapped around the HDS as you insert the unit.

When you insert the HDS, make sure you go slowly and in steps, making sure that you'll be able to pull the HDS back out at some point with a pair of long nose pliers when the battery eventually needs replacing. Alternately you can tie a short string around it and let that dangle out just enough to give you something to grab when you need to pull it back out for battery replacement.

Rubber bands. It's not the most elegant method for holding these in place, but the advantage is that the rubber on the rubber bands cushions the unit and gives it just a little "give" when the deadbolt pushed in the HDS plugger. I think it's actually an improvement over mounting it fixed in a hard-set position with a screw.... and as I mentioned you generally have to remove much of the plastic flange anyway, including the screw mount, to get these to slide into the deadbolt hole.

After you're satisfied it's all working perfectly, replace the strike plate and enjoy.

I've had mine installed this way for months and they have been 100% reliable.

Edit: One thing to be aware of when drilling for the HDS pocket in the deadbolt hole. Usually, you're going through only two 2x4's... and these sensors are 3.5 or 4" long. In one location I came very close to hitting a J-Box mounted next to the door for a switch. If you have a switch next to your door, make sure the wiring and the J-Box will not get in the way when you drill your hole.

-Al

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