Everybody wants sunshine. It warms the ground, makes plants grow for food and beauty, facilitates outdoor activities, gets children playing, and generally cheers the soul. It is majestic, “like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion” (Psalm 19:5).

But a photo eye for a garage door opener actually prefers the shade. That’s where the bathroom tissue core above comes in.

Customers nationwide have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to fix pesky sun-related problems with garage door opener photo eyes. Any sunny location and/or region of the country is susceptible. However, one of our customers has come up with a relatively simple yet largely effective means of fixing the issues with the photo eye on a garage door opener sensor.

Shown below is a basic sensor assembly, then the implementation of the core as a shade for the eye.

This ingenious device is low cost, made from readily available material, and is even green, as it provides a way to recycle what would otherwise be discarded immediately. If you have problems with your photo eyes, give this fix a try!