Stop racing the garage door! This switch waits before closing the door. Full project description and files on GitHub.

The goal for this project was to make walking out of my garage, while the door closes, less of a race. This is most likely an over-engineered solution to solve the problem but it does exactly what I wanted and is a fun use of a 555 timer. The switch replaces the momentary switch used by my garage door opener but could be used anywhere a momentary switch is used to operate something.

The switch has two buttons: a zero delay button that functions normally (opening or closing the door when pressed) and a delayed button which waits 5 seconds after being pressed before opening or closing the door.

The design does not require any firmware and the ultra-low power consumption should allow 1000+ delayed button presses from one CR1220 coin-cell.

The parts for the switch include the PCB and a 3d printed case (shown below). Also needed are two M2.5-0.45 x 16mm flat-head screws (not shown). The case can be modified from the STEP file included in the GitHub repository.

For more details about how the design works and how to modify the delay times see the GitHub repository documentation.