The author does not assume any obligations or liabilities for accuracy of this information, and is not responsible for any consequential damages.

As a new owner of a 996, I wanted to use a garage door opener with my vehicle.  However, I did not want it to clutter the interior of the car with the transmitter or allow the transmitter to damage or fall off of the visor.  Instead I designed a custom installation for the transmitter.  The three goals for this project were: seamless integration with the Porsche interior and electrical system; a dashboard-level indicator of when the transmitter was actually operating, and not having to change batteries in the transmitter.

When looking for a suitable transmitter, I found the Clicker™ from The Clicker Corporation of Elmhurst, Illinois.  In addition to being able to satisfy the above requirements (although it is not for use with receivers that use code rotation), it could be programmed to control three independent signals, such as for one gate and two garage doors.  With this unit power needs to be sustained to the transmitter to maintain the programmed code.  Therefore, a fourth requirement for the design became avoiding reprogramming the transmitter when the car battery is disconnected.

The five black bars inside the broad “T” shaped box in the top left represents the terminals on the Porsche console switch as viewed from the back (Porsche #99661314400A02).  The internal circuitry of the switch is also shown here: a main connector in the top middle, which is connected two LED’s to the far left and right, and two normally open switch contacts to the left and right bottom.  To use the switch, you will also need five metal console switch connectors (#99965033000), and the yellow plastic holder for the terminals (#99965010740).

The white LED on the right part of the console switch is connected to the rest of the dashboard lighting system, in this case, the PSM switch.

The red LED on the left part of the console switch, which indicates transmitter operation, is driven by the collector of the 2N4401 transistor.  The amount of current this transistor drains from the LED circuit of the Clicker™ is limited by the 58K ohm resistor.

The bottom right part of the base of the console switch “T” is the normally open connector of switch.  When the convex side of the switch is pressed, this terminal is connected to +12 volts.  This allows the switch to energize the coil of the reed relay (I used a 12 volt normally open Reed relay, Radio Shack #275-233), which shorts the connections of switch S1 of the Clicker™. (A transistor was initially tried for this function instead of a reed relay, but it did not operate correctly with the integrated circuit of the transmitter.

If desired, an additional reed relay can be connected to the bottom left part of the base of the console switch “T” and connected to either Clicker™ switch S2 or S3.  By pressing the concave side of the console switch, a second signal could be sent out.  This could be used for a second garage door or a gate.

The part of the circuit on the far right uses a diode and a 1.5 million ohm resistor to allow the 12 volt car battery to trickle-charge the 6 volt battery of the Clicker™.  The diode prevents the battery of the Clicker™ from supplying voltage to the rest of the car if the car battery is drained or disconnected, ensuring that its programming is maintained.

The pictures above show the Clicker™ transmitter circuit board, without the added circuitry, left, and with the additional parts.  The red wire from the four conductor cable is connected to the +12 volts on the dashboard and is soldered to a 1.5 million ohm resistor, the diode, and then the +6 volt terminal of the transmitter. The brown cable wire is connected to car ground on the dashboard and the negative terminal of the transmitter.  The yellow cable wire is connected to the dashboard switch and the coil of the relay (vertical blue cylinder).  The orange cable wire is connected to the red LED of the dashboard light-switch assembly and the collector of the 2N4401 transistor.  The cable has been secured with a hot-glue gun.  The entire clicker assembly is secured inside the dashboard with Velcro (experiment for a good location).

The cable described earlier is shown connecting to the new console switch.  The top yellow object is the connector holder for the PSM switch.  The middle switch location has a plain cover on it, and the lower yellow connector holder is for the new transmitter switch.  Note that the “T” orientation of the diagram is upside-down when the switch is installed.  To gain access to the switches, I placed a small screw driver in the top of the crack between the climate control unit and the switch covers.  I then pried the switch cover plate off, slightly damaging the paint (see far top left of picture).  Since this part of the paint is covered by the side of the climate control unit, the damage is not visible.

Clicker™ is a trademark of The Clicker Corporation, Elmhurst, Illinois