Girard Awning Remote Issue and Solution
We don’t use our Girard awnings much due to living in a windy area, but recently, two out of four remotes stopped working when trying to extend the awnings. No problem, as the standard switches inside the coach handled it just fine. However, the search for new remotes turned out to be interesting, and I thought this info might help others trying to keep older coaches running.
Girard’s tech support, while friendly, wasn’t much help. Their stock answer was that the old remotes are no longer made, and they didn’t have any workaround.
Next, I reached out to Somfy, the awning motor supplier. Again, very nice people, but their solution was replacing all the motors and remotes with updated versions—costing $500-600 per awning.
I decided to open up the remote and found a small circuit board marked TS433DP. I contacted Flight Systems, a leader in circuit boards, known for their work with PLM boards for Cruisairs. Tom Altigieri, who I spoke with, explained that the TS433DP board is for an outdated 10 DIP switch 433 MHz remote. Though they were willing to take a look at it, Tom suggested trying to find a vendor that offers “learning” remotes instead.
Enter Telecommande Universelle in Paris. They said they had a remote that could “learn” from the TS433DP board. So, for $45, I gave it a try. And it worked great!
So, if your old Girard remotes fail, there is a solution out there!
