So I have a garage door that runs on 433mhz key fobs. I’m trying to open it with my phone.
Initially I thought I could buy an RF blaster, for example the Broadlink RM4. Or build one with an ESP32 and a cheap SDR.
I had a closer look at the garage door opener and it looks like it has facility for a push button switch that I assume I’d short with a relay. So if that would work I guess using an ESP32 flashed with ESPHome might do the trick.
I’ll probably want a Home Assistant server soon for other projects but for the time being I think I can just use the web server facility of ESPHome.
I’ve used Blynk.io in the past and really liked that it was both local and I could use it remotely when out of Wi-Fi range. I won’t be using Blynk going forward for a couple of reasons.
I guess my real questions are:
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Can I make this work if I’m not connected to the local Wi-Fi? DuckDNS?
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How can I easily share this automation with non-technical people? MIT App Inventor?
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Does the garage door push-button circuit need a short, a short for a certain time or a pulse of some kind? 24V? The manual wasn’t awesome and I’m not familiar with how they normally operate.
Thanks a bunch!
Datasheet
Note: The picture of the 4 block connector that has the wires coming out of PB and GND, I found on the internet but the pinout looks good judging by the manual. The rest are from my garage.
bump. is there a more appropriate forum for this question?
1 & 2: nearly everyone on here is using HA, so you’re probably not going to get a lot of responses to this approach. And honestly, if you have any inkling you’ll eventually setup HA in the near-term, just go that route now versus spending time and effort to roll your own solutions.
3: A lot of (most?) opener buttons just momentarily short the wires, but I also know some actually send a digital signal. Seeing as you just have GND, I would assume it’s just shorting the PB pin to GND.
ESPHome flashed to an ESP32 and have it short the roller door over the ESPHome web server until I get the HA server up and running. At which point it’s already flashed with ESPHome so it’s good to go.
I think everyone here using an ESP32 on HA has it flashed with ESPHome right?
I was mainly looking at MIT App Inventor as a way to SHARE the automation with friends who won’t be on the local WiFi. Spinning up a dodgy app wouldn’t be my first choice.
Alternatively if I can share it with them using the Home Assistant app using duckdns or something that’d be great. Do you know if that’s possible with HA? or will they NEED to be on the local network that HA server is on?
Thanks
Pretty much.
Lots of options for remote access (just search the forum). The easiest and what I use is a Nabu Casa subscription, although I’d still subscribe even if I didn’t use that to support the HA project.
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ok cheers mate. nabu is a bit rich for me, I’ll make it work another way. time to cross some wires
