I have an insteon i/o link attached to a door strike that opens my gate. I have a Button Card working well that opens and closes the gate. Im seeking a solution to have a button that will keep the gate open, and not auto-close after 30 seconds or so. I believe the insteon i/o link is triggered with short momentary command. Then the relay on the gate board takes over and closes it after 30 seconds. So the toggle button seems to work fine for that. There is a keypad on a gooseneck at the gate, I can enter a code on the keypad, and it STAYS OPEN. It will close when I re-enter that code on the keypad. This is what I need to emulate via HA. Is this possible via a button with a “keep open or closed” command on the i/o link? Im new to HA, and I dont know yaml or how to format spacing. Any copy/paste examples would be most appreciated. Here’s my working Button Card that toggles only. Thanks!
@FuckInsteon I’m no expert in this but I would assume that the keypad/gate would have to directly integrate to HA in order to do this. Then you could have HA send the enable/disable code to the gate. That doesn’t sound like a possibility because of your need to use the Instean module. HA can only control what the devices connected to it allow it to control. If a device directly integrates with HA then the user usually has a lot more control. If a device does not directly integrate with HA then you have use another device to make that connection. That’s what you’re doing with the Insteon module but when you do this your control is limited to usually just controlling a relay that toggles power on/off.
Exactly how is the Insteon module connected to the door strike or gate? Finding that out will let you know your options.
That sounds like how most gates works. Just like a garage door, a momentary switch triggers a relay and it either opens or closes depending on its state.
You might be able to accomplish what you want but you’ll have to check a few things first. Then like most home automation you’ll have to get a little creative.
The Insteon module appears to have an input for a sensor so check to see if your gate has a safety sensor. Most gates have sometype of sensor that will prevent it from closing if there is something in the way. If you could access that sensor and connect it to the Insteon module you might be able to trick the gate. You would then have to create an automation in HA that opens the gate and then activates the sensor tricking it into thinking something is in the way so that the gate remains open. Being able to do this will also depend on what control HA has with the Insteon module.
Another suggestion depends on if you can turn off the auto-close on the gate. You mentioned being able to enter a code to keep the gate open so maybe this might be possible. If you turn off the auto-close then you could still use auto-close and accomplish what you what but have it all done in HA. You would be able to set this up in numerous ways using sensors that provide the state of the gate. You could create a input_boolean and use it as a condition in an automation. The automation would trigger when the gate opens, check to see if the input_boolean is toggled on, then if so there would be a wait delay 30 seconds, and then HA would trigger the gate to close. Then regardless of how the gate was opened HA will still auto-close it. Then when you want the gate to stay open, you just toggle the input_boolean off so that the condition in the automation is not met and not close the gate.
Hopefully, this helps you out. I would try disabling the auto-close first because then you’ll have more control in HA (change the time of the auto-close, schedule it during certain times, etc.) If you’re able to do this then you would have to see if the Insteon provides the state of the gate being open/close. If it doesn’t, then you need to add a cheap wired magnetic reed sensor to the gate and connect it to the Insteon or buy the open/close Insteon sensor. You could also use a Z-Wave or Zigbee open/close sensor depending on what other devices you have as well as the distance from the gate to your HA. hub.
Thanks @almighty59 !
I appreciate all the great input! I was hoping if there was some kind of option to send that “momentary” command into an “always” open or closed, or normally open to normally closed for xxx seconds, somethink like that…
I found some I/O Linc Output Relay Modes here
Do to my limited knowledge of HA, just not sure if there is a quick and dirty solution there.
Thanks again for your input.
Hate to complicate things, but FYI these are the other two devices that make up my old (but still functional) gate controller:
Dp-28Sw Outbound Trigger Interface
@FuckInsteon I actually just saw something else which might make your entire life a lot easier depending. By your user name it sounds like you’re not very dedicated to Insteon so this might work. My disclaimer is that I have never used this but others have to the point that it was integrated into HA.
I searched HA gate integrations and the first to pop up was from Ismartgate (formerly Gogogate2). The device has HA integration as seen at the link below. It’s not very expensive and it’s available on Amazon so you could try it and return it if it’s not what you wanted.
If it’s compatible with the gate then the device would do what your Insteon does but a lot more. It also works with garage doors. Below is the link to check compatibility. THere are several models of this deive as well as other similar devices but this is the first one that i saw first and that integrated with HA.
I do have one more disclaimer. This device has an open/close sensor which is used the same way that I suggested using it in the previous post. I’m not sure exactly what “compatible” means so it still might not have any control over the auto-close feature on your gate. So ideally the first thing you should probably do is to find out if you can totally disable the auto-close on your gate which I have a feeling you could.
I don’t think a longer momentary command would work. It would probably be equilalent to you pressing your garage door opener versus holding it down. Holding it down won’t matter. The only way that it would is if you had to hold down a button to keep the gate/door open. Even then it would have to stop at some point or else it would continue to try to open when it’s already fully opened. Think of a door stiker to a door that you get buzzed in with. Holding it open would mean it continues to “buzz” the entire time which you don’t want.
@FuckInsteon I looked at the other devices which seem to be controllers so that you can use an intercom and press a button to open the gate as well as use your phone and press the asterisk key. Is the Insteon module connected to one of those devices or is it connected to your gate? Control at the gate is what you’re looking for. What is the make and model of your gate opener (like in the picture below).? Check to see if auto-close can be disabled. If so then then the quickest solution would be disabling the auto-close and adding a open/close sensor which should take less than 5-minutes and then another 5-minutes to create a short automation in HA.
And I’ve had products crash on me as well. With so many home automation companies and technology constantly changing it’s to be expected. I have Wifi, Z-Wave, and ZigBee devices and nothing ever plays nice together but HA helps with that. There is also the new Matter technology but that’s too new to really know anything about.
I looked at the other devices which seem to be controllers so that you can use an intercom and press a button to open the gate as well as use your phone
Yes, thats my 25 yr old setup now (via a phone line), along with an Apollo 633/644 board.
Pic below:
I checked out ismartgate, and they show my Apollo board as compatable, along with the install pins circled above.
I was pretty hopeful on the ismartgate device, but then read this comment from an Amazon Customer review:
ismartgate cannot keep gates open and leave them open in most cases.
he goes on to say…
This seems basically due to the fact that the general way it integrates with gate boards is in a way that just is allows it to trigger signal that the board handles same as it does a press from a key fob ect. While it may be possible to connect in another way on some boards, the instruction do not attempt to go into that level of custom detail for different gate manufacturers. This was a bummer but not really ismartgate’s fault given breadth of their market.But it occurred to me that in my case I could get around this by putting a generic homekit smart AC plug that feeds my gate board’s power but not the ismartgate power. Then I made a homekit automation/ shortcut that triggers gate to open, wait’s 15 seconds (for gate to open) and then turns power off on smart plug such that the apollo gate control cannot shut the gate. Then made a similar shortcut to close the gate from this state. This has worked perfectly for times I need to leave the gate open.
So… I think my path now is to simply add a $10 on/off AC switch on the apollo board. Then, setup a HA routine to open the gate, then kill the power
@FuckInsteon ah yes. That’s exactly what I was worried about happeneing. Like I said you have to be creatuve and this person was just a tad bid more creatuve than me. Lol. This will definitely work and it will work basically in a similar way as to what I suggested. You can add
I looked at the website for the Apollo 633/634 and it says that the 633 was replaced by the 635 and the 634 was replaced by the 636. What’s interesting is on the website for the Apollo 635 it says it “features adjustable auto reserve sensitivity and adjustable auto close delay”. Aftefr doing a little more digging I then found the manual for your Apollo. Inside the manual it shows the how to turn off the auto-close as well as how to adjust it. I would personally do it this way and add the open/close sensor instead of completely disconnecting the power to the device. It’s because I don’t know how a complete loss of power will affect its programming (ex. forgetting programmed codes, auto opening or closeing when power is restored, etc.) Having the ability to control the length of the auto-close in HA is also nice. You would also know if the gate was open or closed. In my example I used a input_number and input_booleanHelper and a custom:button-card which changes based on the state of the gate.
