Door opener control design

akmail · January 30, 2024, 8:41am

I’m about to make my existing electric door opener smart by installing a shelly 1 and integrating it into home assistant. It’s straight forward, but I would like to make it:

safe: to prevent accidental opening (e.g. having three UI switches that all need to be activated in order to open the door)
just a little bit secure by obscurity - e.g. having another switch somewhere else, like other dashboard that allows the door opener button to work.

btw - don’t know if anybody had the same idea? but a smart button outside the house could be also programmed in a fancy manner - e.g. a certain sequence of actions could open the door - kind of keypad alternative.

and if you have an idea of installing a smart keypad battery powered, integrated in a HA - it would be also very interesting

any ideas? has anyone implemented anything similar or has an advice?
looking forward to your thoughts.

this topic is more about collecting ideas. I think I would be able to configure on my own

Thanks in advance

Airwolf79 · January 30, 2024, 9:35am

I had the exact same thoughts about this subject too a few weeks in the past.

I finally decided to just put an NFC-Tag next to the garage door and if i scan it with my phone the door opens…works quite well

akmail · January 30, 2024, 9:53am

what kind of NFC reader do you have? if you had a link, it would be nice. thx
but I would also like to be able to open the door remotely - e.g. if a friend needs to feed our cat. So… NFC wouldn’t be a complete solution

Airwolf79 · January 30, 2024, 11:15am

No dedicated reader…just a Tag sticket on the wall next to the door.

I bought these ones but any tag will do:
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0CM2W7NW2?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

the logic itself is handled via the home assistant companion app on my phone.

I also installed the app on the phones of my mom and dad (with non admin permissions) so they can scan the tag with their phones too to open the garage .

So a good solution for a “trustet inner circle of persons”. Would not be feasable to install the app for a not so close random friend

akmail · January 30, 2024, 12:18pm

nice, that’s interesting… will give it a shot I guess. the only “problem” is how to hide it at my house entrance… to not show anyone passing by: “hey, my home is smart, hack me”.
thanks for the idea!

what about the other question regarding the button in the Companion app to open the door remotely?

Airwolf79 · January 30, 2024, 1:01pm

Well thats the nice thing about it, you dont need to hide it…the think sticking outside the door is just an nfc-Tag…if someone comes by and scans it… so what? Its just a random ID

the logic runs only on your phone in the HA App…it scans the tag, sees that is this specific one and then runs an automation to open the door.

And if your concern is more general in nature…well a smart button or keypad is much more easy to spot as that tiny nfc tag

Of course, a button inside the app is clearly no problem at all…just add one on one of your dashboards and trigger the automation from there

akmail · January 30, 2024, 1:59pm

that’s clear. I’m trying to get some tag for testing out. in case it works well, it would be worth to try out.

What I’m lokking for is some ideas for the question 1+2 from my original post.
but the dicussion till now has been very helpful!
Appreciate it.

akmail · January 30, 2024, 2:01pm

I mean… to rephrase it:

how to make button safer in the HA UI?
ideas for opening the door from outside without a smartphone / app installed.

Scoff · January 30, 2024, 2:12pm

I just came across this card on github - restriction card as I was starting to look for a way of allowing control of my garage door from my dashboard but to prevent accidental button presses and require a pin or similar to activate. I haven’t set it up yet, only got as far as downloading it, but it sounds like it might help with point 1. above?

akmail · January 30, 2024, 2:22pm

nice! like it

akmail · January 30, 2024, 2:24pm

just found an interesting idea for the topic before: send an actionable notification as soon as a user arrives at home - everyone with the app installed / logged in would get a button “OPEN THE DOOR”. One click. a nice idea too!

Airwolf79 · January 30, 2024, 2:27pm

i am so sorry for presenting another idea that needs some sort of device and does not really answer your 2 questions but:

You can use an ESP32 and install espresense on it (https://espresense.com/)
Than you can use any bluetooth beacon to detect if it comes near this ESP32 and open the door that way. You could add such a beacon to your keychain for example…

Needs a bit of fiddling with the parameters to get the range right in which it detects and opens but it is cool when it works

Airwolf79 · January 30, 2024, 2:29pm

Your actionable notifcation idea would be really awsome if you also install a camera at the door and send the current picture included within the notification…so you can see at a glance that this is e.g. your friend and can open the door for him

akmail · January 30, 2024, 2:35pm

would be difficult here, in germany… I guess. also my family doesn’t like to be observed. but an interesting idea too

akmail · February 4, 2024, 10:06pm

works like a charm by the way. Restriction card is great!

type: custom:restriction-card
restrictions:
  pin:
    code: abcd
    text: enter "abcd" to unlock the button, then press it
duration: 10
card:
  type: entities
  entities:
    - entity: input_button.open_the_entrance_door
  show_header_toggle: false
  state_color: false

meanwhile I’ve successfully integrated my door opener in my smart home

akmail · February 5, 2024, 8:23am

here’s how it looks like …
next step is to bring a QR code on a NFC-Tag next to the door. This was definitely one of the biggest smart home enhancements in the past 8 years.

Nick4 · June 30, 2024, 11:28am

Hi, just a tip: search for PN532 here on the forum.
This is very cheap together with an ESP board.
I got it working with the alarm component.