I’d like to setup my garage door opener with HASS. We have a newer one, from 2014 , a Chamberlain 8355, it does not have Wi-FI but I think I can add the MyQ module to it. Is that the best way to go, adding the MyQ module and using the MyQ component in HASS or should I roll my own using a esp8266 or something along those lines? Or a Garadget? I don’t mind rolling my own if needed, but I like the sensor idea on the Garadget as an AIO kind of install. Just looking for thoughts?
Thanks jwelter! I had not seen OpenGarage.io yet. I agree on the Garadget, I had read some bad posts about it, but wasn’t sure if it had come around, so thought I’d get some quick input on it. I will check out the Mimolite’s as well. Appreciate the input!
I made one from an ESP (Wemos mini D1), a relay board and a couple of reed switches for the door open sensors. I have two garage doors, so it doubled the cost for a canned solution, so I made my own for a few bucks.
It’s was pretty simple, add a couple of wires in parallel with the open switch. Close the relay to short the wires to open or close the switch. Setup the reed switch (kind used for hardwired alarms) so switch is active if door is closed, otherwise switch is open.
I am thinking about adding another sensor to tell if the car is there or not, but I also have a cam in the garage so I don’t really need that.
For software, using espeasy but there are other options that handle the esp side. Although if I was doing it now, I might just just opengarage.
I’ve built my own opener as well because I didn’t like the ‘cloud aspect’ of the ready-to-buy solutions - the trickiest part was that I had to pull a cable to the button I have inside my garage to short/simulate the physical button push for the opener. This required figuring out which contacts I needed to solder the wires to because just shorting out the wires at the opener directly didn’t work - there is some encryption required.
Here’s the link to the DIY I used: Wifi Garage Door Controller using a Wemos D1 Mini
I used the easier wiring approach from this site - works fine for me:
I had a ‘Garage Door Closed’ sensor/reed switch already, so now I would probably use something like this to avoid some of the work:
And keep in mind that you test the case where power goes out and comes back on to ensure that your garage door stays closed. I have seen some discussions in this forum where garage doors opened automatically after a power outage was restored.
One other thing I did, for safety. When I first started using Home Assistant, I moved my ESP’s to use MQTT. For some reason, my garage door opened a couple of times in the middle of the night.
So I added an “interlock”. I have a four relay card for two doors, so I put two relays in series. To open a door, you have to close one relay, then pulse the 2nd relay. So if one relay did something weird, it would not open the door. Little harder to use, but my wife was NOT happy when the door opened at night, so I needed a fail safe.
And I did forget to mention I don’t actually close the relay to open/close the door, I send a 1 second close pulse, so simulate someone pushing a button.
As an aside, I’m pretty sure my mqtt sniffer program I was using did something to open the door, but have no proof.
After adding the interlock, no more open doors at night.
I set up something very similar to you for my garage doors. I did this before I had discovered ESPEasy, so I did most everything by hand using a highly modified version of the Bruh multisensor, but I am planning on migrating my code to ESPEasy when I have a chance. I have also had a couple of problems with weird restarts that opened my doors in the middle of the night, but I think those were mostly related to power supply issues… or a memory leak in my code. I do highly recommend setting up your garage doors and some automation for notifications and the like in HA not matter what solution you decide to go with it is great peace of mind especially when you are in a rush to get to work.
I’m pretty sure it was my mqtt sniffer program.
I had the open garage command queued up, and the program open. I think the program glitched, and decided to send a command.
I’ve used the same setup, with espeasy for the software, but using Domiticz and http commands for a couple years, and never had the door open on its own.
But I like the idea having a 2nd relay to act as a fail safe, even if it adds another step to open the door.
I also have notifications setup. I get a notification if a door is open for more than 20 mins.
For the interlock, I either get a notification if it’s on more than 5 mins, or I just reset it back to open, I don’t remember what I did for this lol.
Little more off topic, I also put reed switches on the doors of the fridge and freezer I have in the garage. Notification if open more than a couple of mins.
The fridge/freezer/garage door notifications have been REALLY useful to have, made home automation worth it just with those.
I have not installed yet, but I did get a new chamberlain garage door opener that has the functionality builtin. Lowe’s was fire sale-ing this unit @ like $87 - so it was a no brainer - now just have to install.
IS there a way to make the Cover Garage Door Up disable if garage door already open and also Down arrow disable if garage door already close. Also make the icon change color when close status??