After more than enough time spent at the desk 
, and more than a month at the final location (garage), the “LoRa garage control & sense & more…” project was successfully completed!
The goal of the project was to create a device that would allow me to control the garage door and also see/check the status of the door (open or closed).
Considering that there is no connection available at the location of the garage (no WIFI/ZigBee/LAN…), the choice fell on LoRa.
The great module RYLR998 from REYEX is used in combination with a microcontroller.
There are videos with the testing of this module on YouTube, where really great results were achieved in the open space.
I have not done such tests, but I can confirm that for conditions such as a multi-apartment/multi-storey building with multiple reinforced concrete walls & dividing brick walls, the signal passes excellently!
Also, for a family house with a large garden, this is a great module.
The controller is designed as:
- transceiver; “TX” (the part that is connected to the Home Assistant as a USB dongle),
and - transceiver & additional module; “RX” (part located at a remote location-garage).
Both transceivers are physically the same and have the same software, the only difference is whether it is selected in the configuration whether to work as “TX” or “RX”.
The configuration is done by simply connecting the module to the PC (USB port) and selecting the desired parameters through the menus in the serial terminal.
The “RX” module has an add-on board with a relay for connection to the implemented/anticipated garage push button (dry contact) and an input for the door condition sensor (e.g. reed relay), all via screw terminals.
One “TX” can manage several “RX”, each of the modules has its own configured address.
Signal flow, from USB to HA (Dashboard):
USB port ↔ NodeRED ↔ MQTT ↔ HA.
The configuration in NodeRED is minimal and consists of only a couple of nodes; only to customize the message between dongle and HA.
In addition to the Garage mode, it is possible to choose some other modes of operation.
List of operating modes:
-
GARAGE mode;
◦ garage door control (p); relay pulse duration = 500mS
◦ automatic detection and sending of garage door state changes (open/closed)
◦ check door state on request -
RELAY mode;
◦ relay control (on/off)
◦ check relay state on request -
SWITCH mode;
◦ automatic detection and send switch state changes (on/off)
◦ check switch state on request -
ALARM mode;
◦ automatic detection and send contact state changes (on/off)
◦ like SWITCH but with a fixed debounce period for both states (useful for e.g.
water reservoirs where there is a threshold level that requires some
hysteresis)
◦ check contact state on request -
PUSHBUTTON;
◦ automatic detection and send only one state (on) when transition from HIGH to LOW
◦ relay control (p); relay pulse duration = 4000mS
◦ useful for e.g. door bell button and door lock/unlock control
There is a possibility that the device will be available for sale.
Some dongle pictures:
Some configuration (serial terminal) pictures:
