Feel free to add a 12V to 5V or 3.3V regulator and do that.
The design doesn’t include that directly since not every GDO has that.
Package option? I’m not sure what this means (sorry, noob here).
So I should just copy the yaml you linked instead and just add in the additional code for toggling the dry contact controls you wrote for me as well?
A zener diode and resistor should be sufficient and are reasonable protective steps regardless of power source IMHO. Of course, it’s your design and you are welcome to choose the tradeoffs you think best.
Owen
I can confirm this is not working for me either. Install went fine with 2.5i and ESPHome. Exposed it to Alexa and it was picked up. Turned on the voice code in Alexa. “Alexa, Open Garage Door” opens straight away and the PIN / CODE is never prompted for.
I found the issue with the obstruction sensors. I have four all connected to my GDO but the ratgdo doesn’t like being connected to all four. When I connect two the obstruction sensors work, even three connected. But upon connecting number four the obstruction sensor on the ratgdo stops working. I tried to only route two sensors through the ratgdo and connect the other two direct but this didn’t work. @PaulWieland is there anything we can do about this? I need all four sensors for the large SUV that we have so we don’t damage it with the garage door when it closes!
You could always replace your obstruction sensors with Infinity Shield ones instead. They’re amazing: INFINITY SHIELD - Garage Door Sensor – The Infinity Shield
I wasn’t aware more than one set would work at all. I have to wonder if the signaling gets too weak.
Hopefully Paul can come up with a fix, probably best to raise a github issue at mqtt-ratgdo or esphome-ratgdo and supply logs.
But…
If Paul can’t get it to work, I can whole-heartedly second the recomendation for INFINITY SHIELD - Garage Door Sensor – The Infinity Shield . Order with the short brackets.
EDIT:
Another thought, IIRC, the sensor signaling is mostly just a voltage differential (but could be wrong). If running all the devices in parallel, that would be something like 80ft of wire total? Not insignificant for low voltage. It might be worth testing with some larger gauge wire.
Looks amazing but pricey. Since I already have the investment with the Chamberlain sensors I’m keen to keep these. Also, having the native sensors installed works as a fallback if the local network is out. I opened an issue with Paul but it seems like he has an awful lot on his plate with issues.
I was having the same issue, I am now a few days past “solving” it and it has not returned. I took two steps, not sure which one is the one that fixed the issue with me.
- I reprogrammed the door limits, following the chamberlain guide. I did this once before, but the issue would appear a few days later.
- I unblocked the Chambarlain door on my router. If this is the cause, I am a little more ticked with MyQ than I was when they essentially bricked the door in HA. As soon as I removed the block preventing the door from reaching the internet all of the states started showing again IE closed, opening, open, closing closed etc.
Try that and see if it fixes the issue.
I am a few days of full status updates, I did two things and am not sure which one took care of the issue at least for now.
- I reprogrammed the door limits, following the chamberlain guide. I did this once before, but the issue would appear a few days later.
- I unblocked the Chambarlain door on my router. If this is the cause, I am a little more ticked with MyQ than I was when they essentially bricked the door in HA. As soon as I removed the block preventing the door from reaching the internet all of the states started showing again IE closed, opening, open, closing closed etc.
I have mine blocked at the router and have experienced no issues with my ratgdo.
I’d suggest you try blocking it again and seeing if the problem recurs – it probably won’t.
2 Likes
Just a heads up that these replace the native sensors completely and connect to the garage door opener itself. As far as the door is concerned, it operates just the same way as before, it just has coverage across the entire opening. There is no limitation on the local network.
1 Like
I just received two that I ordered and I am so happy that I just must chime in. I found them as a solution to no longer being able to control my doors with Home Assistant due to MyQ killing the API access. I am fairly technical but can get overwhelmed with flashing and soldering and all that, so I was nervous to order them. When the box of parts showed up I was like oh boy … here we go. So many wires and instructions. But, as it turned out, it was nearly the simplest thing I have ever done in home automation. Flash it by plugging it in, opening chrome, navigating to a page, and clicking a button, plug 3 wires into the opener, plug in power, and it just WORKS. Home assistant detected it instantly and I was off to the races! WONDERFUL!
1 Like
I’m please to say that I have requested cancellation of my MyQ account.
I installed ratgdo today and connected to HA using MQTT. It’s working beautifully. A BIG thanks to @PaulWieland for a terrific product!
1 Like
Happy to say I installed Ratgdo on my ancient chamberlain from 1994 with a green button using the dry contact wiring. Works great with the obstruction sensors too.
It’s old enough that the limit switches don’t even have ports on the outside. So I bought a couple of the Sparkfun magnetic door sensors* and wired them up with some spare thermostat wire I had laying around.
I now have:
Open/close function
Status (open/close/opening/closing/obstruction)
My only issue is going to be cleaning up the wiring. There are enough wires there now so that the antenna seems to have lost some of its range.
*I went with these because they had the best range for sensing. Mounting on this garage was not super straightforward but I got it to work. I probably could have gotten some strong bar magnets online but didn’t want to spend more than a couple bucks. Adafruit has some similar ones which would probably work great too.
Adding on to the other comments that this is not the case, I’ve got MyQ Blocked on my firewall for outbound connections AND the wireless device is blocked on my AP’s, no issues
Posting this here in case it helps someone else.
Setup: I have a recently received RATGDO connected to my Overhead Doors (white label Genie) opener. I’m using the MQTT/Dry contact setup with reed sensors.
Issue: When HA rebooted the status of my RATGDO cover entity was getting set to a state of “unknown”. Outside of that, the control and tracking of open/opening/closed/closing was working fine, it was just this bootup problem that was bothering me.
Resolution: Because I’m a belt and suspenders kind of guy, I also have a z-wave tilt sensor on the door to get status outside of RATGDO. My fix was to check every couple of minutes in Node-Red (I’m sure HA automation could work too) to see if the status of the RATGDO cover was “unknown”, and if so, set it to match the tilt sensor through an MQTT publish. This seems to have alleviated my only working issue with the unit.
Thanks again @PaulWieland for liberating us from the whims of MyQ!
1 Like
Hello Please HELP
to get my RATGDO to connect to my iot wifi network i had to make my wifi visible, i prefer to keep my wifi hidden in my router options, does anyone know if there is a way to make the RATGDO connect to wifi that is hidden thank you.
i have the 2.5X ver of the RATGDO its a new one. i have the lates firmware on it
In general, I’ve had zero luck getting ESP8266 based devices to connect to hidden networks. I don’t think it is possible. I will note, however, that hiding your network really doesn’t do anything for you or to improve your security.
1 Like
The obstruction sensors don’t do any signaling. In most cases, one is a transmitter (power and ground to a light source, often infrared and thus invisible to humans) and the other is a photo sensor (usually a photo resistor, but sometimes a CdS or photodiode). The photo resistor or CdS types will generally be calibrated to provide an effective short while light is detected and an effective open when insufficient light is received. The photodiode will, of course, produce current when light is present and not produce current when light is absent.
I believe the vast majority of garage doors do not use photodiodes. (You can think of a photodiode like a really really tiny solar cell).
Thus, the other two function like a switch. Current from one of the two leads attached to the GDO is passed while light is present (no obstruction) and not passed back to the GDO when light is obstructed.
Another reason infrared is used in most cases is that it avoids confusion from visible light noise.