Now, I’m pretty much a dangerous noob as far as electrical stuff is concerned, but I kind of gather from this schema that:
I can use a relay switch on pins 5-30 to open/close the gate
in the absence of adequate output pins, there’s no integrated way to know if the gate is closed or not
Which brings me to my questions:
can anyone more electrically savvy than I am confirm that I can use a Shelly1 as a relay to open/close the gate ?
is it possible (some reads made me think so, but I’m far from sure) to connect the SW pin on the shelly1 to a wired contact sensor in order to read the position of the gate ? and if that’s the case, would just about any such sensor work or should I look for some particular spec ?
Well, I made similar implementation on Nice garage opener, so while not exactly your case, there are some similarities.
What I did was following:
I used Fibaro Smart Implant relay output to shorten pins being equivalents of your 5/30. One think that is not clear here from diagram; it states step-by step (or partial opening for 20/30). Do you need to close these contacts repeatedly or keep shortened to close/open the gate? In my case input was expecting short impulse only to start opening/closing. Another impulse was instantly stopping operation and yet another initiated move in opposite direction. So exactly what you would expect from button on remote. This required to be properly implemented in automation.
I powered Smart implant from external power supply, as I had no power output on my Nice controller. In your case I see there is 24V DC output ( pins 1/0) that could be used to power device similar to Smart Implant. If you want to go Shelly route I’d suggest Shell Uni, which is very similar to Smart Implant function wise, but uses WiFi rather than Zwave.
Advantage of Smart Implant (or Uni) would be that these devices have also digital inputs, that can be used to read gate position. I used dry contact sensor connected directly to Smart Implant input to check if gate is fully closed. Since there are 2 inputs on device, another pair could be used to check if it is fully closed. And these devices are so small that could easily fit into the controller box itself.
I had read a few posts about the Fibaro Smart Implant in this kind of context but I don’t have any Zwave hardware to this day, and I was indeed looking for a WiFi (or Zigbee, for which I already have a working controller). I didn’t know about the Shelly Uni, though, and it indeed looks like the ideal solution, so thanks a lot for that !
I think it is, but since I’m not verly well versed in this kind of things, I should ask: are the relays isolated like in the Shelly1 ? I don’t want to risk burning anything in the gate controller by injecting current in it, juste close the circuit.
Oh, a quick edit to answer your question which I forgot: I believe the 5/30 contact indeed works with short impulses to cycle through open/stop/close/stop operations. But I do have to test that to confirm it before buying and installing this thing !
You can program the ‘flashing light’ output to have different functions. For example, it can give a closed contact when the gate is closed, which would constitute some sort of ‘positive feedback’ right ? I only figured this out as I recently had a Ditec LCU40H installed which has 3 of such programmable outputs, but one has to read all the way through the manual to figure this out.
Hey, thanks @PeterDC !
I looked into this but unfortunately my motor only has one output and it is indeed use by the flashing light. I tried setting the LP on 07, and it would indeed probably work with one of the inputs on the Shelly Uni, but the light then stays on (fixed, not flashing), while the french law states it should flash. So I’m not sure I can play it that way.
I do appreciate the heads up, though
I guess the light should flash when the doors are moving ? If so, maybe, you could use the voltage on the motor pins M+/M- to detect movement and trigger the light ? I know it’s a hack. Maybe the better hack is to install a couple of microswitches on the gate itself that detect fully open an fully closed, separate from the control unit ? That should be easy to do with an ESP8266 or ESP32. Send us a pic whichever way you manage to solve it !
