What happens if you power cycle the opener by unplugging it?
Got my ratgdo setup last week. Itās actually better then the myq integration exposing features and data you couldnāt see before. Anyone on the fence I highly recommend the setup was super easy from programming it to wiring it up. I went with the esp fork instead of the mqtt load as Iām not running mqtt. Great solution and happy to support the project!
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Can the ratgdo be used without MQTT? I do not have this setup on my HA instance and really donāt feel like it. If It sets up with a static IP on Wi-Fi not sure why it canāt integrate into HA without needing to set this up but what do I know.
There is also esphome based firmware that works directly with HA. No mqtt broker needed.
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I had to use the ESP Home firmware because after spending several hours trying to the MQTT Firmware working I was unsuccessful. The ESP home firware took about 10 minuets and I was up and going.
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Be aware of customs duty if you order ratgdo. I paid another ~20$ I had not in mind for the delivery of 2 boards to germany (60$ boards, 18$ shipping, 20,23$ customs ā 49$ per board). I really hope they work as good as I expect they do 
.
Statistics: production time ~5 weeks, shipping time ~2,5 weeks.
No custom taxes should apply for goods less then 100 (or 200?) Euro shipped into the EU. Still VAT may apply if the sender didnāt handle (payed) it upfront.
The downside when VAT was not payed your local post company is so āniceā doing it for you and adding an additional fee for them. Thatās probably the reason why you ended up paying more than 20 Euro (fees and vat).
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True, itās import turnover tax (Einfuhrumsatzsteuer) if value of goods is less than 150ā¬. Deutsche Post charges 6ā¬ if post-paid, so it was 13,23ā¬ (~14$) taxes and 6ā¬ fees. Nevertheless I didnāt expect it (even though I could have); most shops pay taxes in advance to avoid the fees or at least point this out.
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On that same FTC line of questioning, this looks to be the same issue the FTC is now commenting (as of Dec 22/23) on related to the Apple case of iMessage and Beeper Mini. It sounds like the same cat and mouse challenge.
Not expecting FTC to fix this anytime soon, so I order my ratgdo (spending money to own and control my devices).
Damn didnt see the redaction of support before ordering the myQ, refund ahoyā¦
Ordered the backordered ratgdo, ill wait, rather than fund evil corp
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I have to agree. I got my rat2gdo and setup was really easy. For those new to ESP home I did not know I had to program the fw from a web page first and setup the wifi connection. Once I did that and plugged the 3 wires in everything just worked and better than with MyQ. I seem to have a better wifi connection than my Chamberlain. Also, the integration exposes a whole bunch more stuff. I can not remotely control the garage door light and I now have an extra motion sensor in my garage. Someone posted a screenshot of the integration from their phone earlier but here is a more complete picture. Iāve not yet played with partial opening/closing. I canāt imagine a situation where I ever need to do that unless I need it open just a crack to let some air flow.
Which esp home chip was it you used?
āThatā esphome chip does not exist.
ESPhome is compatible with a wide range of chips like espressif, raspberry (pico), realtek and beken ones.
You can check the docs (platform) which chips are supported on www.esphome.io.
The ready made device based around an espressif chip for fixing camberlains disaster btw. is called rat2gdo
i read they have quite the back order, wasnāt sure if this is a quicker work around that does the same thing?
You can check the order status here: https://paulwieland.github.io/ratgdo/order_status.html
Just mind that āin transitā is probably not what you think. Read the notes.
Security+2.0 is not secure anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTcziqO_2lM
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Chamberlain and Liftmaster have designed their āsecurity+ā to keep you inside their ecosystem and lock you out from using cheaper accessories. It is not really a security feature, but a branding for their proprietary implementation of what should be an open standard. There is no good āsecurityā explanation on why physically wired wall mounted controllers need to have the same ālearn buttonā rolling codes as a wireless remote. Itās all about keeping you locked into buying their accessories and preventing 3rd party integration (who didnāt pay them for participation).
My solution was to rip out the existing Liftmaster garage door opener and install a basic garage door opener without Security+ / Learn button. And to just disable their wireless remotes entirely.
A Shelly relay device works great to trigger the garage door opener and integrate into Home Assistant via Z-Wave. In my case, I used a Zooz triple relay so I can read some physical switches I mounted to know if the door was fully open or fully closed.
For those interested in better security for garage door opener remotes without rolling codes vulnerable to rolljam attacks:
I got a garage door opener model that can disable the wireless remotes entirely. So the built in ārolling codesā remote openers are disabled.
Since connecting the phone to Wifi from outside the house at the bottom of the driveway was unreliable, I decided to build my own car remotes using ESP32 devices with LoRa radio transceivers.
One device connected to the door opener on the inside of the garage, and one device mounted inside each car. I also use a fingerprint reader, but thatās optional.
I decided not to use ESPHome, since I wanted to keep this standalone. The Home Assistant integration was already done using the Zooz Z-Wave relay device.
The basic idea, was to use HMAC challenge/response instead of Rolling Codes (which are the industry standard, but still insecure). Typical garage door opener remotes use rolling codes because they save power. The remote only has a to transmit a very small packet, and doesnāt need to receive anything. My system is powered by the car so power is not a problem. Of course the downside is that it cannot be moved from car to car or handheld (unless you make a bigger case with a battery).
Basic challenge/response: The devices share a strong key.
- The car remote sends a Hello message.
- The door opener inside the garage is listening on the same frequency for the Hello packet.
- The door opener generates a random nonce, and sends it.
- The car remote receives data, encrypts that āchallengeā using the key, and send the encrypted āresponseā.
- The door opener receives the response, decrypts it and compares to the nonce it generated just a second before. If match, door opens.
If there is a lot of interest in this, I can publish the Arduino code and Amazon links to buy the hardware (~$80 total).
I never liked the idea of a cloud service in control of physical home access.
There was a device for garage door openers years ago. It too relied on a cloud service. A customer had a gripe, left a bad review, and the got into a heated feud with the developers. The devs locked that customer out of the API and essentially bricked the device.
I am very impressed that Ratgdo is able to interface with garage door openers with Security+2.0 like Chamberlain and Liftmaster.
But the real long-term solution is to ditch these proprietary appliances all together.
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There is a good reason. Itās so you canāt cut the wire to a keypad and touch the wires together to open the garage.
Thereās no reason for them to lock you into MyQ. Thatās 100% a money grab.
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Thatās a reason, but not a good one. Iāve heard that years ago, but found no evidence that it actually occurs. Wires from the opener to the wall mounted button are already in the secure area of the garage. Anyone with access to that wire, has access to the wall mounted button already.
I suppose an edge case would be for a detached garage, but nearly everyone would just use a wireless remote. I doubt Chamberlain designed it for the small minority of detached garage users who also want to control the light and see the state from inside the house via a wire being run through an unsecured area.
This DMCA lawsuit shows the intent of Chamberlain. (Chamberlain v. Skylink) They are really just trying to protect themselves from the 3rd party accessories market.
Someone tried this on my last house.
Someone from outside your garage had access to your GDO wires?