Reverse Garage Door Cover (Insteon)

Configuration
1

Pretty new to this, but I am finding my way around and the system is beautiful! Unfortunately, Insteon garage doors use a “sensor open” command as garage is closed, therefor, these are backwards. I cobbled together the following config in cover.yaml, but it does not seem to affect anything. I created the yaml as it did not exist, is it possible it needs to be an include in the main config?

  • platform: template
    covers:
    cover.garage_1:
    friendly_name: Garage Door
    device_class: garage
    value_template: >-
    {% if is_state(‘binary_sensor.i_o_linc_34_8b_3c_sensor’,“off”) %}
    open
    {% elif is_state(‘binary_sensor.i_o_linc_34_8b_3c_sensor’,“on”) %}
    closed
    {% else %}
    closed
    {% endif %}
    open_cover:
    service: switch.turn_on
    data:
    entity_id: switch.i_o_linc_44_0f_6c_relay
    close_cover:
    service: switch.turn_on
    data:
    entity_id: switch.i_o_linc_44_0f_6c_relay
    icon_template: >-
    {% if is_state(‘binary_sensor.i_o_linc_34_8b_3c_sensor’,“off”) %}
    mdi:garage-open
    {% elif is_state(‘binary_sensor.i_o_linc_34_8b_3c_sensor’,“on”) %}
    mdi:garage
    {% else %}
    mdi:garage
    {% endif %}
2

Two things. 1) Pls post code with 3 ` before after the code block to show proper formatting. (or sue </> code block in forum to format.

  1. I created a Template Switch for my garage doors: Template Switch - Home Assistant 
    garage_door_main:
      friendly_name: "Main Garage Door Switch"
      value_template: "{{ is_state('binary_sensor.garage_door_main','on') }}"
      turn_on:
        service: cover.open_cover
        data:
          entity_id: cover.garage_door_main
      turn_off:
        service: cover.close_cover
        data:
          entity_id: cover.garage_door_main
      icon_template: >-
        {% if is_state('cover.garage_door_main', 'open') %}
          mdi:garage-open
        {% else %}
          mdi:garage
        {% endif %}

Lastly, welcome to HA!

3

I’ve swapped from the Insteon Hub (2245-222) to Home Assistant on a Pi4. All I’ve got are plug in modules, wall switches (2466), and two garage door sensors (2450). The plug ins and the wall modules are working great from HA, but the two garage door sensors are not. The open/close portion of the 2450s works well. However, there are issues with the feedback sensors and I’m hoping this thread can provide more details to fix.

  1. The sensors do not always change when the door opens/closes. The green light on the 2450 illuminates when the magnet is close to the sensor, but the status does not change sometimes.

  2. When the sensors do happen to change state, they appear to be reversed from the door position.

Between the working/not working and the reversed status, this is really hard to troubleshoot.

I’m very new to HA. Where does one enter the above code to change the door status polarity? Any other changes to make to get the 2450 more reliable. There was never a problem with the Insteon app, so I know the powerline communications to the Hub were working.

4

I have the same issue, any luck on resolution? To add to mine, if I open and close the sensors many times, they start to respond and be accurate but after sitting a while then testing, it doesn’t always reflect the state it is in so then the sensor is backwards and my scenery get screwed up.

5

Not yet. Still hoping HA comes up with more “Official Solutions” for Insteon 2450.

6

Me too. I’ve been struggling trying to figure it out. I have probably a little different setup because I managed to hook up my 2450 to operate the REMOTE. But the sensor is the problem. Like you, the green light seems to work consistently, but the Sensor object seems switched IF it responds to the change at all.

7

I just bought these, they work natively and are simple to setup.

8

Interesting. I’m also looking at some YoLink Garage Relay/Sensors from Amazon to add to a leak sensor system. But, I’ve not given up on getting the Insteon 2450s to work over HA.

9

@Markus99, you kindly posted some code in response to @schoeps comment, wherein he mentioned that he built some code for cover.yaml to control his garage door and reverse the state display. Your code looks very clean and elegant. However, like Eric Steelreath, I have no idea where to actually put this code. And I don’t seem to have a cover.yaml file in my file system.

I have to say that I’ve been a software developer for 40 years (yikes!), and I am ashamed to say that HomeAssistant has be flummoxed, to the point that I am ready to ditch it completely. I would love to see some clear documentation describing the overall architecture of the configuration files, all the options for each file, and how the system all works together. But I haven’t found it.

I took your code and, lacking any explanation of where it goes, I tried adding it to configuration.yaml (because it didn’t appear that it belonged in automation.yaml or scenes.yaml), and that was clearly wrong. Can you please provide some more detail? This isn’t my only frustration with HA, but it’s certainly my biggest at the moment (specifically, reliability of the sensors actually reporting a status change, and properly showing the current state). I mean, if I can’t make this work reliably (as the old Insteon app ran), I really have no use for this. I have to believe someone has figured out how to make this work.

Thank you!!

10

Doug, check this thread out.

Still, I’m struggling to get the IO Lincs to work. This post above has some links to directions that show how this *.json file has to be reference in this *.yaml and which directory to create so HA knows where to find it. It’s really that convoluted to me. Maybe this weekend I’ll spend some time reviewing the documentation and getting the custom buttons to work. Getting the custom-buttons in Lovelace appears to be the key to a lot of visual improvements on the dashboard(s).

But, there are still some instances where the IO linc reported state of the garage door is not always correct which is a bigger problem that making pretty screens and buttons. Typically, the sensors are backwards so OPEN on HA is really CLOSED in the garage. This reversed state is not always repeatable. Other posters have stated the same observations, too.

Of course, I just opened and closed both garage doors from HA and the sensors behaved backwards as expected. It wasn’t like that last night.

11

@easteelreath thanks much for your post. I saw the post you mentioned and tried to recreate that solution myself. I must say that it was the first time I realized that I could do heavy customization of a dashboard card, but I still couldn’t get it working with a single control that a) triggers the relay and b) changes its configuration based on the status. As you say, much less of an issue than getting the status to be consistent. To be honest, I could even live with the status being reversed, but the inconsistency makes this useless to me. It’s not okay to say ‘Maybe the garage is open, but if you really want to know, turn around and drive home or install a camera’ – which is what I have right now.

By the way, Insteon.print_im_all_link_database does nothing on my installation. None of the ‘print…’ services do anything on my installation. And I have no idea what the heck ‘Lovelace’ is, although I see that show up in my HA URL periodically. Perhaps I’m asking too much, but I’m used to well-documented systems, and given the number of people contributing to this platform, I don’t understand why you and I (and so many others, I see) are just guessing here.

As much as I had hopes for HA being the broad solution to the stupid Insteon problem, I think I need to start looking at HomeSeer.

12

A permanent fix to the IO link sensor state is expected in the next release.

2 Likes
13

Lovelace is just the name of the UI (User Interface). I hate people using names like that that maybe have meaning to the person that named it, but not to most other people. Why not just call it UI?

The insteon garage door problem is a bug that teharris says should be fixed before too long.

I do agree that more documentation is needed, however, I have to say, they have done more documentation than most do nowadays. I’ve been a programmer since 1974 and the documentation from IBM was EXCELLENT. Nowadays it seems to be an afterthought if it is produced at all. I DO understand that it is not easy to create good documentation (because I’ve had to make some and I know mine wasn’t great).

14

was this fix included ?

15

II have found with the various updates that my 2450 sensor states for my garage door ONLY updates when I restart HA. The sensor status light on the device is correct

I am running
HA OS 10,5 HA
Core 2023,9.3

on a linux Virtual Machine on Mac OS X mini

16

@captcurrent for your devices that only update on a restart, please confirm that the Insteon modem (PLM or Hub) have the default links. For a 2450, this should be two links that look like this in the modem:

Record 1
Target: <Insteon address of the 2450>
Group: 0
Mode: Controller
In use: Yes
Data 1, 2 and 3: Any value

Record 2
Target: <Insteon address of the 2450>
Group: 1
Mode: Responder
In use: Yes
Data 1, 2 and 3: Any value

And in the 2450 you should see links that look like this:

Record 1
Target: <Insteon address of the modem>
Group: 0
Mode: Responder
In use: Yes
Data 1, 2 and 3: Any value

Record 2
Target: <Insteon address of the modem>
Group: 1
Mode: Controller
In use: Yes
Data 1, 2 and 3: Any value
17

Soory I didnt get back to you sooner you have always been a great help. Night before my migration as a snow bird Insteon Integration Died…If past experience my PLM modem must have died. I will do a seperate post but not much I can do at the late interval