I have two Liftmaster garage door openers of recent vintage that are MyQ compatible, and I want nothing to do with their cloud model.
There are two wall switches, wired, which have a wired switch to open/shut the door. I have yet to try but assume a dry contact momentary press will work for that.
I am thinking to try the MiMO2+ to control them, and add two garage door magnet switches under the door for an open/closed state sense.
I do not see much indication of these explicitly used with Home Assistant, their web page lists Homeseer but not Home Assistant. I am using the Nortek z-wave stick on an rPi. My thought was to wire this in parallel with the door openers, and separately to the sensors, and control both doors. This presumes I can do a momentary push remotely (on, delay 1, off I assume?) and sense open/close to do it correctly (e.g. since the open/close is really a toggle). I’ll need power but that looks easy (might even be power at the current wall switch but if not a brick somewhere and power through the wall with the sensor wires; wall access is easy in this case).
The doors I have which are Liftmaster do not use a simple make/break connection on the wiring, but some kind of communication stream. Shorting/opening the wire to the wall switch has no impact. I’ve looked through all the manuals, and all the connections (external) on the head, and see nothing that would let me control the door with a dry contact.
They want me to subscribe ($) and control it via the cloud – jerks. Everyone wants a revenue stream.
Off to find some other alternative. I’ll pay several times as much to avoid a cloud subscription and do it locally. Maybe time to consider a replacement opener, even.
Try Shelly1 for this. Just connect it to the wired wall switches and you can control the garage door with the shelly app. Or you can implement it with HA…
I’m unclear how that solves the problem. It still would appear to provide a dry contact, and unless I try to hack the PCB of the wall switch to put it in parallel (or series, depending if NO or NC) with the switch on the PCB, I do not see how that helps.
It’s not that it is impossible to solder on the wall switch PCB, but I’m not sure I can do it reliably with vibrations from use over time, trying to stick a wire on the back of the switch pin.
I know this was 2 years ago and I’ve installed a two relay Tuya product connected to the contacts on the wall for my liftmaster MyQ garage door opener and it works flawlessly. However, I wanted to switch to a zWave product and found this link and am wondering why this did not work for you ? If you have two wall mounted garage door opener switches, you should be able to connect (solder) two wires to them and connect to a relay as a momentary switch or am I getting this wrong.
I just bought this product to see if it works and it should based on the current relays I have in place. They arrive soon an I’ll install to see how they work.
BTW - what liftmaster model do you have - mine wall switch is a 882LM and 5 years old.
The problem was when I looked inside the wall switch, the switch is a little button on the PCB, not easily accessed. In particular, I did not see a good way to pull two wires off of it while leaving it in place (so the wall switch would still work).
The wires going to the wall switch are not just a open/shut wire, they carry a digital signal, so I cannot just tie into them. I was unable to find a place on the lift itself that I could simply have a switch that would open and close, so as to use a simple relay.
I’m VERY disappointed in Chamberlain/Liftmaster, as their protocol keeps changing, and it seems every few months the cloud integration breaks with Home Assistant; and I have yet to find a way to do it all locally, which is what I really want.
One day I’ll just get annoyed and see if I can replace the motor units entirely with something different that has a simple external control input. I’d love if someone has a recommendation.
Now, with either of those options, you should get the dry contact you are looking for, and should be able to control your door(s), using FortrezZ or Shelly or OpenGarage or some zigbee switch or whatever you see fit, without the MyQ cloud.
And I’m sure there are tons of MyQ discussions here.
How interesting, so what you are saying and after looking up the device you posted, your wall switch is a wifi only type of switch ? Also, that’s what it looks like in the picture. And there are NO wires that run physically to your opener, it’s all wifi controlled.
@Linwood - That 050DCTWF logic board sits inside the garage door opener unit, which features wifi, for the purpose of MyQ.
The garage door opener would power a wall switch, which would then open / close the door via some proprietary “Security+ 2.0” protocol wirelessly @ 315MHz RF.
So if anyone who has a Security+ 2.0 opener and wants to get rid of the MyQ cloud, he or she starts with wiring a (hacked version of the) 883LM, and does dry contact from there – instead of from your regular wall switch or directly from your garage opener.
Alternatively, he or she could do dry contact from a working (and repurposed) wireless remote – the battery-powered thing you typically would use from your driving seat. Going this route one would then need to take care of the CR2032 battery in the remote from time to time.
@AJHomeASst, How interesting, so what you are saying and after looking up the device you posted, your wall switch is a wifi only type of switch ?
No. There is a wire that goes between the motor unit and the wall switch. That wire, however, is not just an on/off, it appears to carry digital data. Or let me put it this way – I tried taking it off the wall switch, and shorting and opening it, and nothing happened (and I guess fortunately nothing blew up). My conclusion is it carries data as well as power for the circuit in it.
Onboard the wall PCB is a bunch of PCB components and buried in the middle a small switch. I am sure if I could hijack that switch I could put any kind of HA controlled relay and all would be good, but it would be painful and probably disable the wall unit. That’s what @k8gg describes in the last paragraph I think. Possible. Tedious. I’d probably do it if I thought I could ALSO keep it working as a wall switch, which is really handy. I may open it up again and refresh my memory what the switch looks like on the back of the PCB.
The wifi is on the boards in the motor unit somewhere.
Wireless wall switches are available, that is not what I have, this is wired.
ALso one day I’m going to go off to the big garage door dealer nearby and say “do you have a plain, ordinary, non-smart door opener with a switch on the wall that is simple switch”. They will look at me funny and patiently explain how secure and safe “the cloud” is, and that I just don’t understand these technical things.
Correct. As I mentioned, there are a couple ways to do on/off dry contact to emulate click. Here are 3 links, with photos, that would help illustrate what I said:
I rather like that first idea, I have several clickers sitting around. I wonder, if I used something with 3.3v, if I could just replace the battery with power from the 3.3v side, package it all up in a little project box, and have a permanent setup. I just ordered an esp8266 with a dry contact and will give it a try.
I did something similar with a Tuya relay. However, I’ve slowly been moving my “internet” based control devices over to zWave and this is why I jump in this thread.
Well, I got a clicker out and it is easy to hijack a switch, and it works with a dry contact relay from an esp8266 and esphome. Even better, I took out the battery and connected it to the 3.3/ground on the esp8266 and that worked as well, so no need to change batteries. I only had a 1-relay board, so would need to get a two relay one.
HOWEVER, I realized that using this to replace the MyQ only gets me halfway there – there’s no way to know the state of the door. I’m going to need a magnetic contact or tilt or proximity sensor of some sort. A magnetic door closed sensor like used in alarm systems is probably the most reliable. Then I’d need to wire that back to two other contacts in the esp8266 for open/closed state. Not hard, but tedious, and some more stuff to buy.
Why is Chamberlain such a pain. I wish someone could figure out how to hijack their protocol.
Yes. Those door sensors would be part of the deal to “localize” your whole garage door setup. One would have 2 pieces of puzzles in order to achieve such: (a) a way to open/close/stop the door, and (b) a way to know the status of the door.
(There’s a whole subject on (b) also - you would at least need “opened door” and “closed door”, and some might argue you would also want to know “door opening” and “door closing” to be a completed setup.)
Regardless, that’s how gadgets such as MiMO2+ come in: it handles the controls, and it offers ways for sensor inputs - think magnetic reed switch(s) feeding into MiMO2+.
I see you went with esp8266, and depends on your hardware, I believe you could still use reed switches together with some GPIOs on your esp8266 thingy.
It would be hard to blame Chamberlain - if someone is able to hijack this “Security+ 2.0” protocol, locally or otherwise, I would be the first to replace my opener.
That said, still, one could certainly blame the shitty MyQ implementation on Chamberlain. That’s a different animal, and only Chamberlain is to blame.
Or at least “in motion” if not which direction would prevent unintended cases of another pulse stopping it from moving or reverses it. Starting to wonder if that’s worth it.
It would be hard to blame Chamberlain - if someone is able to hijack this “Security+ 2.0” protocol, locally or otherwise, I would be the first to replace my opener.
Well, hacks that require physical access first can still be secure from outside, but I get your point. However I blame all manufacturers for implementations that do not PERMIT local control. It is not like this is a new thesis, yet time after time manufacturers close doors (pun intended) to local control and require cloud and app based access. Apps that track your location (and who knows what else) and upload it for them to resell as marketing data.
Did you ever look at the MyQ permissions required for use:
This app has access to:
Contacts
find accounts on the device
read your contacts
Photos/Media/Files
read the contents of your USB storage
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Microphone
record audio
Camera
take pictures and videos
Identity
find accounts on the device
Wi-Fi connection information
view Wi-Fi connections
Location
approximate location (network-based)
precise location (GPS and network-based)
Storage
read the contents of your USB storage
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Phone
directly call phone numbers
Other
receive data from Internet
prevent device from sleeping
access Bluetooth settings
change network connectivity
pair with Bluetooth devices
connect and disconnect from Wi-Fi
full network access
run at startup
control vibration
view network connections
Tell me all that data is just for YOUR convenience and is not being misused behind the scenes.
@Linwood I am so in your corner on that - having worked in many different tech companies where they are hijacking our personal data I’ve began to opt out of every single agreement where their affiliates get to touch or see my data. However, they (TechZars) are beginning to get the upper hand where you can’t even use the product, device or service if you DON’T allow them to hijack your privacy.
But its worse than many know. That Affiliate is loosely defined by law and allows these tech giants to skirt the laws, including local states law that try to combat the proliferation of our data to no avail.
Yes, local is the only way to go and I’m trying to figure out how to only use non-cloud IoT at home. Is that possible ?
Are you asking generally? Yes, though it depends on what you want to do. I right now have cloud connections only to google and Chamberland. I choose to use google because it is easier at present to tie voice commands to actions, but that may change over time, and it is all in one place. I also would need the cloud if I cared about controlling my Rheem hot water heater.
But that’s in operating mode… I still require the cloud to set up Caseta switches, for example. And if I switch voice controls from Google I have a pile of Google Home devices I use as speakers that will stop working. Google will be the hardest to get rid of. But frankly Google worries me the least – not because they are not among the worst, but because they are ubiquitous – I have an android phone, Google already knows everything about me whether I like it or not. My choice is they or Apple or not have a cell phone.
I’m in the google bubble and unless something comes along will have to stay with that. But all other IoT stuff that I’m buying and implementing I just want it local. My switches are all GE and I did not need to add an app to get them working, they are all zwave stuff (I’m still learning the benefits of zwave, but so far loving what it offers).
August locks - soon to replace with a zwave challenger (not at all happy with August) to get the local supported affect.
I was just wondering what others were doing. That’s just taking this thread to another place and I’ll look to post my experience and questions there so as to not get this important thread off track. Thanks for reply.
