Alarm Beeper For Garage Door

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1

I got tired of Chamberlain shenanigans and I'm not interested in any of the hard-wired workarounds. I picked up a ThirdReality Garage Door Opener. It's basically just a finger that pushes the button on my garage door remote and is Matter over WiFi. I have it set up with Homekit, and I'm happy with how that's working. I was only able to get it into my C-8 Pro as a generic device and couldn't get it to work. But that's not what I'm asking about. I set up a switch that tells Apple if I want the door to close.

And it's the garage door closing that I'm here to ask about. Because it just pushes the button, the door closes immediately with no warning beeps. I'm not terribly worried about this... but safety first and all that.

I'd like to find a zwave or zigbee beeper or buzzer that I can set up to go off before the door closes, but I'm not having a lot of luck in my searching. Does anyone have any suggestions?

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Why don't you consider using the Konnected Blaq or a Ratgdo instead?

With the Blaq, you get a flashing light and beeper before the door closes. You also get the ability to set the door position to something other than fully open and closed.

With certain door openers and wall buttons the Blaq can also lock the door, learn new devices without climbing to hit the button on the opener motor, control the light on the opener, have motion detection, and a whole lot more. I think the Ratgdo is very similar in features.

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3

You could use a ZSE50 from Zooz. It has a few dozen canned sounds plus you can record your own and upload it to the device. In your most stern voice "Caution, garage door is closing, Stay clear!"...

I always put an IP camera where I can control a garage door. Sensors and alarms only get you so far.

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This is built in to the Linear/Go Control openers (one of the reasons I chose that option myself). It alerts with audible and visual before opening or closing.

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Thank you @CuriousB for the suggestion. I'll check it out.

Everyone else: As I stated in my original post, I am not looking for a different garage door opener solution. I have a solution I'm happy with.

If anyone else has a suggestion for something that makes noise, that would be great.

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Just make sure your visual and audio alerts meet code:

The timing can be tricky:

c) Alarm signal.

(1) The operator system shall provide an audible and visual alarm signal.

(2) The alarm shall signal for a minimum of 5 seconds before any unattended closing door movement.

(3) The audible signal shall be heard within the confines of a garage. The audio alarm signals for the alarm specified in paragraph (c)(1) of this section shall be generated by devices such as bells, horns, sirens, or buzzers. The signal shall have a frequency in the range of 700 to 3400 Hz, either a cycle of the sound level pulsations of 4 to 5 per second or one continuous tone, a sound level at least 45 dB 10 ft (305 cm) in front of the device over the voltage range of operation.

(4) The visual alarm signal described in paragraph (c)(1) of this section shall be visible within the confines of a garage using a flashing light of at least 40 watt incandescent or 360 lumens. The flash rate shall be at least once per second, with a duration of 100 ms to 900 ms, for the duration of the alarm.

(d) Controls.

(1) During the pre-motion signaling period defined in paragraph (c)(2) of this section, activation of any user door control (e.g., wall control, wireless remote, keypad) shall prevent the pending unattended door movement. Door movement resulting from activation of a user door control is not prohibited.

(2) Upon activation of a user door control during unattended door movement, the door shall stop, and may reverse the door on the closing cycle. On the opening cycle, activation of a user door control shall stop the door but not reverse it.

(3) If an unattended door travelling in the closing direction is stopped and reversed by an entrapment protection device, the operator system shall be permitted one additional unattended operation attempt to close the door.

(4) After two attempts per paragraph (d)(3) of this section, the operator system shall suspend unattended operation. The operator system shall require a renewed, intended input, via user door control (e.g., wall control wireless remote, keypad) other than the unattended activation device, prior to re-enabling unattended operation.

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Thanks for this. It will help to get the alarm right. All of the other safety features are still active as it's just using the standard remote. Interesting that you can carry the remote inside the house or other places that the garage door is not visible, and close the door with no warning. It seems like anything I add will be better than that.

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If you want extra safety for garage door closings, you might want to look into this product:

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I have this. It's pricy but it works well. My wife turns the beeper off every chance she gets which is annoying. It beeps loudly when something blocks it. So, if you're unloading groceries and the rear hatch is blocking it, it screams like crazy until you're done. But, it does give full coverage of the entire garage opening which is great. I wish it had a "stop beeping for 5 minutes" button.

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I installed one of these timers, which can be set up as a normally closed switch. Turning the timer knob cuts the low voltage power to the Infinity Shield beeper for up to 60 minutes. Safety function of the Infinity Shield is not impaired in any way.

https://a.co/d/8OhX6eE

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Not a requirement. This applies to manufactures of new equipment, not end users. It does not apply to retrofitted existing systems.

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It will apply to any insurance claims you make in the future. DIY does not mean you can skirt the building code.

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Umm no. The citing is for manufacturers to comply with, not homeowners. Doesn't apply to installed base. So no basis for an insurance claim denial. Number of insurance claims denied due to this statute, 0.

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Genius! So these switches (timers) require no power to run?

Edit: confirmed. That's an amazing idea.

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Thank you. Do note that you have to be very specific about what model you get, because most of these spring-operated timers are “normally open” only; the model I posted from Amazon can be NC or NO, and NC is needed.

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This is the electrical box I mounted the spring timer in:

https://a.co/d/dCnGDKr

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Down in my shop I just use a 12V car alarm that I hooked up to a smart plug. I found a dead hummingbird down there one day that got shut in when I closed the garage doors from the house. So I setup up this alarm to blare for 20 seconds before my doors close. Hopefully any critters that wandered in will get out before they shut.

Also Alexa devices can be used. I have them, and I have one in my shop so along with the alarm Alexa announces the doors are about to close. I also have one in each garage at the house

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Interesting. And I remembered that I have an unused Zen17 universal relay. I can use an NC port to turn the beeper on/off and set it up so that I can use a voice command like "Alexa silence the garage door beeper for 10 minutes" and so forth. Hands free, no springs. Not as foolproof as the mechanical timer, but flexible. Thanks for the idea. I hope that Infinity Shield learns of this issue and future models have a "silence for a while" option.

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I have the same issue of no beeping, though it's pretty low on my priority list. I do flash the garage lights for 10 seconds before my rules move the door, which has been nice, but no beeping. The way I was going to get around this is to simply buy a dumb low-voltage beeper off Amazon and have my automation turn it on using a smart relay for the required time before moving the door. Nice and simple and it doesn't matter how your control your door.

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Thanks for the interesting discussion everyone! This is what I've ended up with so far:

A Zooz ZSE50 alarm. I just used the canned sounds. First it repeats "door closed" (not grammatical, but effective) for 5 seconds, and then an alarm — one that's not too shrill but still scared my dog — for 5 more seconds, and then the door closes. The light also flashes, but to be honest it's not very visible where I had to put the thing.

I also added an inexpensive camera. It's WiFi so won't be coming into HE. But I can see the garage door, it has an alarm on it and lights, and I can speak through it. ("Get the heck out of my garage!") It uses a magnetic base so I could mount it anywhere, and is rechargeable.

I hadn't considered flashing the garage lights like @Equis does. That's a good idea. But since nothing in my garage is smart that would require either putting in a smart switch or swapping the bulbs out for Hue (probably the better choice). I think I'll let that wait for a bit since I rarely need to close the garage door when I can't see it. The real reason for all this was to open the garage door when I'm coming home after walking my dog and have a poo bag in hand. Because I'm too lazy to open via the remote on the outside of the door.

ETA: I tried again to include the ThirdReality remote pusher into HE and managed to get it to come over with no problems. The door close automation can run completely in HE.

ETA (again): I went ahead and changed the light bulbs out for Hue bulbs and added a Lutron Aurora Dimmer button over the switch. The Hue bulbs flash before the door goes down. No motion sensors because chances are I'd be behind the car or something and the lights would go off (no windows in my garage). I'm fine with pushing the button for on/off.

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