I have two normal LED hang from the ceiling shop lights around my garage. I'd love for those to automatically turn on when I turn on my garage door light, either by sensor, or physical button (or alexa). I have the driver installed for the "light" but I don't know if that's the same thing as my garage light... I have plenty of on/off power outlets that I can use if I knew what logic to trigger off the MyQ accessory. I turned on the lights via button to my garage door and refreshed my garage door in the Hubitat interface and it doesn't indicate the lights are on, so I'm guessing either I'm not using the light driver properly, or perhaps it's not possible and I'm looking for alternative imaginations to provide light via automation.
So if the above lights are on a smart switch simply "if tilt/contact senser open then turn on lights This can be done in simple automation. You can also do a button controller as well
I would first make sure you are using the correct driver. You posted that you are using the SmartThings driver. The Hubitat driver can be found here.
I personally use tilt sensors to tell Hubitat the state of the door and use those tilt sensors as triggers in rules, one of which is turning on my garage lights with opening during non daylight hours. You of course will also have to have your led light on their own switch.
While these are great suggestions, I should add I use the lights a lot with my door closed as well. I was hoping there was a way to sync the lights to the garage light itself and not the door specifically, so if the garage door lights are on, the extra lights are on. I’ll check my driver too as it’s been a year or so since installing the MyQ. I’m just not sure how to tie a rule into the light switch MyQ driver as a condition if that’s possible.
I would use either a contact or tilt sensor on the garage door as a trigger for lighting. You've introduced a new factor into your original question, syncing the garage light with the extra lights.
For that I would use the built in mirror app to mirror one switch from another.
Well in my original post I did say I wanted the extra lights paired with the garage light - not the door...
The problem is - I don't know if the MyQ app/driver reports when the garage light is on...
So I've updated my driver using the one above (the import was the correct driver but it was a revision or two behind - I reimported the code for the app and drivers and when I turn the garage "on" it opens the doors (same as the open button)... so I don't see direct light on off control so I added a virtual device and set it to use the Myq-light-controller.groovy driver which has three buttons, off, on, and "update device status". The three buttons don't do anything and in the log I get this info:
dev:5972021-06-22 10:14:44.474 am warnUnknown light status.
dev:5972021-06-22 10:14:41.351 am errorjava.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 2 on line 72 (on)
dev:5972021-06-22 10:14:41.341 am debugLight turned on
dev:5972021-06-22 10:14:40.177 am errorjava.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 2 on line 72 (off)
dev:5972021-06-22 10:14:40.167 am debugLight turned off
dev:5972021-06-22 10:14:39.209 am errorjava.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 2 on line 72 (on)
dev:5972021-06-22 10:14:39.201 am debugLight turned on
dev:5972021-06-22 10:14:38.742 am errorjava.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 2 on line 72 (on)
The code on line 72 says: " def newId = device.deviceNetworkId.split("\|")[2]" which I don't know what it's trying to do really... I'm not entirely sure this is linked to the garage light at all anyway... I guess I can just tie the lights to the garage sensor and get a pico lutron remote to mount on the wall to have a manual on off... but that's just not as cool as tying it directly to the status of the actual light on my garage door, which was the key point here. I'm open to any pointers anyone might have if the code is wrong or I setup my virtual light device wrong.
What about a smart outlet that measures current \ wattage, like the Zooz Zen15? Plug the opener into that, then you could set a RM rule for when the wattage is over X (light on) and less than Y (motor actually moving the door)?
I guess I was confused. You kept mentioning garage light and I now think you were referring to the garage "door opener" light.
I do not use the garage door opener light, in fact I have removed the bulbs but instead use the garage lights, the ones mounted in the ceiling and toggle those based on the opening of the garage door if appropriate.
I think you can accomplish what you want by adding either a tilt sensor or contact sensor as a trigger device on the door and use a rule to control the other lights.
Not sure if anyone has encountered this, but LED bulbs in a opener reduce the effective range of the opener remote to almost 0. I returned 2 button remotes thinking they were bad, guy at Home Depot recommended removing LED bulbs and boom! the opener works from 75+ feet away...
I found this was true back in the very early days of LED bulbs or with el cheapo amazon LED bulbs, but if you stick with reputable brands (Philips, Cree etc), it's a non-issue these days.
Not that I know of. The opener lights are dumb as can be.
I do like the others, the garage open/close events trigger a rule that turns the garage, outdoor, and a hallway light on. They all come on at various intensities (or not at all) depending upon sunrise and sunset.
The lights stay on for 3 or so minutes, and turn off. I used scenes to set the dimmers, and then just used the scene virtual switch in my rule. It made it easy to get things dimmed the way I wanted.
So how does the polling work for this device? How quickly does it report the wattage change to turn the lights on? It would be lack luster if it only polled every 60 seconds or so and the light don't come on for up to a minute after you turn on the lights or open the door
I like this idea the most and I ordered one since it was on prime day deals and I love to poke around with all this stuff.
Put a light sensor (or sensor have lux output) close to garage light, if lux is over a certain level (adjust the placement and level), then turn on other lights.
I don't have dedicated light sensor so I can't tell which one works better or have driver support. Tuya Zigbee has one, Xiaomi Mijia has one (there is a community driver) cheaper at like $12 shipped from Ali.
Many motion sensors also report lux (some don't, so make sure to check), the cheapest I have and use the lux report is Wink Z-Wave Motion Sensor (which is same as Dome and some Neo Coolcam), $15 from ebay. A motion sensor might consume battery faster though.
This may not be helpful, but I'll throw out a couple other ideas... When we went from a 1-car to 2-car detached garage (but still just one opener), I realized our single GDO bulb was really pathetic light for coming-&-going...
My first solution was to hang a shop light over each bay and plug them into a socket adapter in the GDO's single bulb socket. This worked OK - it gave the extra desired light for leaving / arriving, but it was dependent on garage door action, and it was at the mercy of the GDO's built-in light timer (~1 min?).
So I then installed a high-quality (but dumb) ceiling-mounted motion sensor (RAB LOS2500/120) and connected those shop lights to it. The bonus here is that we get light as soon as we walk in the garage, as well as when the door opens & car pulls in -- so all the coverage of a GDO-based solution plus more. It's great for a quick "hands-free" trip to the garage to just grab something out there fast.
When I need more light (working out there etc), I have a bunch more fixtures on a wall switch that illuminate the heck out of all that space, but all that light would be overkill for simple in's-&-out's.
The RAB sensor is really fast and sensitive - it's been an uber reliable solution thru some crazy weather extremes here in MN (temps ranging from -20s to 100+ F).
As mentioned above, use a tile sensor (I use THIS ONE).
When the tilt sensor shows the door is open, I turn on the garage lights (they are on a Z-Wave switch). When the tilt sensor says the door is closed, I turn off the garage lights.
The extra lighting sure does help when pulling a car in the garage at night.
The polling is very fast, I have a RM rule configured to trigger whenever the power value changes by more than 100 watts, this indicates my sump has started. It's nearly instantaneous. You would have to watch the Current States statistics in the device properties and refresh manually while you figure out what the draw would be for light-on vs. door open so you can fine-tune the rule.
