Close Garage Only if Present longer than x minutes

Well I've run into a minor issue with my nightly routines and an arrival routine. Every evening at 9:30 PM RM checks my garage doors and closes any that maybe opened. At 9:29 my son entered the Geofence and the door opened for him, as he was pulling in the door started to close and almost hit the car. What I want to happen is only close a door if presence has been at least 5 minutes. I can see where to add the condition for Presence but nothing for Present for at least X minutes. I'm sure there's a way to do this and I'm just missing it.

When I recently had to do something similar, I did the following:

  1. Setup a Virtual Switch/Presence Sensor that will automatically turn off in 1 minute (would be 5 in your case).
  2. Setup a rule that turns it on when the specific presence has arrived.
  3. Use that in the rule. Un your case, if you want to close the door at 9:30 PM, then you can add the as the first action of the rule, a Wait for condition: Virtual device is off or away.
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At 9:30, I'd have it close the garage doors if at least 5 minutes have passed since they last opened. I'd also add a motion sensor to the garage, and inhibit the closing until at least 5 minutes after motion ended, as I can see this issue also occurring if someone opens the garage door a little before 9:30, putters around in the garage for a while, then starts pulling the car out right at 9:30.

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At the very least, you need some redundant safety systems in place to prevent an accident or even a death.

The motion sensor idea above is good. I use a beam sensor for a different automation purpose, but it could serve as a check to be sure the door is not obstructed. The sensor I use is a Seco-Larm E-931-S35RRQ and input that into a contact sensor to get it into Hubitat. It could also be fed into something like a Zooz Zen17 or other devices where you have an input.

Personally I am too risk adverse to automate a garage door whether it is to open or close it. Same with door locks. I want to be present to observe the door locked or the garage door closed properly or didn't open while I am at work.

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It does have the beam sensor that came with the opener where if its crossed during closing it re-opens however the front wheels had already crossed and it's tall vehicle and almost got the roof before the rear wheels hit the beam. There also is a sensor that detects resistance and reverses the door as well. So there are safeties in place, I'm just trying to prevent A) the surprise of the door closing on the driver and B) scratches or a ding to the vehicle. To be honest, with our life schedules this was just such an anomaly I honestly don't think it'll happen again but I'd rather err on the side of caution and have the rules in place to be 100% sure.

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Thanks for the info. What I ended up doing was creating a Hub Variable called RecentArrival and in my arrival Rule that opens the doors and turns on lights (if after sunset) it now also sets the variable to True waits 5 min and then resets it to False. Then in the 930pm Rule that checks and closes the doors if the variable is True it wait until it returns to false before closing.

I don't know why I couldn't come up with this on my own yesterday but as soon as I saw your reply I was like "DUH! how dumb am I" Senior moments hitting me in my early 50's I guess, hahaha. Thanks again, I appreciate your assistance.

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Thatā€™s whatā€™s nice about the community, someone has often already taken the time of thinking about those things, so itā€™s better for all! :slight_smile:

As for the beam that comes with the opener, I have mine set at bumper height to avoid exactly this type fo situation. Has been working well up to now!

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I like the idea of another beam sensor to reverse the garage door, mounted higher up. I wonder if the garage door opener co's offer something like that? The ones down low seem to target pets and children.

Here you go:

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Thanks for posting this, ordered one for myself and a neighbor (2 pack discount). Looking forward to this integrating with my RatGDO as well.

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I moved my normal garage sensors up a bit (about 10" off the floor) to avoid snow and debris causing false trips.

My secondary sensors are at bumper height.

You can't as far as I know parallel the stock garage door sensors. My secondary automation sensors are at bumper height, and only tie into Hubitat.

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