Just now, I dragged my Zooz ZEN17, powered by a TalentCell battery, out to the driveway gate.
With the C8, I now have solid z-wave communication.
With the C7, no.
I can just about squeeze the ZEN17 into the plastic control box.
I think there are terminals in there for wired control that I could tap into.
So things are looking good.
Now I need some rules.
Plus, maybe a zigbee contact sensor to tell me if the gate is opened or closed, since it has a propensity to open itself easily if it thinks there is an obstruction.
I already have a three car garage automation using the ZEN16 setup and SmartThing arrival sensors.
I'm wondering if there is a pre-built app for gate operators floating around, or if anyone can give me some tips?
I'm sort of psyched by this, because the ZEN17 was just barely out of range with the C7, and now with the C8, vrooom.
Awesome. Is there any way you would use a gate differently than a garage door?
I don't have a gate, but my garage is automated (open and close). On arrival: Open on arrival presence, close 8 minutes later. On departure: Open manually (not really a good way to automate this), close on away presence (only if within 15 minutes, allows warming up the car and time to leave the radius). This way, if I open the garage manually, it will stay open indefinitely (working outside) or close if someone leaves. I use webCoRE for my rules and the Zooz Garage Door app. The Zooz app basically just combines the relay and contact/tilt sensor into one garage door device. I don't see why you can't use it for a gate.
I think you're right about the contact sensor. You're going to need a way to know if it's open or closed, for sure.
Yes, I might try the Zooz app, but I'm not sure if I need the complexity.
No tilt sensor, contact instead. One gate (no need for child devices.)
Do have to set up momentary close in a ZEN17, but I think that's built in to the relay.
What's nice about the ZEN17, and I think the ZEN16, is that, according to the manual, it can use a 24v AC or DC feed to power it.
I've got (nominal) 24vAC at the gate.
Well, I've made progress.
I installed the ZEN17 in the box.
Rigged up a zigbee contact sensor, wrapped in plastic, on the opener.
Set a parameter on the ZEN17 to do auto off on relay 1 in one second-this gives the opener contacts the momentary it needs.
Created a simple rule to open the gate on arrival.
The gate shuts itself after a few minutes.
So, I've got arrival covered.
But, how do I do departure, so the gate opens when I leave? Hmmmm.
The arrival sensor goes just beyond the gate, plus there's a 2 minute timeout minimum (for departure).
Looks like I've only saved one button push.
But, now I don't have to wait to see if the gate didn't reopen by itself.
I could get a notification, somehow.
There'd have to be some logic, like if the gate doesn't close X seconds after the switch turns on, send a notice.
This is is mostly so that deer don't get into the fenced in perimeter and eat my wife's flowers.
I would still look into the Zooz Garage Door app. It combines the relay and contact sensor into one device. If you want open and it's already open, it won't cycle the relay. You can do the same thing with rules, but there's no need. This is handy at our house if my wife and I arrive at the same time (driving together). Garage opens with the first phone present and the relay doesn't get pushed again when the second one changes to present.
You could have your gate open when your garage door opens, but it would be nice to open the garage without the gate opening sometimes. I haven't come up with a good way automate opening the garage on departure, so a manual push of the button remains the solution here too.
You need to make yourself an induction loop so the gate opens when a car pulls up to the gate on the way out. Kidding, not kidding.
In the Zooz Garage Door appy you can also set the relay delay to make it a momentary switch and it will send a notification if it doesn't open/close in a set time, too. I think it combines a lot of what you're doing.
Just tonight, we left to go to dinner, I took a gamble and didn't wait for the gate to close. My wife gets a text message that the gate has been open for greater than 3 minutes. Naturally, somehow notifications for my phone were turned off somehow. So, we drove back, and sure enough it was open. Had to fiddle with it some to get it to stay closed.
Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can adjust the operator's settings, including making the closing force greater-it's much too sensitive now. Again, naturally, I can't find the manual, and will have to look for a close approximation on line. Nothing's easy.
The zigbee contact sensor on the gate is a good thing. Even without the operation aspect, it's nice to know whether it's open or closed, Most times it should be closed, for our usage.
Zigbee reception had been good enough out there so that I have a contact sensor in the mailbox and package bin. Until C8, I wasn't able to do Z-Wave out there.
Wouldn't mind seeing people mention their favorite Gate Operator in their replies to you. Besides the reliability question I've seen some vendors making external input/triggering a lot easier than others.
Ours is just a simple farm gate-very light.
The operator is by Chamberlain and is not made anymore.
It's been reliable for a number of years.
I don't know the model (hence my problem).
It is powered by low voltage (24vAC) wire I strung out there.
I haven't seen low voltage gate operators, just solar powered battery ones ("The Mule").
We don't get that much sun. I guess I'd have to do a work around come replacement time.
I have no idea about "real" gate operators-they must be expensive, but you might get, somewhat, what you pay for.
