Yeah. The older Security+ openers are easy to crack. And Iām gone for most of the day.
That's what I have. Only, I'm home most of the time, lol.
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The sensors are working.
Good idea. I have Sonos in the garage.
Good idea.
If the sensors were working were they above the bottom line of her car (ie. any point above the rocker panel so that no matter what the car would break the beams)
If they were working how did the garage door not stop?
Curious minds want to know...
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First to echo everyone elses comments, check the safety sensors. Something is not right if the door closed on the car.
There should also be a safety if the door binds up, it will reverse and open back up. At least on any remotely modern opener.
But what if you added a motion sensor to the garage? Only close the door if no motion is detected for xx minutes?
That said, I do a lot of HA stuff but opening and closing doors is not something I trust it to do. I struggle with being okay with smart locks even.
I do have some rules that if both of our presence is gone, and any door is open we will get repeated notifications to close the door.
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Note the quotes:
For the unmarried - spouses are sometimes convinced something happened and cannot be reasoned with.
That said, I did not witness the incident so I don't know how the garage door "closed onto her car," but the sensors have been tested and are working.
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I just checked mine and they are 6" above the ground, looks like factory mounts on the rails, would be a PITA to move, drilling new holes, etc... My basic car is about 8" off ground. So the sensors would possibly only hit the wheels unless it is prone to scatter from surrounding object as well. If the car is in motion though, as soon as the wheels break the beam the door would reverse even if its already in motion. Would be bad if the car was stopped halfway in the garage though.
Anyway, yeah I have thought about automating my door but there are too many variables and I decided not worth it. I can push a button. I have alerts if it is left open, that is the main concern.
If I did automate it, I would definitely have a siren go off and then a delay to warn anyone in the garage the door is going to close soon. Possibly even one of those red spinning lights mounted to the ceiling in the garage as well that would go off until it was fully closed. Heck I might do the spinning red light anyway now that I think about it, sounds awesome. 
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Ew
LOL, but only if there was also audio, "Attention K-Mart shoppers..."
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I have a cam mounted inside the garage on the front (house side) of the garage, pointing towards the garage door, so I can visually monitor things in addition to contact sensor and garage door opener status/reporting. Belt and suspenders for barrier devices (and especially dangerous ones like the garage door) is my motto.
If you're using an automation to open/close the garage door I would suggest this would be a required addition so you can accurately determine what actually happens in cases when the automation may have operated in an unexpected way.
If for no other reason than to have a data-rich discussion w/your wife. 
She may be slightly exaggerating (door started to close and reversed before hitting her car) but I'll bet that debating "nuances" like how close it was to hitting her car isn't going to get you very far, nor improve WAF. 
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Can't believe I'm saying this, but I kinda miss those simpler days... 
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Our power was recently out for 24 hours and it was amazing how not distracted I was.
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It would mostly have been avoided in my version of the rules, because my rule watches both cars. It does the following for departure:
- When a car is getting ready to leave...
- Unplugged, for the EV
- Accessories powered, for the ICE
- Open the door
- Wait for the car that triggered it to depart
- Close the door
If a second car becomes ready to leave before the first one departs, the rule gets triggered again and starts over; it's now the second car whose departure is the subject of the wait. So a car should only get closed on if the other car both gets ready to leave and actually departs before it pulls out.
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Even for married guys like me, sometimes regardless of what it is, they can't be reasoned with... 
Just may need to use some variables and check to see if the other car is in ready state but hasn't left yet.
car1Ready=true/false
car2Ready=true/false
Set to true on getting ready and to false on departure. Then only shut the door on departure if the other car is false.
I have to say, I really like how you know which car is getting ready and leaving. 
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I'm starting to wonder if this might make more sense as an app than a collection of rules. Select sensors to indicate whether each car is ready and present. Then the logic is simple:
- If any car is ready (whether because it's leaving or has just arrived), door opens
- If all cars are either not-ready or departed, close with optional delay
The question is what options should be considered for a "ready" condition -- I'm fortunate enough to be using methods for both cars that report a Power Source value, albeit different values indicate ready in each vehicle. I'm not certain that's general enough to be worth baking into an app, though.
What would other people use for a ready condition?
With all my garage automation I use a strobe light and an alarm in the garage. These will both come on 20 seconds before a door closes (I have three garage doors). I HAVE backed into my door as it was coming down and barely clipped the door with the back edge of my truck. All the safety sensors were working but by the time the tire tripped the sensor the door didn't have enough time to go back up. Now that I have the light/alarm it's pretty obvious when the door is going to close.
Is it really worth all of the automation effort and cost for extra sensors vs just "pushing one button" when you leave?
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Yes
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Lol. Ok. Have at it then.
I'll stick to the manual button.
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And the auto close (with pre beeps and flashes) after timeout that is built into the opener
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