It feels like we just don't know you anymore... 
(But I'm with you on the close part. Automatically opening, now that's magical.) 
2 Likes
Until your car makes it home without you . Of course, a lot of cars now have garage door openers in there...same sentiment though. I guess it could be worse and you could also have it automatically disarm the security system le gasp.
1 Like
I have the GDO open when I arrive between 8am and dusk. NO auto-close. That's what buttons are for It's based on my Presence, not the car's 
1 Like
Yeah, every car I've ever owned I've either kept the garage door opener in the car, or the car has a built-in pogrammable button. So the auto opening isn't any added risk, and it's actually easier to disable than my garage door's own remote, frankly.
I do block the automation unless my presence sensor is on DC power (car turned on/running) so false positives/accidentaly openings when the car is just sitting in the driveway can't happen.
It's funny how nice the auto-open automation feels, one of the few my wife complimented me about.
1 Like
Nah, I've always been fairly anti-auto garage door manipulation.
Unlike door locks, if the logic malfunctions with a garage opener then the door is wide open... With a door lock at least the door is still closed, and it takes someone to come and try the lock for the logic error/issue to be impactive.
But I get it - a lot of people like automated garage door. Cool for them, no judgement. Just not a risk/reward balance that works for me.
8 Likes
3 Likes
I do want to add that this topic has the best click-bait title (and in this case I mean that in the best possible way) around here in a while...who is not going to want to hear what happened!?!
5 Likes
@csteele @danabw so just curious would you ever have a situation where you drive near the house enough to trigger the presence but are not actually coming home? I live in a suburban area and quite often we drive near the house (block away) and I get an alert someone is home, but we are not actually going home yet. This is using the HomeKit presence.
I'm a suburbanite and never drive near my home unless I'm actually going home, so wouldn't run into this issue.
The way I have mine programmed, it will sometimes think I left with the car if someone leaves/arrives after I left for my dog walk, and I will come back home to an open garage door… So yea, it happens.
Same with the Aladdin Connect system. Flashes the lights for a few seconds before closing. Plus my obstruction sensors are in good working order.
2 Likes
My presence stuff is a little bit of a mess, due to my wife not wanting anything done to her phone. She's OK w/car presence that doesn't require anything on her phone, so do I have presence sensors in the cars for the primary purpose of opening the garage door when we come home. No close automation due to safety concerns.
I've had zero false positives, as my rule requires both presence change to present & presence sensor on DC power, which only occurs when the car is on/running when I arrive home. When the car is off the sensor runs on a built-in battery. Very reliable (zero false positives), and one of my very, very few wife-delighting automations.
So I have "who" is present info for myself via Owntracks, "car presence" for both cars via @iharyadi's excellent presence sensor, and only a very vague idea as to where the heck my wife is.
2 Likes
Twice.
If I drive around the block there's a chance at the furthest corner to detect I'm outside the outside ring. Usually doesn't detect there but has.
Said another way, as I drive away from home, I get a notification that my presence became Away. I get that 2.5 streets away so normally 'around the block' doesn't catch Outside. As I drive in towards home, I get the indication that presence Arrived about 3 houses away, and the door starts to move just as my tire hits the driveway.
Other than the 'round-the-block case, I've yet to get a false Open. But even then, I get notification too and then I just hit the dashboard and close it.
2 Likes
That is interesting.
Similar. My wife doesn't mind things running on her phone, but she objects to me being able to get her location at will. So I have a multi-tier presence structure:
- Each person has three presence sensors of different types:
- Phone GPS (Hubitat app)
- Wi-Fi presence (Unifi)
- Car presence (Teslamate and @iharyadi's device, respectively)
- Presence Combiner app says arrival of any causes our "overall" virtual presence sensor to arrive; departure of anything but Wi-Fi causes it to depart
- Because I have some specific automations for myself, I also have an "Anyone But Me" virtual presence sensor to make it easy to act on whether I'm alone in the house.
The main thing that breaks with this is the rare occasion I drive my wife's car while she stays home. That's rare enough I haven't bothered to solve it yet.
2 Likes
How can you even ask such a question?
2 Likes
Heretic!!!
3 Likes
Believe it or not, there are many things that are not worth automating. I know, I know, blasphemy.
7 Likes
2 Likes
I guess I've gotten really used to this since I let the task of automating the garage doors fall to our Tesla cars. The car does its own geofencing and uses the built in Homelink. I drive up and they open; I drive away and they close.
(really the opener is just a toggle. Thus, if my wife opens my door while I'm away, the car would just toggle it closed when I arrive - I have to press "skip open" on the touchscreen to avoid this rare case)
But this thread did make me go and check my door sensors; they are 4" off the ground and miss the bottom of the car. But that looks like the factory mounting position in the rails - they are new as of 12 years ago or so. I wonder if I should move them higher next summer.
1 Like
