Garage Door opener

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#1

Hi everyone,

I do not have an automatic garage door opener, so I am starting from square one. What is the best implementation for use with Hubitat? Do I get a dumb opener, and one of those separate zwave/zigbee controllers? Or is a smart garage door opener better? Any advice or tips?

#2

This would be my recommendation. You'll need a momentary zigbee/z-wave relay (sometimes these are called inching relays) and a tilt or contact sensor.

2 Likes
#3

Hey Paul... I can only tell you what I did.... I have a Chamberlain opener and I've added a Liftmaster MYQ wifi/LAN controller to it. Then Ive added a MYQ app on Hubitat which allows Hubitat to open and close the Garage Door using a published API (basically HE talks to the MYQ cloud using this api). The danger here is that when Chamberlain/MYQ changes things on their side, it usually requires the Hubitat app to be changed as well... (which requires the developer to get involved).

#4

Yeah, with a zooz zen-16 or 17 relay and an ecolink tilt sensor you can avoid the whole cloud thing and the risk that myq will change their API for the umpteenth time breaking everyone's integrations.

4 Likes
#5

Absolutely a dumb door, some sort of relay and a tilt sensor. You're options for control will be wide open going forward.

I bought a Telguard in 2015 (no longer made) connected to a 20 year old Liftmaster and they've worked like a charm on 3 different hubs. Only thing I've ever done was to get a new circuit board for the Liftmaster when its radio failed. (Hardly use the remote control anymore, Presence handles opening and closing.)

#6

Thanks everyone. I already have/use a smartthings multipurpose sensor, to notify me when my garage door is open. Can that be used with a dumb opener / relay?

#7

Totally agree.. although i love the fact that its API based integration - I also hate the fact that MYQ changes 1 thing and I'm out for weeks /months.. so this approach , albeit sounds clean, is not a dependable alternative !!

#8

Get a basic dumb opener from a respectable company (well, not the absolute cheapest thing they have, but no need for any bells-&whistles).

Zen 16 or Zen 17 for the relay... I prefer the newer Zen 17 since you can optionally separate the sensor/switch inputs from the relays if desired (in my garage setup, that was desired since I use dumb wired reed sensors for door position instead of a wireless tilt sensor).

If you want to use a wireless tilt sensor for door position, ecolink or any other compatible tilt sensor works great. I abhor battery stuff out in my detached garage, so I wired up a couple dumb reed sensors to my Zen17 instead.

Zooz has a great garage door app for tying it all together in Hubitat, or there are other community garage-door apps you can try.

Nuts to that MyQ or Alladin garbage - you don't want to be at the mercy of their clouds and persnickity APIs!

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#9

I would not advise anyone to use a tilt sensor. I had a tilt sensor, and I was on a trip in another state when my tilt sensor decided to report the garage door open at 1am. I had my brother drive up to my house at 1am because I thought the garage was being broken into. Only wired contact switches after that for me.

#10

Yes the Smartthings / Aeotec sensor works great with it's Garage Door mode. I use it along with the ZooZ Zen 16 with two garage doors and it works great. No reliance on an internet connection like a Smart Opener would most likely need. Regarding not using a tilt sensor, things can happen but I have used these sensors for years and never had one false report on them.

Here is my Open rule as an example.

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I also have a timeout to close the door if it is left open by mistake as well as an Override if I am working in the garage. I can change the timer right in the Dashboard if I want to as well. The timer is in seconds so it closes after being open for 30 minutes if the Override is not on.

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#11

How did you connect the myQ to Hubitat? Iā€™m struggling to get it to work?

#12

Use this - it might still work:

#13

see app below from AAIYAR.. that's what I used but CAUTION the connectivity is very temperamental. the connectivity is HE to the MYQ Cloud then back to your garage opener. Chamberlain is always changing their environment and this out this particular integration at risk.. p.s. right now mine doesn't work but I'm sure it'll sprint to life in a couple of days.

#14

I would just get a zen-16, ecolink tilt sensor, and if need be a security 2.0 to dry contact adapter (depends on the age of your garage door) and bypass the my q all together. Why involve the cloud if you don't have to? You can do the whole setup for about $50.00

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#15

As far as I know mine is still working. I do have a local option set up in case something should happen. I'm using an implant to do this.

I just tested mine and it still works.

#16

My pros for MyQ outweigh the cons of the cloud.

  • MyQ controls the door with discrete commands. Requesting an open always does an open, not just toggling the current state as a button press simulation does.
  • MyQ knows the state of the door (open/closed/opening/closing/fault). I have a tilt sensor in addition for smart home automation, but it also knows the operation and state of the GDO sensors/motor/current protection.
  • Our GDO wasn't a MyQ wifi version, but instead requires the ethernet bridge. This works great and I didn't have to wire or install anything. $20 for a used myq bridge on eBay. The bridge can communicate with the GDO from the basement to the garage with no issues.
  • MyQ openers have the built in light flashing/alarm beeping for remote close operations. A nice safety feature that I didn't have to program or buy an external lamp/siren for.

That all being said, I don't automate the control of our door, only for monitoring. If we detect that the door needs remote closing, we use the MyQ app directly thru the cloud to the MyQ bridge. We consider it a convenience feature to remote open or close, mostly for safety reasons.

I have a ZEN16 and ZEN17 sitting extra as I had planned on using them with our MyQ based GDO originally. Instead I went the ethernet bridge route and it works for our needs.

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#17

I just completed my implementation of door garage opener interface to my Genie door opener using a Zooz Zen 17.

The device is configured as follow:

ZEN17 electrical config

  1. Input S1: Large reed switch connected to terminals S1-C. Closed (N.C.) when the door is closed.
  2. Input S2: Not used.
  3. Output R1: N.O. connected in parallel to the garage opener pushbutton (you have to check, not technically possible with all garage opener.)
  4. Output R2: N. O. connected to a warning Beeper

Notes

  • Be sure to detect garage door closed status. Detecting the 'open' and supposing that if NOT opened it is closed, is not safe as the door may be stopped in transition to closed.
    -Check Zen17 firmware version and update to latest 1.20 or higher.

Zen17 Parameters Configuration
Power Fail State Restore: All relays off
Input type Relay 1: Contact sensor
Input type Relay 2: Contact sensor
Input trigger for Relay 1: Disabled
Input trigger for Relay 2: Disabled
DC motor mode: Disabled
All other variables : Default. If you want to use them , use the Zen 17 companion driver to set them.

Notes: Do not select 'dry contact' type for S1/S2 input type, it does not work and the child input devices do not get created. That is a HE bug according to Zooz.

RULES
I am not using any applications, just wrote a few rules in rule machine.

RULE 1

  • Trigger: Pushing the garage opener virtual push button on a dashboard
  • Warning beeper controlled by closing/opening R2 (10 seconds).
  • After the warning beeper completed, garage door opener activation sequence by closing/opening R1 (1 second)

RULE 2

  • if the garage door is opened for more than 15 minutes push repeating notifications to my phone.
    (I prefer to manually control the closing, than having a rule do it automatically since sometimes, I may actually be working there for long duration and need the door to be opened)
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#18

I might end up going this route. i dont need or want any sort of control over the garage door from the dashboard. i just want to be able to reliably see if its open or closed. i dont really understand if it needs a dedicated hub or not though

#19

No dedicated hub needed. The Zen16 is just a smart relay that simulates a button push and gets wired to the existing button (or the security 2.0 button). The tilt sensor is what tells the garage door rule/app if the door is open or closed. You don't want it to just blindly send a button push if it's already open/closed. I use the Zooz Garage Door Opener app to bring it all together.

#20

So would this replace the myq or be in addition to it? I currently have myq but don't love it- the app doesn't always work to open the garage. I like having control of it on my phone just don't need that feature for my hubitat dashboard. If i were to start from scratch, would I just need the Zen 16?

I also have a garage door that doesn't have an opener, can i put a Zen16 tilt sensor on it just to see if its open or closed without wiring to anything?

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