Edit: as you can see below in replies, i should have been more general in my request: I am looking for a sensor to detect a mass in a general area and provide me a usable "yes/no" state for that to use in automation routines
Edit 2: project complete with a cheapie beam sensor and modified SmartThings Multipurpose Sensor (my favorite sensor on the planet!). See this post down the thread
I'm having a hard time figuring out a solution for this: I'm looking to know 100% that my car is or is not in the garage, without leaning on "presence" (i find it too unreliable, besides the point I do not need to know where the car is other than "is it parked in the garage")
What I kind of have in my mind functionality-wise is something like the laser system that garage doors use to make sure no one walks across while the door is in motion, the kind of system that doesn't care about anything other "than i can see the other side of the laser"
If i can reliably answer the question, then i'd feel comfortable about including my garage door opening and closing in some automations. I'm thinking like "if my phone determines i enter my geofence and my car is not in the garage then open the door". This way if my phone suddenly decides it is away and then home (which happens often because of iOS's sleep mode), I have that extra check to make sure the car absolutely positively isn't there. Then i won't be stressing about my garage opening up in the middle of the night on it's own lol.
To note, if it's something that doesn't natively work with Hubitat, I do run Home Assistant as well
Why not use exactly what's in your example, a beam detector. I haven't looked but I'm sure there are several types available from multiple sources. All you need to add is a Zdevice to transmit the sensor output. The type will depend on the sensor's output, contact closure or voltage.
Look into BLE I've seen it mentioned lately and there are a few users using it reliably for room presence and arrival. I haven't dug into it yet, but it sounds pretty interesting. It'll integrate with node red and iftt or mqtt, I'm not sure of the integration, but I saw it in action recently and I must say I was impressed. The range is larger than one thinks as well and is adjustable.
The problem is ... there's nothing plug and play for this. If you want a somewhat plug and play solution, try nfc. But even that takes some work to set up.
My request is not even garage specific, simply a sensor that can give me a true/false that an object of mass is in a general area. That doesn't sound too outlandish a question to ask about
So you replying that "there is nothing" does not make that a slam dunk, but thanks for trying anyways
But you ARE talking about your car per your title. You can't just stick a contact sensor on it and call it parked. This seems to be a very specific use case here. A beaming sensor would work. Car parked, break the beam, car is home. BLE would work, but requires set up. So, your reply makes it sound like I wrote you off even though I offered viable options prior to your "I want plug and play" comment. So, please don't try and make ME look the @$$ here. Because I don't have time for that. If that was not how you intended to sound, then you failed. I hope your problem brings in some acceptable answers for your specific use case. Have a nice day.
I think she might be right. There is nothing plug & play / out of the box that can do this that I have ever heard of.
There are a dozen ways to make your own sensor/way to do this, but none that meet what you asked for - plug & play.
I did try to do something like this with a smartthings presence sensor once, but I have found them less than reliable so scrapped it.
Some others have used xbee devices plugged into car USB outlet (or other power source) for this, and that is closer to plug & play, but still takes some work.
If I were going to do it myself, I would do an ultrasonic distance sensor and go to an Arduino and either into hubduino or use a Mona Lisa device and go zigbee (that takes soldering though). I would mount it on the ceiling and power it from the same outlet the garage door opener is powered from.
You’re looking for an industrial sensor. We used these at my last job. You’re not going to find something that can support the extreme load of a vehicle that is off the shelf for home automation. You need a pressure sensor that can withstand a lot of constant pressure.
Your request isn’t outlandish, it’s just not something readily available as an off the shelf solution.
If you search for "parking space" or "parking lot" sensors there are a lot of options... but they are all made for industry. I don't see an easy way to buy just one.
Alibaba lists a bunch of stuff. Maaaybe on AliExpress there is a way to buy one or two? And maybe one of them has a relay you can hook up to a door open/close sensor?
Which is very strange, and I don't understand why nobody has brought something to market after all these years. Preferably in Zwave or Zigbee. This seems like a fairly simple thing to make, and could have other uses like a driveway sensor. I would think that there is a fairly large market for something like this?
@morningz In addition to the beam sensor you are looking at if you want piece of mind that your garage door will not open at night you could take a look at what I use. The ZEN15 will handle the power up to a 1/2 hp motor. I placed it in-between the motor power cord and the outlet. I turn it off at night and back on before we leave. It could also be turned back off once you leave by the beam sensor but you would have to have a way to turn it back on before you try to open the garage door. There are probably many ways to do that.
also, Someone is working on an integration for one of the sensors that you plug into your car. Automatic. But, I can't remember who was working on it. Maybe @bcopeland or @srwhite?
Funny, i just threw two of those Automatic dongles in the trash a few weeks ago because as far as I read at some point super soon they were altogether going to stop functioning (they're closing up shop)..
I was a big fan when they were popular because you could do super cool stuff like this to track long drives
