Local Control Options for MyQ Garage Door Openers

@hydro311 You've mentioned you use reed sensors to detect open/close - what sensors are you using? Where are they connected? I might be able to solve my "stopped" status if I use 2 fully open/fully closed sensors instead of the tilt I'm using.

When I used a MIMOLITE to control my garage door, I used this reed door sensor:

https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Security-Rolling-Contact-Magnetic/dp/B07F5WKS4N/

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Yeah, the stopped-part-way scenario (intentional or more important to me, unintentional) is the main reason I went with 2 dumb reed sensors (1 for full-open, 1 for full-closed)...

I wanted to always be able to validate that one or the other of those sensors was closed (outside of intended movement of course) - that then confirms for me that the door is for certain in its intended position.

The Zen 17 works great because I can tie in those two reed sensors separate from the (opener) relay itself -- that isn't possible with the Zen16. In reality, the Zen 17 really just gives me the advantage of managing the sensors and the opener relay from a single device (so just one thing to power out there vs several things!).. ButI don't use the Zen17 itself to no-kidding "integrate" or marry up the sensors to the relay. Hopefully that makes sense?

I used these reed sensors, but any decent-looking ones should be fine. I wired everything with 18-2 t-state wire because I happened to have some extra, but basic bell wire would be fine too.

To make the 2 reed sensors work with a GDO app (I use Zooz's myself), I thought about getting creative with making a virtual contact sensor, but I just decided to use the fully-closed sensor as the position indicator for the app - works fine for that purpose. I then have rules for stuff like "if one sensor opens, wait ~15" to verify the other one closes - if not, alert me".

And because those sensors aren't directly integrated to / dependent on the relay, I get those kind of position-related alerts no matter how the door is opened (z-wave, wall switch, or dum car remote)

For my dashboard, I have the Zooz GDO app "button" for remote operation, but I also have a tile for each reed sensor -- if both are red (open) ~15" after opener action, I know I got a problem!

I realize one way to solve my door-position paranoia would be to install a camera, but this is out in my detached garage where wifi is super spotty, and I just don't have any interest in adding an add'l wifi beacon out there just for that.

This setup has been great now for the few month I've had it up & running. I think (hope!) the dumb reed sensors will additionally be a more durable sensor solution since my detached garage sees a wide swing of crazy weather conditions up here in MN!

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Nope, you lost me on that piece... I believe the answer is to have 2 contact sensors one at fully closed, one at fully open and wire them to S1/C and S2/C on the Zen17 (which will report back). Then continue to use R1 NO/C to trigger the door itself, right? That's starting to make sense.

Now back to your idea of using a virtual contact sensor - I'm liking that idea because we can capture the "not fully open" state and then know the next button push MUST close the door. Wondering if anyone has a vGDO device that has "stopped" state already?

Next, does anyone know if we can use R2 NO/C to turn the GDO light on/off? or does that side also require another Security 2.0+ adapter? AND, anyone know how fast we can effectively "flash" the R1/2 relays on Zen17?

It's understandably confusing! Overall, mine is wired as you described. But I set up the Z17 in HE like this... "Contact Sensor" as Input Type for 1 & 2, but I "Disabled" both of the Relay Input Triggers - this effectively disconnects the sensors from the opener relay (i just have one door, so only use 1 relay). That "disconnect" capability is unique to the Z17 as compared to the Z16.

I too have been curious to find a "stopped" or otherwise in-between status for a virtual contact sensor that combines 2 physical sensors, but no joy yet - that would be cool!

I don't know much about your remaining questions... My GDO just has a single bulb, so I don't rely on it for any helpful light. Instead, I wired a few of my shop lights over the 2 bays to a dumb hard-wired ceiling-mounted motion sensor - that way I get good-enough light for quick comings-&-goings (via car or just me grabbing something out there). The rest of my interior garage lighting (work bench etc) is on a Caseta wall switch out there.

I know hammering the relay isn't great - my z-wave reaches out to my garage reliably, but it's not super robust. When I first set it all up and was cycling it a lot during testing, it would get "backed up" and confused. Not sure how to mitigate that very well though.

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One last thought here, though I may be risking misinterpretation... You can use the Basic Z-Wave Tool to edit one of the parameters not available in the HE default driver. It's the Auto-Off Setting parameter for the relay - I set mine to go auto-off in 1" so that pressing the relay button then mimics the momentary-switch behavior of the wall switch or dumb remote.

Here is what I did for Flashing lights.

I just tested my door. If I open it and stop it.
I get an error with MyQ app. Door has been stopped
If I hit the button again it closes.
If I don't let it close and hit the button again than it will only open to original starting point (stopped the first time). Get another error with MyQ app that the door has stopped.
I don't see what you are seeing or I'm not expecting what you are expecting.
To be honest other than beeping and flashing lights it works just as good or better than the MyQ integration.
I'm sorry I couldn't be much more help.

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The Garadget button has a side button that operates the light. I actually just got done soldering a second wire to that button so I can independently control the light. I plan to disable the motion and entry sensor toggle of the light and will use motion and Lux to control when the light comes on via relay “pressing” this side button. I am expect a 2 channel zigbee relay tomorrow, currently have a single, and plan to have one control the door and the other control the light.

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Did you subscribe to Rboy apps on ST? If yes he has a garage door app that has an acceleration sensor option and has closing and opening states. Might be worth to test it if you have access to it. It runs fine on HE.

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FWIW, I received my MHCOZY 1 channel relay today and got everything tested and installed.

Had the same trouble as @DarellCraighead with my ST multisensor and used the same method to correct it. I had just migrated my C5 to my C7 Sunday using Hub Protect and was sure I had reset it along with ~50 other zigbee devices, and checked it then but it was constantly reporting closed. I reset and repaired it again and it didn't change. Doing the configure on it fixed it. I changed it to defaults then back to GDO sensor but I'm not convinced that made a difference.

Anyway, using the Zooz GDO app and set to a Lock Device, I was able to get Alexa working as well after changing the device settings to allow app control and voice control for locks.

Since it's a MyQ setup, I do still have the app if I really want to be certain, but I also have it connected to Amazon Key and have a camera in there, so I'm confidently getting the status.

P.S. I mounted the MHCOZY in an old 8mm data tape cartridge case after clipping off the long leads and putting some Kapton tape on the exposed circuits. Had to cut a hole for the relay to stick out to get the cover closed. Velcro to the GDO braces and parallel wired into the GDO door control.

If anyone has a repo of this app, please post up a link.

Rboy is a SmartThings developer who charges a license fee to gain access to his “device handlers” (what we call drivers in HE) and apps. Unfortunately the license prevents sharing of his code. Here is a link to the details on this app if you want to learn more.

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Have a pic of where you soldered the other wires?

I don’t have the after but did take a before because as I get older I am having a hard time seeing up close LOL. With any button you solder on both sides of the button and here is where you solder the wires:

And to throw this out there for testing this process, while the button was connected to the GDO, I used a wire and touched these two spots with both ends of the wire and confirmed the light came on. Touched them again and the light turned off. So this validated I had the right points to solder the wires too as a dry contact relay basically connects the two.

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I know that feeling!

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I did not, but looking at it, it has open/opening/closed/closing/unknown - not sure if "stopped" would be unknown or if it would always show opening.

We really need a device driver that has a "stopped" state. Easy enough to determine if door was opening and never fully opened - it must be "stopped". With 2 contact sensors now I can certainly determine that.

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Even though I have a v1 SmartThings contact/acceleration sensor on my door, I had only set this app to use the contact sensor and didn't include the "movement" sensor capability of it. I just tested it and analyzed the code, what happens if movement is determined and the door is closed, the state of the virtual garage door gets set to "opening" and if the door is open it gets set to "closing". It will stay in the "*ing" state until the contact is updated to say it is open or closed - so just another state in between open/closed.

I haven't used the other solutions and "thinking" outloud here, you could implement something similar and add a new input for number of seconds it takes to open/close the door. Then have a scheduled job trigger when it is in this "*ing" state and if the door is still in that status longer than that input set the status to stopped.

I wish I had added wire(s) for the light before I mounted it on the GDO, but there still is the issue that the best you can do is "toggle" the light rather than explicit on/off.

By the way, I strongly suspect you don't really need to solder two wires to the light pushbutton - just one. One of the two is almost certainly common with one of the two wires for the garage door toggle button. You can look at the PCB routes to determine or ohm it out. This point might be useful if you intend to run wire to a relay not at the GDO itself.

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I subscribe to Rboy's apps and drivers. Are you using the Garage Door Manager Open/Close Automatically with Timers or the Virtual Garage Door Manager?

This one: Virtual Garage Door Manager and Controller

Very true but my plan is to disable all "automatic" light options such as motion and the safety sensor turning it on. I will then use a Hue motion for Lux and motion along with a Aeotec Motion Sensor 6 in the ceiling to turn it on. I could also put in a rule to check lux of the room at night to ensure its off. Definitely trickier than explicitly knowing its on but it is manageable with the equipment I have in the garage.

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