Looking for GDO app to bring together Relay & Sensor

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1

I think what I am looking for is an GDO App but I'm failing at finding something that works. I need to combine a momentary switch and a sensor input into a single something I can put on a dashboard.

I have successfully wired in a Zooz Zen17 800LR Universal Relay as a control for two MyQ GDOs. (A big "thank you" goes out to those who helped me work through thinking there. I successfully soldered a couple of wires on the backside of each wall button. That got me to first base; the Zen17 is now an included device on Hubitat showing two sensors and two relays.)

My challenge now is how to get two different "openers", one for each door. One opener uses R1 & S1, and the other, R2 & S2.

Early in my efforts, I came across a Zooz page that took me to instructions that loaded a driver (circa 2020), a "Zooz Garage Door Opener" and a "Zooz Garage Opener Opener App". That's one distinct "Drivers Code" entry and two "Apps Code" entries. I could create two distinct GDO entries that showed up in Devices. They were in addition to the Zen17 which had four entries indented under it (R1, R2, S1 and S2). The two DGO app entries I created each had a Relay and a Sensor; they were combined. That's what I am looking for. I have magnetic reed sensors, NC, as inputs. They did not show a state change, which is important. I fiddled with this for a while, rebooted the Zen17 several times. No success, so I backed everything out and started over.

I eventually found a different set of Zooz instructions recommending the use of the "Zooz ZEN17 Universal Relay Advanced" driver by jtp10181. That has a 2025-02-14 change date on it, so I know it is active. However, those instructions did not provide next steps to get a GDO App setup (or, I missed it ... operator error).

I tried re-adding the older GDO and GDO App pair from my first round of work. I didn't have high hopes it would work, but I was grasping and learning as I went. I created the two user apps, but they didn't show up in the Devices page (they did for the older code). The titles I gave each app were combined as a small font entry in parens device title, but I don't get two distinct GDOs separate from that original Zen17 device. I've tried adding items to a dashboard thinking I might get an option there for an app that didn't show up on the Devices page. No luck there.

So, I have the basic Zen17 Device entry with four children, R1, R2, S1 and S2 and nothing else.

What is the mechanism to combine a relay and sensor into a single thing to put on a dashboard? Eventually, I'd like several sensors on the door so I can distinguish between a partially and fully open door; think open 6 inches for a cat to go in/out vs open enough for a person to enter.

What am I missing? Am I thinking about this the right way?

(BTW, the searching I have done seems to show entries that are circa 2020-2022 and then only a few of late. Might there be a search term I've not stumbled upon that brings up more recent entries?)

Thanks.

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Jeff's "Zooz ZENxx Universal Relay Advanced" driver is just the driver for the relay device itself -- it doesn't (directly) have anything to do with any GDO app.

A GDO app is simply a nice way to tie together the relay and door sensor into a single entity that's then convenient to use on a dashboard or as a car remote (i.e. CarPlay). A GDO app should be able to leverage pretty much any relay and sensor.

I use the Zooz GDO app myself -- it's been around a long time, and is tried-&-true -- it checks all the boxes I need.

There are other GDO apps to consider if you search the community here, but they all work pretty similarly overall.

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Ok, thank you. Useful commentary. I thought what you described was probably the case. If you are using that GDO app that's been around for a while and is "tried-&-true", then I must have done something different in my second round of work as compared to my first foray. You simply saying it works and essentially confirming my thinking paradigm motivates me to go back and keep working at it.

Thank you.

EDIT: I saw those other apps you mention, but their descriptions seemed to tie them to specific devices, so I was hesitant to explore them.

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I most definitely recommend Jeff's drivers for Zooz stuff; his relay driver will expose all the Z17 device parameters and that makes it very easy to manage.

I'd start by making sure the relay and sensor work as desired -- does turning on the relay operate the GDO reliably, and then does the sensor relect the correct position in a timely manner.

Once you know the relay and sensor are working right, then move on to setting up a GDO app to tie it all together.

The relay action just needs to be a momentary-ish switch (like the wall button). I didn't set my relay up literally as a momentary switch; instead, I set my Z17's R1 to auto-off after 2". However, the Zooz GDO app also offers an auto-off option for the relay, so you could set it there instead. Just 2 different ways to skin that cat.

Edit - added "app" in last sentence, since it gets confusing having "Zooz" tied to both the GDO app and the relay (Z17) in question

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Understood. The basic device and its integration as a device is working reliably. Now it's to get the app in place. I'm struggling to determine what I've done differently. I've deleted the user added apps, rebooted the Hubitat, and then created two GDO apps, one for the Main door and other for the side door (it's a three car garage). I've done this twice now using the Jeff's driver. Neither time did I get a GDO app listed in the Devices page. I see them in Apps, but not in Devices. They are not actionable as controls via the Apps page (unless I'm, missing something).

Any ideas?

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To be clear, the GDO app is not part of Jeff's Z17 driver (or vice-versa) -- Jeff's driver and the Zooz GDO app are 2 completely separate things.

Jeff's relay driver is available from Hubitat Package Manager (HPM), but the Zooz GDO app isn't in HPM as far as I know. But its installation instructions are detailed in step 3 of this Zooz support page.

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Right. I've understood that. And that support page is what I am looking at right now. I have both the parent App and the ChildApp installed; I see them on the Apps page. I just double checked that the code copies were complete. All lines are there in the Hubitat code for each of the two apps I have to add. Version IDs match what I see online.

The mechanism to add the user app seems to mostly work. It creates the openers in the Apps page, but it stops short of adding something to the Devices. To my knowledge, I think this is the same app code as I originally installed using the other older drive. The initial run at creating GDOs using the older stuff (Driver code and App code) did give me individual GDOs as devices.

The nature of my issue now seems to be something other than GDO specific in its focus. I'll hunt around for things like "missing devices after adding user app" and variations of that.

Thank you for the help.

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I've "fixed" that.

I created a Zooz repo for them and bundled the 3 bits of code into one Package.

Screenshot 2025-05-06 at 7.27.15 AM

One is actually a Bundle, the other is the 2 Apps (parent and child) plus the Driver. Installing either is all that's needed. The result is identical in each case: the code is correctly added to the Hub.

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9

Ha, speak of the devil -- I stumbled upon that yesterday as I was monkeying around with something else in HPM :sweat_smile:

I wondered if that was some kind of recent addition -- thank you for confirming! That's a really nice add to have in HPM :+1:

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Yes, I created it and then asked Zooz (@agnes.zooz) if it was OK. I can "announce it" now -- and have :smiley: I hope they release other packages via HPM in the future.

As we all know, the install instructions reduce from an A4 page of words to a single line: "can be found in HPM" :smiley:

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Right on! I'll do the Match-Up when I get home - heck, might as well... I was skittish to do it yesterday since I was doubting my sanity when I noticed it there.

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Realize that the Package or Bundle includes the Zooz virtual driver. If you wish to use Jeff's Z17physical driver, you'll have to install that too. :smiley:

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Look at the LGK Garage Door Opener app. [Release] Garage Door Opener App - LGK Virtual Garage Door
I use it on the dashboard to open and close garage doors that are controlled with a Zen 16 with relays connected/soldered to the button contacts of a generic compatible garage remote control. Also a couple of pricey absolutely reliable Ecolink solid state tilt sensors. ( Ecolink Garage Door Tilt Sensor Plus, White, Z-Wave Plus, Solid State Accelerometer (TILTZWAVE5.0))
The dashboard tile is "garage (control)."

image
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What Zooz driver? If its the Virtual Garage door driver that is part of the Garage Door app you still need that. You need both apps and the driver for it to work. My ZEN17 driver just allows you to fully configure the ZEN17.

Also BTW, I had asked Kevin about doing this years ago and he told me no because he didn't want me to add it to my HPM repo and have people get confused and send me donations for it. The way you did it looks like a good solution.

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Of course, you are right... again.... :slight_smile: and I corrected my message above.

Kevin hasn't been around here in a couple years. I don't know why and am bothered by that.

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Yeah not sure, he seems to have ducked out of SmartThings also. Zooz had me take over for updates on the ST Edge drivers channel about 3 months ago now. All my original drivers started from his great code base, so his code will live on! I just assume he moved on to other platforms, or maybe retired and is enjoying life.

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That's what I'm Hoping :slight_smile:

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I went this route with the ZEN16 and two Zooz tilt sensors:
https://www.support.getzooz.com/kb/article/774-how-to-use-the-zen16-multirelay-as-a-garage-door-opener/
I have two tiles on my dashboard, one for each door.

Screenshot 2025-05-08 at 11.22.52 AM
Screenshot 2025-05-08 at 11.22.52 AM796×500 45.4 KB

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More info on the Hubitat programming here: How to Use the ZEN16 MultiRelay as a Garage Door Opener on Hubitat - Zooz Support Center

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I use a pair of Linear / GoControl Garage Door Opener, which has an integrated tilt sensor BUT I have found them to fling quite a few false Open's -- often at 2am. Therefore, I added a Zwave Tilt sensor to both doors and ONLY use those in my automations.

The result is quite similar to the DIY solutions discussed here. :smiley: My participation in this discussion is strictly HPM related since I don't use the Zooz solution.

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