RATGDO and HE functionality

Cool man, I might need a little hand holding setting it up :rofl:
Any idea of the delivery time for most folks? I ordered it 12/12/23 and it just said back ordered. I heard some people were getting it in 3 weeks.

@everyone
I’m wondering if I need any kind of bridge or hub to use with the RATGDO. I only have the HE hub running everything in my house. If I’m going to need something. What do you guys suggest? Maybe something that is versatile for other things like motion sensors that I might add. I may add some Kasa light switches too.
Thank you :blush:

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ratgdo offers 2 ways to connect to control systems out of the box - MQTT or ESPHome. You flash either firmware to the device following the manufacturer's instructions.

MQTT requires an always running 'broker'. It's a relatively small piece of software, but you do have to have some place to run it. You can run it on a Raspberry pi, NAS, etc. You can use Mr. @825d60685b34c4f304ab's driver that brings all the useful capability and monitoring to Hubitat.

ESPHome does not require another piece of software to run. The issue on Hubitat is that ESPHome support is fairly minimal. A dev built the framework, but he doesn't seem to be active much these days. Hubitat has some limitations that require modification to the ESPHome firmware. It looks like there are some pre-built drivers that might work.

Another option is to use Home Assistant as a bridge. Home Assistant can use either MQTT (broker still required, can be part of HA hub) or ESPHome firmware versions. HA can be run on a Raspberry pi or NAS as well. There is a Hubitat driver called HADB that gives access to Home Assistant deices. This is how I'm doing it as I use HA for some other devices that don't have Hubitat integrations. It was the most expedient method for me. Otherwise I'd use the native Hubitat MQTT method.

You don't need another bridge or hub for Kasa devices or the vast majority of motion sensors.

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Ordered mine on November 20, 2023, backordered, have yet to receive anything except the charge to my credit card on November 20.

@672southmain mine took about a month to get here

@bill.d That's good information, A few thoughts.

There are three ratgdo firmwares at the moment. You mentioned MQTT & ESPHome but there is also a Homekit firmware. That might be a good alternative for HE users who rely on Homekit for dashboarding and have little automation.

ESPHome support in HE is at a dead end, as you've mentioned, it's complex and is best used via a HA integration. While I play with Home Assistant, I don't have the integration with HE going as I found it resource-intensive and chatty on the HE side.

As far as MQTT goes, as you indicated, the best approach requires a local MQTT broker running on something like a raspberry pie or bigger. Note that most people running HA will be running MQTT so it might be easier to run the MQTT firmware with my driver, rather than relying on the HE/HA bridge.

I'd like to suggest an alternative that might work for some people and that's one of a cloud-based MQTT broker, of which there are many. The downside is that you rely on a cloud appliance for local garage control, of course. The upside is that it's easy to get going, free and you can always upgrade to a local broker, in time.

Interesting. I have all of my community-contributed HE cloud integrations for which the developer/porter has left HE, or for which there is no HE support, running on HA and brought to HE through HADB. Works fine, minimal load on HE. And, one of those integrations (SureFlap) would continually bring down HE when the SureFlap server had issues. Now everything works perfectly, and the integrations are supported and developed on HA.

I guess if I have to store MQTT somewhere I’ll use the cloud or buy what is necessary. Can it go on a computer or (not sure if it would work) is there a spot for a thumb drive in the router? I’m guessing neither of those will work :rofl:

@Darby you can host MQTT on a computer as long as it's always on. A raspberry pi is a cheaper alternative if you're starting from scratch but requires some linux knowledge. Most routers wouldn't be able to run MQTT though Firewallas or OpenWRT would. A NAS like a Synology or a QNAS could as well.

i haven't gotten mine yet, but would like to avoid MQTT server, it just doesn't make sense
to use another box... or computer on all the time... and have a Hubitat... does the ESPHome firmware give us anyway to do it without external server?
course the firmware for the Ratgdo is opensource... so at some point could maybe add what would be needed for direct control.

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If you're averse to setting up MQTT or wading into ESPHome, why are you interested in ratgdo versus something like a basic tried-&-true relay/sensor solution instead?

Sincere question - not trying to be snarky or instigate anything.

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Besides the door operation ratgdo gives access to the light, motion sensor, obstruction sensor and can lock out remotes. It's easy to physically install and potentially a few $ cheaper than relay/sensor method. But there's a squeeze to get the juice.

You'll have to modify the build files for Hubitat limitations. And then figure out drivers.

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Right on, I know that ratgdo can give access to add'l bells-&-whistles if your opener has said goodies, and that's pretty darn cool.

Just seems like there've been a couple folks here so far that don't seem much interested in jumping thru the MQTT/ESP hoops necessary, so I'm simply curious if those additional capabilities are worth that much to them?

Again, I'm genuinely not trying to stir any pot here (I got no dog in this hunt!), I'm just curious.

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I love this. I'm able to lock out the remotes when we're sleeping now for a little more peace of mind.

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Yeah, that's a nice one, no doubt!

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I'm currently having analysis paralysis when it comes to my garage door opener. I had an old one with a go-control that died from a lightning strike and I've been without a GDO for a couple months. I've looked and I can't seem to find anything I can confirm doesn't have security 2.0. I already have hubitat, a lutron hub, and broadcom hub, an old macbook running homebridge, and a ring lighting hub. I really don't want to add another hub or something like a raspberry pi just to get my GDO connected...
Like others here, the idea of the ratgdo sounds appealing (I've always wished I could control the light on the GDO) but don't want another bridge type piece of software to have to think about.
I'm hoping at some point some firmware or other solution for the ratgdo is developed that direct allows local control via HE.
At this point I'm thinking about just doing something like the garadget dry contact adapter, or going with a genie GDO with their OEM dry contact adapter.

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Konnected just announced a new product that is based on ratgo and can control the light and knows status of the beam sensors. A bit pricey and estimated ship date in March:

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Curious how you have the door open/close button setup in HE? I have the ratgdo setup in HA and added to HE with the home assistant bridge. All the HE entities/buttons work except for the open close. HE sees it as an unknown binary sensor. I tried a few options, but none seemed to work.

Part of the setup in Hubitat Package Manager when installing the HA Bridge is choosing the generic drivers that will be available. You want to make sure that you selected the Generic Garage Door driver. It should look like this when it's working correctly...

Go into HPM and View your existing Apps and Drivers. It SHOULD list a bunch and include one for the garage door..
image
If you don't see that, you may have to re-install or update the app to make sure those drivers are available for you.

Do an HPM Repair. Changes were made to HADB that need a Repair.