I left my house the other day and forgot to close the garage door. I would like to prevent this from happening again. I have geofence setup. Moved the point to my house on the map. I need help setting up a rule to close the garage door if it's not already closed when I leave the house.
There are probably a few things worth considering when setting up a rule like this. But to probably get over the hump your are likely facing....
You could setup a rule in Rule Machine where you have a Required Expression that the garage door is open, a trigger of your phone becoming absent / not present, then for the actions.... you could close the garage door.
One risk you run with closing the door automatically could be if you don't have any sensors to detect any obstacles in the way of the door while someone is not there to supervise.... Another being that the door is left open while you are not home (this may not be an issue in your personal circumstance, but I would not expect you to confirm this).
Personally for things like this I would like the rule to send me a notification so I could respond to this issue or choose to leave it alone, in case the situation is something I expect and want to remain as-is. The flipside to this approach could be if you have any issues with notifications, you would be unaware and the garage door remains open. That said, you are also leaving yourself open (pun intended...) to your GeoFence not working....
The best of each of these is likely to send yourself a notification if the garage door opens and remains that way for a period of time, say 10-15 mins. Or if you want to know for sure, a notification also when the door is closed.
Is that enough options.... ![]()
Thanks for the info. Is there a way to call my cell phone if the door is left open when I leave?
I don't believe "call" your phone, but you could send a notification using the Hubitat App or your choice of third-party notification options.
This is one of the few scenarios I use Pushover's emergency/critical notification option for... No matter what mode my phone is in, a Pushover emergency alert will get my attention.
It's the only option I've found that very effectively & consitently overrides iPhone's / Apple Watch's other settings to ensure the message is delivered in all its intended attention-getting glory.
Using the Hubitat app can I send a notification when the garage door sensor is open?
All I see are motion sensors
Are you referring to the mobile app on your phone? Earlier I was talking about configuring a rule on the HE hub in an App such as Rule Machine or something similar. Is that what you are also trying to do?
Yes, it would look something like this in Rule Machine. I actually use webcore for this because mine is a little more complicated. I have notifications sent to the person who left with the door open instead of everyone.
You also might want to add a delay in there to avoid getting a notification while it is still closing if your geofence has a really small radius.
It is one of those kind of rules, isn't it.... ![]()
Yep,
And my (now adult) kids, who don't even park IN the garage would use it as their back door and leave the house with it open.
I used to just get the notification myself, then wait just long enough for them to get an incovenient distance from the house and then text them that they needed to go home and close the garage. This situation was the actual start of my home automation journey. Since they have moved out, it is still convenient to get a notification.
Here's what I did. My only concern is does the garage door controller know open from closed?
I can't find if already closed don't run rule.
So if I'm leaving and do close the door, it doesn't open when out of the geofence.
That depends entirely on your GDO-related smart device(s) and how you've set them up to automate & monitor you door -- without those details, no one else can help answer that question.
Mine does.
And again, I hope you will pay attention to the serious caveats about automatically closing a garage door unattended and out of site.
There is a reason several of us have set up notifications only for this situation. The main one being that it can be dangerous to close the door without knowing if a car (or a person) is in the way. Many garage doors have sensors that can detect broken beams or are touch sensitive. However, even those can fail and either damage a vehicle or hurt a person.
I personally have a cam in my garage and will only close it after texting the rest of the house to make sure I am not locking them out or that there is not a reason why it was intentionally left open. I will close it after receiving responses and verifying that there are no obstacles using my camera.
Yep, all of this ^^^
I have sensors. The door will not close if the beam is obstructed
It's a yolink. Good point so I added the sensor.
Does this look workable with the "OR"?
Is there supposed to be a picture in that post?
I'm not comfortable ever opening or closing my door without eyes on it. So my rules simply alert me whenever the door stays open (or has been opened) when it's not supposed to be in that state.
If not home, I can then verify what's going on using the cams in my garage. As necessary, I could close it while watching on the cams -- fortunately, I've never had to do that.
So, just make sure they hit at a height that doesn't require a tire to break the beam. A car halfway in and out of the garage will likely not break the beam if it is set at a proper height for child/toddler detection.
Yes it will work with the car halfway in


