I've just got the gate across my driveway opening on a Mimo Dry Contact Relay in addition to the garage door (on the same type of relay), I've got an Aeon Wallmote indoors that when I press it to leave, both the gate and the garage door trigger - Happy days!
Now, upon return, what can I put in the car to activate the same rule? Please don't say the original garage remotes, I need more things to happen than just open the gates (e.g disable garden security beam). If I put a Hue Smart Button (Zigbee) is it going to quickly connect so that I don't find myself waiting 30 seconds in the driveway?
I have a similar setup but approached it slightly differently.
I have a sensor in the garage that can tell if the vehicle is there or not ( and send it to the hub).
I have a tilt sensor on the garage door to tell the hub when the door opens.
My routine is:
If garage opens and No vehicle and "dark out" turn on light group.
If the garage opens and vehicle in the garage, do nothing.
As I have one foot in Hubitat and the other in Arduino I was able to make a distance sensor that measure the distance from the garage ceiling to the floor. If the vehicle is in the garage the distance is much shorter.
If this suits your needs you may be able to make one using @ogiewon Hubduino.
If you are willing to use Alexa, just use the app on your phone. There is no need to spend the money on Echo Auto. I had one for about a week and didn't find it could do anything that I couldn't do on my phone. It can't do anything unless you have your phone with you also so it seems redundant. Plus it's one more thing plugged into your car.
I saw you started another thread here about the Sonoff Bridge and then a similar thread to this one in Home Assistant community. Since you are using Home Assistant also, it's relatively easy to use Node Red to get from Sonoff Bridge into Hubitat using the Hubitat nodes. I have a bunch of RF water sensors and a couple of motion sensors that I link to virtual sensors in Hubitat using that method.
You can use your cell phone as a presence sensor. As soon as your phone comes within WiFI range, it can trigger actions. That can take care of opening the gate, opening the garage doors, turning on the lights and turning on the alarms. However, then you have to figure out what to do once you are safely home.
I would suggest that a WiFI remote button might be more suitable. Unlike a presence sensor, it only sends a signal when you push a button.
If you have a garage door opener that can open the garage door from beyond the gate, contact sensors on the garage door could then be use to trigger other actions such as opening the gate, turning on lights, disarming your security system, etc.
I know you said don't say use them, but why not. A button push is a button push. Once pushed you can then use other things to tell what else needs to be done.
Sensor on the garage door, time of day, mode, etc.
I use my garage remote or my phone. I have an IPhone and have Siri shortcuts setup which can open the garage door. With Siri I have to say Hey, Siri, she responds I then say the shortcut, she tells me I have to unlock my phone, I have a holder in my truck that points the phone at me, so as soon as she says that the face recognition will activate and unlock. Then it opens chrome runs the shortcut. I can open the door basically from anywhere, and I usually do it when I turn on my street.
If I don't remember until I pull up to the house I just push the remote button it's quicker.
All above are good suggestions. I loathe having to get out my phone, enter my passcode, load an app (Alexa), and then tap the talk button so I can give a command (all while driving ). With Echo Auto, I say "Alexa, open my garage door" and it works. I can be 10 feet from the door or 100 miles away. It still works. And I do not have to find my phone or unlock it. I have several routines and webcore Pistons that do all kinds of things from my car with just a voice command without touching a single button.
I have been playing with Geofency, the very nice integration by @brianwilson, and iBeacons. I have not quite got them 100% yet (mostly because the Geofency app itself is a little flaky) but it might be an option. I have an outdoor iBeacon on the front porch. The Geofency app detects the iBeacon and sends an alert to the hub (can be configured either as a cloud service or locally), which changes the condition of a presence device. I then combine this with motion sensing on my Arlos (via IFTTT) and presto - the front door unlocks and the alarm disarms.
Geofency runs in the background so it meets your "no interaction" requirement. The cool thing about iBeacons is you can set their range (more or less) by adjusting their power output. It is dependent upon your phone, rather than your car, so it will work regardless of what car you're driving as long as you have your phone with you. It can send data to HE either locally via wifi or via the cloud.
The Lutron Caseta devices have proven to be reliable. I have never tried to check the maximum range, but it is pretty good. Remember that Caseta can only use one repeater, the first Caseta dimmer plug that is added to the hub. Try to get that dimmer plug/repeater as close to your gate as possible so it can give you maximum range.
). With Echo Auto, I say "Alexa, open my garage door" and it works. I can be 10 feet from the door or 100 miles away. It still works. And I do not have to find my phone or unlock it. I have several routines and webcore Pistons that do all kinds of things from my car with just a voice command without touching a single button.
