Garage Door Automation

What I haven't seen mentioned is the capability to determine the open/close status of the door. If you are just issuing commands that simulate the button to open/close it, you might try to keep up with the status yourself but how will you know that it might have been manually opened/closed?
 
logbuilder said:
What I haven't seen mentioned is the capability to determine the open/close status of the door.
Click to expand...

As I mentioned it has a built in ultrasonic sensor , please see the below from rayshobby.net/introducing-opengarage/
The controller is typically mounted to the ceiling at the garage, with the distance sensor facing down. When the garage door is closed, it reads the distance to the ground, or the top of your car if you’ve parked in the garage. When the door opens and comes up, the sensor reads the distance to the door, which is a much smaller value. So by checking the distance value, it can tell if the door is open or closed. The distance value can also tell you if your car is parked in the garage or not, which is an additional benefit that can be useful at times.

For roll-up garage doors, the ceiling mount would not work. Instead, you can mount it to the side of the door, with the sensor facing the outside. This way the logic is reversed: if the distance reading is small, it means the door is closed, and vice versa.
Click to expand...

logbuilder said:
how will you know that it might have been manually opened/closed?
Click to expand...

The inbuilt ultrasonic sensors and also have a visual of the garage doors with one of my cameras.
 
Just read the link. Pretty clever implementation that looks as though it should work well. Realize that those ultrasonic sensors are reliable only at close ranges - usually 1m. That is only important in regards to where you place the unit. However, I'm sure the documentation would make that clear.

I'm adding sensors to the 2 manual garage doors, one man door, and one window in my detached shop. Just using the inexpensive wired magnetic switches to see if anything opens when it shouldn't. I don't really care which door opens since either would be a breach. Therefore, I have wired them in series and so that only 1 Arduino pin is used. There are additional sensors attached which use other pins.
 
logbuilder said:
Just read the link. Pretty clever implementation that looks as though it should work well.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought, don't see the point in reinventing the wheel.

logbuilder said:
Realize that those ultrasonic sensors are reliable only at close ranges - usually 1m. That is only important in regards to where you place the unit. However, I'm sure the documentation would make that clear.
Click to expand...

Sure, thanks for the heads up. I believe they are only intended to be mounted in very close proximity anyway. As I have a roller door I plan on mounting it so the thickness of the roll blocks reduces the distance indicating it's open and when it's thinner it'll be closed.

logbuilder said:
I'm adding sensors to the 2 manual garage doors, one man door, and one window in my detached shop. Just using the inexpensive wired magnetic switches to see if anything opens when it shouldn't. I don't really care which door opens since either would be a breach. Therefore, I have wired them in series and so that only 1 Arduino pin is used. There are additional sensors attached which use other pins.
Click to expand...

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). Sounds like you have a clear plan of attack in mind, good luck with it :).
 
logbuilder said:
What I haven't seen mentioned is the capability to determine the open/close status of the door. If you are just issuing commands that simulate the button to open/close it, you might try to keep up with the status yourself but how will you know that it might have been manually opened/closed?
Click to expand...
I use a Raspberry Pi and magnetic sensors:

 
brad2388 said:
What program on the pi?


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Click to expand...

Just a custom bash script.

Code: 
#!/bin/bash
while :
do
        result1=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio2/value`
        result2=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio3/value`
        result3=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio23/value`
        result4=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value`
        result5=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio22/value`
        if [ $result1 -eq 1 -a $result2 -eq 1 ]; then
                if [ $result4 -eq 1 ]; then
                        echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value
                fi
                if [ $result5 -eq 1 ]; then
                        echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio22/value
                fi
                if [ $result3 -eq 0 ]; then
                        echo "1" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio23/value
                fi
        fi
        if [ $result1 -eq 1 -a $result2 -eq 0 ]; then
                if [ $result4 -eq 1 ]; then
                        echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value
                fi
                if [ $result5 -eq 0 ]; then
                        echo "1" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio22/value
                fi
                if [ $result3 -eq 1 ]; then
                        echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio23/value
                fi
        fi
        if [ $result1 -eq 0 -a $result2 -eq 1 ]; then
                if [ $result4 -eq 0 ]; then
                        echo "1" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value
                fi
                if [ $result5 -eq 1 ]; then
                        echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio22/value
                fi
                if [ $result3 -eq 1 ]; then
                        echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio23/value
                fi
        fi
        sleep 0.1
done

The code detects if the door is open, closed, or in transit. The code also lights a certain LED if open, closed or in transit.

Here's another video of it:

 
Go3Team said:
Just a custom bash script.

Code: 
#!/bin/bash
while :
do
        result1=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio2/value`
        result2=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio3/value`
        result3=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio23/value`
        result4=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value`
        result5=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio22/value`
        if [ $result1 -eq 1 -a $result2 -eq 1 ]; then
                if [ $result4 -eq 1 ]; then
                        echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value
                fi
                if [ $result5 -eq 1 ]; then
                        echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio22/value
                fi
                if [ $result3 -eq 0 ]; then
                        echo "1" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio23/value
                fi
        fi
        if [ $result1 -eq 1 -a $result2 -eq 0 ]; then
                if [ $result4 -eq 1 ]; then
                        echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value
                fi
                if [ $result5 -eq 0 ]; then
                        echo "1" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio22/value
                fi
                if [ $result3 -eq 1 ]; then
                        echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio23/value
                fi
        fi
        if [ $result1 -eq 0 -a $result2 -eq 1 ]; then
                if [ $result4 -eq 0 ]; then
                        echo "1" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value
                fi
                if [ $result5 -eq 1 ]; then
                        echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio22/value
                fi
                if [ $result3 -eq 1 ]; then
                        echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio23/value
                fi
        fi
        sleep 0.1
done

The code detects if the door is open, closed, or in transit. The code also lights a certain LED if open, closed or in transit.

Here's another video of it:

Click to expand...


wish I had the programming/scripting skills to do that, the phone thing is cool but seems kinda pointless, lots of steps and waiting when you could quickly just do it with the phone app.
 
hmjgriffon said:
wish I had the programming/scripting skills to do that, the phone thing is cool but seems kinda pointless, lots of steps and waiting when you could quickly just do it with the phone app.
Click to expand...

How do you see when its open and closed? Alerts?


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brad2388 said:
So how would one control the garage with the phone?


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I don't have the phone set up anymore. When I did, and the right password was entered you could press "1" to open or shut the door. I had set it up that way in case we were away and for whatever reason, someone needed in.
 

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Go3Team said:
I don't have the phone set up anymore. When I did, and the right password was entered you could press "1" to open or shut the door. I had set it up that way in case we were away and for whatever reason, someone needed in.
Click to expand...

How do u have it now? Id like to be able to control our two doors as well.


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brad2388 said:
How do u have it now? Id like to be able to control our two doors as well.


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Click to expand...

We had to replace the opener, and the old way to open the door didn't work any more as the new opener uses some kind of serial connection at the switch. I bought this:

Chamberlain / LiftMaster CIGBU Internet Gateway for MyQ Technology Enabled Garage Door Openers - Garage Door Hardware - Amazon.com

It interfaces great with Openhab which is what I use for home automation.
 
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Go3Team said:
We had to replace the opener, and the old way to open the door didn't work any more as the new opener uses some kind of serial connection at the switch. I bought this:

Chamberlain / LiftMaster CIGBU Internet Gateway for MyQ Technology Enabled Garage Door Openers - Garage Door Hardware - Amazon.com

It interfaces great with Openhab which is what I use for home automation.
Click to expand...

I was looking at OpenHAB, did you compare it with domoticz and others? what did you think? what kind of scripting does it use, can I use similar lua scripts?
 
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hmjgriffon said:
I was looking at OpenHAB, did you compare it with domoticz and others? what did you think? what kind of scripting does it use, can I use similar lua scripts?
Click to expand...
The only other one I've used is Home Assistant. I use both Openhab and HA at the same time. I only use HA for the integrated Google TTS which can be used to announce things on my Google Home / Chromecast.
 
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I went with Open Garage, but haven't fully implemented remote monitoring/alerting yet. I plan on going with a VPN or IFTTT setup. I liked that it's essentially a remote relay switch and can be used on any opener going forward. You can even wire it to a remote so you don't have to have it mounted right next to the opener on the ceiling.
Installation was easy. The niftiest thing was the auto close or alert after X minutes Open option. I can roll my own cloud and not have something go belly up/breached down the road.

20170314_202827.jpg
 
Dingus said:
I went with Open Garage, but haven't fully implemented remote monitoring/alerting yet. I plan on going with a VPN or IFTTT setup. I liked that it's essentially a remote relay switch and can be used on any opener going forward. You can even wire it to a remote so you don't have to have it mounted right next to the opener on the ceiling.
Click to expand...

Nice! Its straight forward nature is what attracted me to it. I plan on doing a write up of my installation but I opted to not use any cloud integration control it all over my VPN using Tasker on my mobile.

Dingus said:
Installation was easy. The niftiest thing was the auto close or alert after X minutes Open option.
Click to expand...

While I would like to take advantage of that feature, without some type of check to ensure nothing was underneath the door before closing I wouldn't feel comfortable using it. However your situation my be different and it is nifty!
 
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