Like Lee Hutchinson, I have a garage. The door on that garage is opened and nearby a gadget made by a business that, similar to Lee’s, uses you a method to open and close it with a smart device app. That app does not work with my favored home automation system, Home Assistant, and likewise looks and works like an app made by a garage door business.

I had actually checked out the ratgdo Lee set up, and raved about, however hooking it approximately my specific Genie/Aladdin system would have needed setting up limitation switches. I rather set up an OpenGarage system ($50 plus shipping). My garage opener now deals with Home Assistant (and thus basically anything else), it’s exempt to the impulses of API gain access to, and I’ve got a couple of concepts how to make it even much better. Enable me to stroll you through what I did, why I did it, and what I may do next.

Thanks, I’ll take it from here, Genie

Genie, maker of my Wi-Fi-capable garage door opener (offered as an “Aladdin Connect” system), is not in the very same boat as the Chamberlain/myQ setup that influenced Lee’s job. There was a working Aladdin Connect combination in Home Assistant, up until the business altered its API in January 2024. Genie stated it would launch its own main Home Assistant combination in June, and it did, however then it was rapidly drawn back, relatively for licensing problems. Ever since, no updates on the matter. (I have actually emailed Genie for remark and will upgrade this post if I get reply.)

This is not outright habits, a minimum of on the scale of garage door opener companies. And Aladdin’s app deals with Google Home and Amazon Alexa, however not with Home Assistant or my secondary/lazy alternative, HomeKit/Apple Home. It likewise logs me out “for security” regularly than I ‘d like and informs me this just after an iPhone faster way declines to fire. It has some good functions, however without much deeper combinations, I can’t do things like have the brighter ceiling lights switch on when the door opens or flash indoor lights if the garage door remains open too long. A minimum of not without Google or Amazon.

I’ve seen OpenGarage circulated the Home Assistant online forums and subreddits throughout the years. It is, as the name suggests, totally open source: hardware style, firmware, and app code, API, whatever. It is a small ESP board that has an ultrasonic range sensing unit and circuit relay connected. You can manage and monitor it from a web internet browser, mobile or desktop, from IFTTT, MQTT, and with the current firmware, you can get email signals. I chose to take out the 6-foot ladder and try.

Setting up the little seeing owl

You usually install the OpenGarage system to the roofing of your garage, so the range sensing unit can spot if your garage door has actually rolled up in front of it. There are choices for installing with magnetic contact sensing units or a profile of a roll-up door, or you can find out some other method which 2 various sensing unit depth ranges would show an open or closed door. If you’ve got a Security+ 2.0 door (the kind with the yellow antenna, usually), you’ll require an adapter, too.

The hardest part of an overhead set up is discovering an area that offers the system a view of your garage door, not too near to rails or other blocking items, however then close adequate for the contact wires and USB micro cable television to reach. Preferably, too, it has a view of your cars and truck when the door is closed and the automobile is within, so it can report its existence. I’ve yet to discover the ideal thing to do with the “car is inside or not” information, however the seed is planted.

My garage setup, like the majority of them, is quite basic. There’s a huge red radiant button on the wall near the door, and there are 2 extremely thin wires ranging from it to the opener. On the opener, there are 4 ports that you can open with a screwdriver press. The majority of the wires are headed to the security sensing unit at the door bottom, while 2 been available in from the opener button. After removing a little bit of wire to expose more cable television, I pushed the contact wires from the OpenGarage into those very same opener ports.

After that, I linked the wires to the OpenGarage system’s screw terminals, then did some pencil deal with the garage ceiling to determine how far I might run the contact and micro-USB power cable television, getting the appropriate door view while preserving some right-angle sense of order up there. When I had actually reached a good compromise in between cable television stress and positioning, I screwed the sensing unit into an overhead stud and utilized a staple weapon to protect the wires. It does not appear like a professional installed it, however it’s not half bad.

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