Wayne Dalton WDHA-12R compatibility/alternative?

Other Devices & Integrations General Device Discussions
1

I asked this a while ago, and there have been multiple threads on the subject, but nothing in the last couple of years I can find, so I thought I’d ask again to see if there has been any movement: is there any way to get the Wayne Dalton WDHA-12R working, perhaps with one of the “new” firmwares? Or, barring that, any alternative device to bridge my HomeLink buttons in my car to my home automation system?

At the moment I’m having to run a very kludgy setup whereby I keep my old Vera Lite on UI5 running just to interface with that device, then have it call a URL to trigger scenes/etc on my current Vera Plus running UI7. It seems like there should be a better way, especially given that this device did (and does!) work perfectly fine on UI5. I live in fear that my Vera Lite will bite the dust one of these days, and I’ll have to go back to the Stone Age of opening my garage door with the remote and not having any home automation kick in shudder. :smiley: Thanks.

2

So I take it from the resounding silence that this device should be considered dead, and there is no alternative. Oh well, such is life I guess.

3

Unfortunately, I can’t provide any help, but just wanted to chime in as another user who would like to see this device working again.
My Vera3 was dying (losing several devices at a time) so I replaced it with a VeraPlus. Building the network from scratch and so far, this is the only device that will not pair. It starts the paring process, adds the device and then gives “Waiting for wakeup to configure device…”
Considering the same plan of keeping my Vera3 alive just for this device - probably more trouble than its worth.

4

It doesn’t have a wake up function on the device at all? Probably not helpful but…

C

5

Yeah, it’s not a battery-powered device, so shouldn’t need to “wake up”. The buttons on it just activate the different “scenes”. The annoying thing is it worked fine in UI5, but UI7 broke it, so it’s something broken about the way UI7 adds devices that they never bothered to fix.

I want to say in UI5 you got the same message about “waiting for wakeup…” but it worked anyway. Could be wrong about that though, it’s been ages since I added it.

6

The device operates via wall plug or can use batteries but I don’t think it pairs as a battery device. On UI5 there is no battery indicator. I’ve only used battery operation to take it out to my vehicle and program the Homelink buttons.
My recollection is that it paired effortless with the Vera3/UI5 with no errors.
I think the “Waiting for wakeup” is a non-informative error. I get the same error when trying to pair a newer Aeotec Nano-mote. It’s listed in the notes of 7.30 beta as a configuration error which has been fixed. (I’m not running the beta) It just seems to throw the “waiting for wakeup” because it can’t configure the device.
As you say, quite annoying.

7

Sounds like it’s a false error then, indeed :frowning: . Just a thought

C

8

False error indeed, but doesn’t change the fact that this device doesn’t work on UI7, while it works fine on UI5.

In the end, I have decided to simply short-circuit the whole mess and build my own device. By combining a RF Remote receiver with a raspberrypi (about $20+ assorted supporting hardware), I can have the car’s buttons call URL’s on my vera to run scenes. Not as direct/nice an integration as I would like (maybe I can eventually integrate more closely by writing a plugin or implementing UPnP or something, I dunno), but at least it cuts out the middle man/unsupported UI5 device. Oh well. Better than nothing should my VeraLite ever die, and actually a simpler system than the current car->bridge->VeraLite with UI5->main vera with UI7 lashup.

1 Like
9

I don’t think z-wave is activated at all while on battery - I’m pretty sure that just activates the RF transmitter so you can program the car buttons.

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Created an account just to reply.

You absolutely need to be unplugged and have a fresh 9v battery installed in order to pair. It seems it is designed specifically not to pair with a ZWave hub while plugged in.

All that said, what an absolute piece of garbage this device is. Great concept, acting as a bridge, but lousy practical application.

11

I must respectfully disagree with that assessment - it’s a great practical application. I’ve been using it quite happily for the past eight years to control my garage door/lights/security system/etc. And I’m fairly certain I was able to pair it while plugged in, although admittedly it has been a while so I could be mistaken. The only problem I have with it is it not working with UI 7, thus requiring me to keep my old Vera Light running on UI 5 to be able to communicate with it. In fact, it’s been so useful that I went ahead and built a replacement out of a RaspberryPi so I could keep the system working under UI 7. Not quite the same, of course, but same concept and similar functionality.