Zwave garage door *closer*

Community Playground General Discussions
#1

So I finally got my ZRF113 relays, and am psyching myself up for wiring them up and jumping off that cliff. Given the number of posts (and I realized it may be that all I am hearing are the squeaky wheels in search of grease) from folks having their Vera setups start having Brownian behavior (lights going on middle of the night for no reason, frequent Vera self-reboots, etc), I am thinking hard about achieving only the function we really care about–being able to remotely close the garage doors. We don’t care about opening them remotely.

I could try to do this a bazillion ways where I have some sort of sensor that Vera can check against for door status, and only briefly close the ZRF113 and toggle the door state when Vera thinks it’s open. But none of the Zwave sensors reliably do this. I’ve considered RFID, pseudo-devices, and can see where they all can fail, especially if Vera starts rebooting randomly.

Our doors are Liftmasters. There’s a solenoid that pops a rod into the door track when the door is completely closed, and this has an external knob on it so the blocking rod can be pulled back to allow the door to be released and opened in an emergency.

Here’s what I’m thinking, and I know it’s pretty low-tech: place a limit switch in series with the load contacts of the ZRF113, having that switch go “open” any time the solenoid goes into its locked position. If the door is already closed, actuating the ZRF113 does nothing, since the limit switch will have broken the circuit. If the door is in any position but closed, actuating the ZRF113 will close it.

Thoughts? The travel on this “knob” on the solenoid is well over an inch, so I should have a pretty easy time afixing a magnet to it and mounting a magnetic contact switch nearby, or even using a mechanical limit switch. This keeps all of my bits clear of the door track. If the bits fail, say the magnet falls off, I’m planning on setting this up so the switch is normally open and only gets closed when the solenoid rod is retracted, so the failure mode will be to do nothing.

I’m probably being too paranoid, but would really hate to come back from a long weekend away and find that my home automation bits chose to open the garage doors and leave them that way.

–Richard

PS: In conjunction with the above, I’ll be putting a WiFi PTZ in the garage facing the doors, so we can visually verify status and absence of neighbor children (well, except a couple) before we initiate closure.

#2

Why go through all that trouble just to close and still have the possibility of it failing?

Just get good floor contact sensors… set up some SMS alerts to your phone if that sensor ever opens. And put the camera on the doors for verification if ever needed.

That has been plenty for me… I haven’t had any mishaps yet in about a year of having it hooked up.

Being able to open the door remotely from SQRemote has been helpful. (for example if I go out with friends in their car and want to open the garage door from down the street right before I get back).

Ive had some serious issues with vera… and I am always testing new releases before they hit production… BUT I still havent ever had a close call with my garage door or locks causing any kind of a security breach. Honestly, going through all of that work to enable just the close function would be a bit unnecessary as long as you take the correct precautions for backup (sensors/alerts/camera).

#3

My door has been set up for about 6 months without issue either.

If you have a Zwave door lock (like a deadbolt or lever lock) also, you can do some cool stuff like set up a PIN that also opens the garage door for those times when you don’t even have a phone on you!

#4

[quote=“B0SST0N, post:2, topic:167051”]Why go through all that trouble just to close and still have the possibility of it failing?

Just get good floor contact sensors… set up some SMS alerts to your phone if that sensor ever opens. And put the camera on the doors for verification if ever needed.

That has been plenty for me… I haven’t had any mishaps yet in about a year of having it hooked up.

Being able to open the door remotely from SQRemote has been helpful. (for example if I go out with friends in their car and want to open the garage door from down the street right before I get back).

Ive had some serious issues with vera… and I am always testing new releases before they hit production… BUT I still havent ever had a close call with my garage door or locks causing any kind of a security breach. Honestly, going through all of that work to enable just the close function would be a bit unnecessary as long as you take the correct precautions for backup (sensors/alerts/camera).[/quote]

“floor contact sensors”? Pointer to where you got them and how you’ve interfaced them to Vera?

–Richard

#5

One of these:
http://www.asihome.com/ASIshop/product_info.php?products_id=53

Plugged into one of these:
http://www.asihome.com/ASIshop/product_info.php?cPath=564_572&products_id=4057

#6

I used this

http://www.smarthome.com/7455/Garage-Door-Contacts-for-Closed-Circuits-SM-226L/p.aspx

and this

http://smarthome-products.com/p-951-hrds1-wireless-doorwindow-sensor.aspx

but yes, same deal, just different brand names.

Works well and you can set up vera to alert you (by email or sms) if the sensor ever goes open.

You can also monitor the status of the sensor from SQRemote (if you use that controller)

#7

Here is a thread where I posted my setup (and some pics)

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=3371.msg15960#msg15960

#8

[quote=“B0SST0N, post:7, topic:167051”]Here is a thread where I posted my setup (and some pics)

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=3371.msg15960#msg15960[/quote]

So for clarity, the HRSD1 install PDF never mentions connecting external contacts, but so many folks here have discussed it, it obviously supports them. Using external contacts, it shows “tripped” when those contacts are which, open or closed?

–Richard

#9

tripped = open

#10

From experience I can tell you the HRDS1 batteries die every 4-6 months on my setup.

#11

Where can I find instructions on how to convert an appliance module like the ge/act to open and close the garage door? I thought I saw a thread that had pictures of what to cut and attach the wires to.

  • Garrett
#12

I can send you pictures for an intermattic one if you have one of those spare to convert!?

#13

garrettwp / scotthay,

I’ve attached the pics here as the PM system doesn’t allow attachments.

#14

Of note in the first picture, there seem to be three board traces under where the solder was scraped away from the hot side, not sure what they are for but it still seems to work anyway! : )

The second picture shows where you need to solder a wire so that you get continuity with the hot and neutral when the switch is now energized.

After re-assembling, you then just re-use and old 120V electrical cord to plug and wire in parallel with the opener terminals.

There may well be a better way of doing this, but this is what worked on mine…however, the usual disclaimers apply!

If used in conjunction with @Woodsby new plugin, its pretty slick:

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=5106.0