Smart Garage Door
Unleash the potential of your old garage door opener with our concise guide. Discover seamless integration with Home Assistant, bidding farewell to limitations and welcoming smart functionality. Revolutionize your home automation setup today!
| Skill | Cost | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 / 5 | ~25 Euro | ~60min |
Challenge / Annoyance
My house came with a garage equipped with a simple Chamberlain motorized garage door opener. However, frequent use often leaves it unintentionally open, leading to heat loss during winter and requiring me to check it before bed. The garage door can be manually controlled either through a wireless button mounted on the inside wall of the garage or remote keychains. Regrettably, I often waste valuable time searching for the remote whenever I arrive by car or bicycle.
Solution - Hardware
Many garage door openers come with a connector that enables you to connect a wired switch for controlling the door. Adding a Shelly 1 allows us to use the dry contacts to simulate pressing the button. Furthermore, by attaching a wired reed switch to the SW port of the Shelly, we can detect when the garage door is fully closed. Although we can use the RX/TX connectors on the Shelly to incorporate more reed switch sensors, the only relevant state is whether the door is closed.
The reed switch is attached to the garage door T-rail, and the magnet to the traveler using double-sided tape. When the garage door is closed, the magnet is positioned to align with the reed sensor.
Solution - Software
Our custom Arduino firmware incorporates an auto-discovery feature that seamlessly integrates the Smart Garage Door with Home Assistant via MQTT. Through this integration, the Shelly device now provides real-time updates on the current status of the garage door (open, closed, opening, or closing) to Home Assistant. By adjusting the timing parameters for the garage door's opening and closing actions, we can accurately determine its open state when the reed sensor detects a transition from the closed state.
Bill of materials
- Shelly 1
- Reed sensor (magnetic switch)
Off-the-shelf alternatives
Numerous modern garage door openers can likely be integrated with Home Assistant through various means. However, for approximately 25 euros, this is perhaps the most affordable alternative and can be easily accomplished.
Conclusion
By integrating a Shelly 1 into the dumb garage door opener, we have successfully automated the garage door and added it to Home Assistant. This enhancement enables several scenarios to be automated:
- Adding a motion sensor in the garage allows the garage door to automatically close if no motion is detected for a set period. This prevents me from manually closing the garage door when I leave on my bicycle.
- The Home Assistant's nighttime scene now includes closing the garage door.
- The garage door can be remotely opened for package deliveries when nobody is at home, allowing the delivery person to safely place the package inside, protecting it from theft or adverse weather conditions.
- By leveraging the activity sensor feature of the Home Assistant Companion App, I can automate the garage door opening process whenever I arrive home, whether on a bicycle or in a car.
- A notification is sent to my mobile phone if the garage door fails to close due to an obstruction.