I finally have a smart garage door, the GoControl Linear and I have it working with my presence sensor just fine. I also have an app that will alert me if left open for 30 minutes if in away mode.
What I would like is a way to only have it open after a certain time based on my presence sensor. I come home every day from work for lunch, and have no need for the garage to open each time. Instead I would like it to only open after say 4:00pm M-F and weekends be a different time. Does an app like this exist, or any way to get this done?
I am sure I could with Core, but not ready to tackle that smart app yet, but do have it installed.
If the app you are using to open/close now has a variable for only perform in certain modes you can use modes to accomplish this. Have a mode change to evening before your usual arrival time and the app set up only to work in evening or weekend mode.
You will need a routine to change house modes of course. This is how I handle the fans in my house. They come on at a certain temp but only if the house is in “home” mode base on our presence sensors.
Hmmm I guess I could do that, as I am running a routine now that turns the alarm on/off based on presence. Was really hoping someone made a simple app that would allow time to be an option like most other apps.
The only issue I have with making another mode, then routine is I have a tablet to run the house and the routine would pop up on the widget and may get pressed accidently.
I started looking into core as I am sure that would do it, but have to get the logic down first.
Played around with Core and I think I have it set for both presence sensors to trigger the garage between certain times. Will find out when the better half comes home if it worked as planned
I agree CoRE sounds like a pretty good fit for this situation:
IF
any (Presence) changes to present [can be group of presence devices to cover others]
AND
Time is between x-y [your evening window]
THEN
Open garage door
(optional) and Push Notification [to track any potential misfires until trust is established with mobile presence]
IF
any (Presence) is NOT present
AND
any (Presence) changes TO present
AND
time is between (hours)
THEN
open Garage Door
send SMS alert to my phone only
I guess your way would work as well too. Really starting to like Core and all it can do.
You may have issues with the two presences canceling each other out.
Using “any (Presence) changes TO present” works well in all my setups.
Ive also had issues with things triggering using time based conditions, even though there are other conditions in the statment. To get around this I use a nested statement. So your piston would look more like this.
IF
any (Presence) changes to present [can be group of presence devices to cover others]
THEN IF (Changed from And)
Time is between x-y [your evening window]
THEN
Open garage door
(optional) and Push Notification [to track any potential misfires until trust is established with mobile presence]
By doing this you could have two different actions one based on time and one based on something else.
Hmm guess I don’t see how mine would fail. It won’t start anything until 1 of my 2 presence sensor changes from Away to Home basically. Once that happens it will look at the time I setup to be between 3:00pm and 2:00am, and if in that window of time, open garage door when one of the presence sensors becomes home.
I have 2 routines that run already that turn alarm off or on depending if I am home or away.
I also have a virtual presence sensor I use when the dog sitter come for the weekend as I don’t want any automation going off while they are here. It tends to scare them when lamps, and other things turn on by themselves So that is why I had to chose specific presence sensors.
I will see if it works as I am working from home today, and the better half comes home around 6ish, so will see if garage auto opens.
I would be remiss if I didn’t make a comment about the reliability of the presence indicators … or lack thereof.
Should your phone go dead and then be re-charged, it could activate your garage door. Likewise, we’ve had trouble with my wife’s iPhone dropping the home WiFi signal and the door opening. As a result, I now use a motion sensor in the driveway that must be activated in addition to the change in presence. At one time, I also had it tied into a Zubie we have in each of the cars, but the link through IFTTT added too much of a delay. 2 out of 2 voting with the presence indicator and motion sensor has worked fine for us.
Longer term, you may want to get a camera on the driveway and a camera in the garage. I have found both handy in those moments when you get a message about the door opening.
I also have it setup if the garage opens in ANY mode I get an alert if open for longer than 5 minutes. This should help if presence ever fails, but (knock on wood) I have been using both our Android phone for presence sensors for nearly 4 months and never had it fail yet.
I think a lot depends on how your network (wifi, zigbee, zwave) stuff has been setup, and mine seems to be very strong.
Well it worked for me, but not the better half It’s funny because if I add “Open Garage” to my “Turn Alarm Off” routine based on presence it works perfectly every time. When I add the core rules above, it doesn’t work for both of us.
Guess I will look at doing different routines then like PhilB mentioned. Or I might just have it open anytime I come home like it was originally setup.
However I have learned A LOT about Core, and now have a lot more ideas of things I can do with it.
I’m using CoRE to open my garage door everyday when I come home from work and it’s been working perfectly so far. A couple of times it seemed like it didn’t work but I was out of my arrive home window. You see I’m pretty predictable with my arrival times everyday and I have my CoRE rule set to only operate between 5:10 and 5:30 every day. When it didn’t fire it was cause I was out of this window by like 1 minute. I only use it for my side of the garage now but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for 2 people. I would simply change the piston to first check if the door was not already open and if either presence changed to arrived then to open the door during this time window.
I had it working, but ended up removing the option to auto open. Part of it is we have 3 cars and sometime when I take the fun car out for the day and come back, it will open the incorrect garage door I don’t want to add another smart garage door to the 3rd stall as we will not always have 3 cars.
I do like your logic with the time part, and if I decide to have the garage auto open I will go that route. Right now I have it setup to close as part of my Goodnight routine if its open.
If you change your mind in the future on automating the third door… you could put a presence sensor in the fun car that would open it’s correct door when it returns
It’s funny because if I add “Open Garage” to my “Turn Alarm Off” routine based on presence it works perfectly every time. When I add the core rules above, it doesn’t work for both of us.