Hey all! I just got my first automatic garage door set up yesterday. Even though it wasn’t on the compatibility list, I tried the Linear FS20Z-1 Relay - http://www.linearcorp.com/product_detail.php?productId=1572. It’s only $31 as opposed to the recommended LFM-20, which is $49. It worked great! So, I just wanted to start out by hopefully saving some of you some money by encouraging the use of that relay instead of the LFM-20.
I have a very simple setup to trigger the door. I put a ST presence sensor in the car that goes in and out of that garage door. I am also using an Ecolink Tilt sensor to sense orientation. It DOES open the door, but it takes WAY too long to actually go and yesterday I ended up waiting in the driveway for about 10 seconds for it to actually open. My wife goes…“ahh yeah…that’s not gonna work.” LOL.
I have the presence sensor in the glove compartment, and the HUB in my office, which is about 50 ft. from where the garage is. I’m assuming it is triggering the action when the presence sensor comes within 150ft of the HUB, but if it is, it is taking FOREVER for the action to actually happen. Just FYI, when I open and close the door via the ST app, it goes instantly. So this must have something to do with the presence sensor communicating with the HUB.
Has anyone else had this problem? How do I set it to trigger faster so that the door is actually open by the time we get to it? Does this have anything to do with the radius around my house that I originally set when setting up the ST app?
If I’m reading your problem correctly then you need to set up a powered motion detector less than 50 feet from the driveway. Presence detectors don’t go very far so a repeater is needed to extend the range. Get the old version as the new version doesn’t repeat I believe.
Hey Daven, unfortunately the motion sensor won’t work. I need the door to only open and close when the specific car goes in and out of it. If I set up a motion sensor, both of my cars will be opening the door (I have a 2 car garage with separate garage doors. The relay is only set up on one of them). Additionally, the range is not the problem because today I sat right in front of my garage door (less than 20 ft from the hub) and waited for it to open. Yesterday, it opened when I got to the bottom of the driveway. So I think that would determine that range isn’t the issue. It seems that Smart Things just isn’t consistent with how long it takes to recognize the presence sensor and thus run the code to open the door.
Update here: I switched the SmartApp to use mine and my wife’s phones as the trigger (coming in and out of the GPS circle we have set around our house using the ST app). It’s better, but still very inconsistent.
Yesterday it opened very nicely for me one time with plenty of time, but then tonight when I returned to my house, I had to wait about 10 seconds sitting in front of the garage door for it to open.
Is this normal ST users out there? Why is it so inconsistent? Also, for the times when it is taking an extra 10-20 seconds to open the door, why would that be? The HUB is well within range.
If you are talking about getting it to include in your Zwave network - there is a small button on the relay itself that you have to push to get it to join the network. Did you push that button?
If so, I don’t have any other help I can provide because both of mine joined fine when I pushed the button.
i have the garage door working. it is the linear one with the tilt switch it came with. The issue is the smart app dent see it as a lock when i try to link it following your steps.
