I’d like to find a way to notify me if the garage is left unlocked. It’s a manual door with a simple sliding bolt to lock. We never leave the garage open, but it’s pretty easy to not notice that the lock hasn’t been pushed over, leaving it unlocked.
I was looking for a simple way to connect a detector switch that could be open/closed depending on the bolt position - but that doesn’t seem to be a thing. Has anyone done something similar?
Open to other suggestions to address the challenge too!
A picture would help. If it’s one of the typical flat bolt garage door locks, you might be able to use a door contact sensor. Mount the sensor on the outside of the track. Mount the magnet on the bolt on a standoff of some sort so it’s in line with the sensor. This depends on how far the bolt retracts, dictating if you can mount the magnet on it.
I had been thinking of some kind of detector switch mounted to one side of the bolt - so for example, the switch would be closed while the bolt was locked, which could then trigger a notification etc. If anyone has any ideas of the way to do that, or a completely different approach - I’m open to any approach!
@RottenMutt - I haven’t seen any digital lock suitable for a garage door, but I might not be looking using the right terms etc. If you have a suggestion that would be really helpful!
do u live in Israel?
more pictures. what is the knob for? do you slide the small lever? is this like a “safe door” with bolts around perimeter?
i think u don’t want to provide more pictures because of security, what make and model of lock???
i would want a contact switch. perhaps there are contact sensors where you can wire a external switch to.
this sensor has a dry contact input:
Not much else to show to be honest! That’s the locking mechanism - you slide the sliver button left to unlock, right to lock, twist the big black handle and you can open the garage (it’s an up and over style). There is no bolt / bolt hole!
so this is the roll up garage door for a vehicle. not entry door from living space to garage…
perhaps you can use momentary contact switch to the aeotec sensor…
Hi @Rothers, here are a couple examples of using a contact sensor in my home:
We have several pocket doors we like to keep an eye on to make sure our pets don’t get stuck in a room. I removed the magnet from the casing and attached it to the door so that as soon as it got within range of the sensor it would trigger an event. There’s just enough room for the magnet to slide with the door past the frame:
Here’s an example of where I also removed the magnet from the case and attached it to a lock for our crawlspace. After some test fitting to make sure it worked the way I wanted, I attached the magnet with a hot glue gun to the locking mechanism so that when it turned to a locked position the sensor would say closed. It’s not a “pretty” installation, but it works and is very stable:
Here’s what that looks like in the new app, along with the notification (push) message at the top. That notification message can come from an Automation or a SmartApp:
For your use case you could do exactly what you describe. You could attach the magnet to the bolt, and place the sensor in one of the locations I’ve circled in red:
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