Garage Control Linear GD00Z-4 or Evolve Relay with Tilt?

[JDRoberts]

@1tufgt

What’s the best suggested solution from the community for automating a garage? Using the Evolve Relay with tilt sensor or using a Linear GD00Z-4?

Using the Linear GD00Z 4 with the custom device type from @garyd9 preserves the safety features that Underwriters Laboratories considers essential for any garage door that will be operated in “unattended mode,” that is, with the person out of sight of the garage door. Linear is justifiably very proud of their UL listing in this category.

http://www.nortekcontrol.com/docs/Linear-GD00Z-Earns-UL-325-Certification_PR.pdf

And this topic has GaryD’s device type for it:

[OBSOLETE] Enhanced Z-wave garage door opener code (for Linear GD00Z and variants)

I’ve modified the ST default “Z-Wave Garage Door Opener” to better work with the “doors & locks” module. As far as I know, this would only be useful for the linear GD00Z device (and variants including the Iris opener.) This will allow you to select your garage door device as both the “open/close sensor” and the “garage door opener relay.” At that point, from within the “doors & locks” module, you can use “open and close it remotely” (and perhaps the other sub-modules that open/close the door.) All this does is to add the “relay switch” and “momentary” capabilities to the type, stubs on()/off(), and defines push() to either open or close the door (depending on it’s current state.) It’s not a perfect implementation, as the “doors & locks” module might show the door as being “stopped” wh…

In contrast the evolve relay is UL listed only to control an appliance as a switch, not as a garage door controller. Using it, or any other simple relay, the way some community members do essentially hotwires the door circuit, bypassing safety features already built into the control panel, and obviously not adding safety features specific to unattended operation.

Obviously a personal decision (as long as this isn’t a property you’re renting to someone else), but speaking for myself, I’d go with the Linear or another device that was purpose-built as a garage door controller.