Garage Door Controller via Remote

General Discussion
1

Okay, so this may have been asked before.

I live in an apartment. I have to share a 2 car garage with another tenant…occasionally, they will leave the garage door open…so far they do this about once every other month. They’ll leave it open anywhere from 20min to even a few hours.

I now have a security camera with motion detection set up to record to my computer, as well as a multi sensor to notify me when it’s opened or closed.

My land lord isn’t very fond of all the things I’ve installed in the garage (ST controlled LED light, open / close sensor, security camera which required running an extension cord to the back of the garage, all of which is plugged into the garage door plug, which is electricity I’m not paying for. However, I’ve explained to them, that I’ve run meters on them, and it’s only costing cents per month in usage, so they allow it).

I wanted to see if there was a way I could maybe hack a standard wireless garage door opener to be controlled via z-wave or zigbee and act as a momentary on/off switch. I mean, my current garage door opener is HUGE, so it would be easy to crack it open, and solder on some wires onto the button into some sort of gadget.

I’ve heard of people having problems with their garage just randomly opening, so I have no problem adding a level of security by having a smart things outlet that would turn power to the garage door remote on and off. So in order to use it, I would have to turn the ST outlet on, and then press the momentary button to open/close the garage.

If there is no easy way to do this…then I will do it the super sloppy lo-tech way, and I’ll just get a smart things outlet, plug in a low voltage DC power supply, wire it to a relay, and then wire the other end of the relay to the garage remote, and then just quickly turn the ST switch on then off to act like a momentary switch. haha.

2

Looks like there’s a momentary button tile, so I could even just write a new device type for the smartthings outlet to have a momentary button, and label that as garage door opener. I think I’m just going to go that route. It’s only 13 bucks for my wireless garage door remote from amazon, same one I have now so I know it works, and the circuit board pops right out. I can just pick up a $1 relay from autozone, solder it in to the switch, wire that relay into a power adapter, plug it into the ST outlet, load up the device type with the momentary switch tile to the ST outlet, and I’m set.

When combined with my garage security camera and the open/close sensor, that’s all I need.

3

Because this is a rental property, most US jurisdictions have stronger safety codes that apply. Remote closing of a garage door is potentially very hazardous, although I know you said you had a camera. But of course if the system malfunctions and closes it when you weren’t looking at it the hazards return.

For this reason, it’s quite probable that the only options that would be legal in this unit are UL-listed garage door operators. Not just a relay.

There are several that do work with SmartThings: chamberlain’s MyQ, the gocontrol GDZ00, or Telguard. All are popular in the community. All three are UL-listed. The telguard and the gocontrol both cost under $100 and are both zwave units. The go control is the same unit as the Linear which is on the official compatibility list.

If it was me, I would probably go with the GoControl, but the others are good, too.

1 Like
4

Ended up just going with the relay and outlet solution. This is only meant to be temporary, I will be moving out within the next month or so.

I already have a security camera in the garage, along with an open/close sensor, and the garage has a laser so it won’t close if there is anything in the way. And I only plan on using it WHILE i’m watching the security camera.

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If I really need to, I will add a second layer of security, and make it so that it would require a second switch to be turned on in order to provide power to the remote instead of using the battery.