GoControl Garage Door, disappointing :-(

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
1

G’day all.
I like to do my research before I buy but unfortunately I must have missed quite a bit when researching the GD00Z-4 Linear GoControl garage door opener.
What I wanted was an add-on unit that was compatible with Smartthings and made my door usable with Google Home. I already have a garage door opener in my car and a button on the wall.
What I got was a unit that is integrated with Smartthings but more cumbersome than the Homelink button in the mirror in my car. (turn on the phone, open the Smartthings app, use fingerprint to log in, go to Things, find the garage door and press open…and wait).
It works fine and reports back “open and closed” but it’s very inconvenient and so far, a regretful purchase.

So I started my research again, now using key words like “how to use gocontrol with smartthings and google assistant”
What a cluster-f@$# (excuse my French :yum: )

I understand the security aspect of not having Google open my door with voice commands but I can change that in “shortcuts” to anything I want.

I looked at @rboy apps and also the modified code for My Z-Wave Garage Door Control but alas, I can’t find a good tutorial for connecting all this. There is also the added PITA of IFTTT integration. All the posts I can find are quite old now and I’m not sure if they even apply now given the updates to GH and ST hub.

Question, is there a newer and easier way to integrate GoControl with GH in 2018? If so, please point me in the right direction. Yesterday was a long day of search and experiment with no payoff.

Cheers in advance
J

2

And that is what you got. I’m not sure that I understand your complaints…especially the one about having to go through the ST app in order to control the door via ST. What exactly is it that you were expecting to be able to do that you can’t do?

3

There are multiple reasons why I purchased this device, labeled Iris but same thing, and “Opening” the garage door was NOT one of them.

Like you, I find it way more convenient to just press the button in my vehicles if I wanted to open the door while in the car. Why would one go through all of that to open to door on the fly when you have a button you can simply press…

If you did, you could create the button under a widget and it will be much more accessible.

For me, “closing” the garage door, programmatically, is much more practical.

If garage door is open
And
Presence sensor changes to away
Close door
Send notification

If garage door is open
And
Motion is inactive
Wait 15 minutes
Close door
Send notification

If door opens
And
Presence sensor is away
Send notification
Garage door opened while away

Alexa, “close the garage door”

Alexa, “what’s the status of the garage door?”

Hmmm, did I close the garage door? Well, let me check!

Someone needs a tool but you are not home…no problem, I’ll open it 2 thousand miles away and close it after they get what they need.

All of these and many more, are reasons why I wanted this device.

The devices works as it should, maybe rethink its purpose?..

There are ways around opening doors via voice but the native limitation makes sense from a security standpoint.

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4

If your garage door opener is compatible with GoControl (or any other white label brand of that unit), you can control your garage doors with “turn on” and “turn off” with voice commands (assuming you’re using our custom handler).

If you’re only looking to use open/close it may be possible using voice commands and the stock Google Home/Alexa interfaces (Ask Alexa on the other hand can do it).

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5

It sounds like you’re missing the automation piece to your garage door project. Have you set any routines to open or close the door based on presence? Maybe a motion sensor in the garage to open it when there is motion on weekdays during your normal leaving for work time?

6

Like others, I’m a little confused about what part of the system isn’t working for you. But if you’re asking how you can use voice control to open and close the gocontrol garage door, as long as you have smartthings , it can definitely be done, but there’s a trick to it. So it’s not an intuitive set up, but each step is pretty straightforward and once you have the set up done it will work well.

What you would need to do is set up a virtual switch which the voice assistant Will turn on and off.

Then you will set up an automation in smartthings so that when the virtual switch turns on, the garage door will open; and when the virtual switch turns off, the garage door will close.

With Echo, you can choose any verbal phrase you want to initiate the switch turning on by using an Echo routine. And the same for turn off. So you don’t have to use the “turn on“ phrase if you don’t like it. I think there’s a similar facility in Google home, but to be honest I’m not sure.

In addition, I’m confused about why you would want to do this in your car if you already have a Homelink button. But if you have a reason for doing that, I don’t know how it works with Google assistant (there are some differences between that and google home) So I will leave that discussion for people more familiar with the Google side. There are some community members who have an echo dot in the car and do use it, so Choice is good. :sunglasses:

So there is some setup involved, but it can definitely be done, and each individual step is fairly straightforward.

One) create a virtual switch to represent the lock

Two) set up an automation so that that switch coming on tells smartthings to open the garage door

Three) fine-tune the trigger phrases in your virtual assistant. With echo, you do this with echo routines. I don’t know how to do it with Google, but I Believe there is a way

Four) if you intend to use this while you’re in the car, you need to set up whatever device you’re going to be using there to accept the verbal commands. I wasn’t quite clear from your post whether that’s your phone or not.

I’m going to leave any follow on discussion to people who are more familiar with Google, but that’s the general idea. :sunglasses:

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8

Works with Google Home… not easily by any means

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9

Thanks for everyone’s replies.
While typing, everything in my original post made perfect sense. Maybe I rambled on a bit long.
I would like a garage door opener that will open and close the garage door when I say “Hey Google, open the garage door” and also close it as well all the while, giving me open and close indication
I have Home link in one car but not others. I use an Android device.
I don’t want location to open and close the door because in my experience with turning lights on when I get home, it can lag by many minutes.

I tried the My Z-Wave modified code and a virtual switch but could not get it to integrate with GH. IFTTT just seems like another step that should not be needed and is not that easy (for me at least) to use.

In any case, it doesn’t really matter why I want to be able to use GH voice control, I just do. So how can I achieve this the easiest way?

Thanks again to you guys for responding.

J

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10

Turn On=Open
Turn Off=Close

Using a Virtual Switch

11

Create a virtual switch called Garage Door. Add this to google home. Create one routine to open garage when switch turns on. Create another to close garage when switch turns off.

12

Not familiar with Google Home but on my Amazon Alexa, I require a PIN to open the garage door. You don’t want a potential thief yelling into your house, “Google, open the garage door,” to empty out your garage, and that goes double if your garage has an unlocked door to your home.

I use the Royboy device handler. Turn on and off are easy to remember for me. In fact, just the other day I forgot I left the garage partially opened and just said, “Alexa, turn off the garage door,” and did not worry about it, again.

One thing to remember is that the system considers the garage open or closed based on the tilt sensor. If your garage is partially open, which I do when I run my smoker, the system will think it is closed but it is still technically open.

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13

“Voice not recognized”. :smiley: My google assistant sometimes won’t even work if I have a cold, so I’m pretty sure someone yelling into your house won’t work.

14

Ok, so I have made a new virtual switch on the PC dashboard. Do I set it to be a virtual switch or a virtual garage door?
If I set it up as a switch it shows up in the lighting automation and if I set it up as a garage door it doesn’t.

PS, I can set up GH voice to anything I like in short cuts. ie, Google, open the man cave, or car hole, or something else for security :wink:
Cheers
J

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15

Switch. Btw, you didn’t need the ide. There’s a new app for that.

image
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16

So something like this?

1522238478228361720331
1522238478228361720331.jpg4160×2340 2.32 MB

Not sure if I should have the “turn off as well” button checked?

Cheers
J

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17

I’m still stuck.
I have made a Virtual Switch called Virtual Garage Door in the IDE. It is set as virtual switch in my home hub.
I have added the virtual switch to my garage room in Smartthings and Google Home.
I have set up my garage door in Smart Lighting as follows,

Which device do you want to control = Garage Door
What do you want to do = Turn Off
How do you want to trigger the action = Switch turned on/off
Which switch = Virtual Garage Door Switch
Turn off lights when = Turned Off
Turn on as well = off

Why does this not trigger the garage door to close when I tap the button on my iPad/Android phone?

Cheers
J

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18

Use a routine. Smart lighting doesn’t bring in garage door capability.

19

Thanks Jimmy,
I found this web link to automate the garage door by setting up a routine nut I have none of these options from point 5 onward when following the instructions

Has the Smartthings app changed without the instructions being updated?

Cheers
J

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20

Still there for me.
image

21

Thanks Jimmy,
I found it. I had the “My Z-Wave Garage Door” profile set to the GoControl. It doesn’t show up with that set. After I put the profile back to the original “Z-Wave Garage Door” (without the “My” prefix) It showed up.

All is good now.
Thanks to everyone for their help.

Cheers
J

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