Hi, I’m new and need some help. I’ve searched but can’t find anything specific to my situation. I have a Mighty Mule gate opener. Simply, it supports a 2 wire momentary switch like a garage door opener button, requiring low voltage wire to attach it to the opener board. I’d like to have Smartthings control it. Is there such a device? I don’t need to know if it is opened or closed because I’ll be in front of it needing to open or close it. I just need a simple momentary switch. I have conduit run to my home and the junction box has a neutral wire in it where I’d like to mount everything. I should add the opener is a 12 volt system. It charges a battery with 110, but it relies on 12volts so it can be opened and closed if the power is out. Is this what I need:
Clark, does it have to be a momentary push? What happens if you hold the button down and then release it several seconds later? I haven’t worked with Remotec Zwave module but the ZigBee relays I have worked with are either on or off. They don’t do a quick on then off (momentary) with one command. You will have to send two commands from your device type to emulate a momentary push. That shouldn’t be a problem unless your button requires a very quick push and release.
Thanks John. It doesn’t have to be pressed and released quickly. I can press and hold and it will still open or close. A few seconds doesn’t matter or change how it functions.
Will that work? I was happy to find this thread as I also have a Mighty Mule I want to control. Unfortunately I don’t have conduit from my house to the opener but it is within range. Sounds like from reading the Mimolite is what we want? Can anyone confirm?
I am replying to follow this thread. When I purchased my home I inherited a mighty mule gate opener and have fortunately never really had to mess with any wiring on it yet, but this sounds very interesting. I have conduit ran to my home as well from the gate.
I’m thinking the MIMO may be the way to go. Here’s my wiring diagram. It’s just like a 2 wire garage door button. It’s completes a circuit and opens or closes the gate. Anybody know if low voltage wire like a garage door uses for the open/close button will work over 300 feet?
I’m guessing it will work but it may be susceptible RF noise and that may case the circuit to trigger and open your gate. I would try to put the relay closer to the controller. If you do run it that far use shielded cable (2 conductor plush shield wire) with the shield connected to ground at the controller end and the other end of the shield wire left open.
FOr the MiMo: Power: 12 to 16 volts DC from regulated Power supply @~ 500mA
The battery in your Mighty Mule is 12v. I wonder if you can tie the MiMo into the battery, the draw shouldnt be enough to impact the battery. That way you can put the MiMo IN the control box. I don’t know for sure, but it should fix. My control box has a spot for a second battery which I am not using. Can someone sanity check that?
Mine has room in the box, but there’s no way the z-wave signal could reach my hub. It’s about 300 feet or so from my house to the gate control box with lots of trees. I also have 110 at the gate itself (charges the 12v battery) but the distance is a problem.
110v at the gate gives you a lot of options. Are you sure a ZigBee signal won’t make it that far? Our driveway is 1,200 feet long and for Christmas I put 5 hue bulbs at the end of it and controlled them with SmartThings. To do this I put a ZigBee repeater out next to the hues and another one just outside my house. Those two ZigBee repeaters allowed the Hue Bulbs to connect to my SmartThings hub. If your talking 300 feet and a lot of trees it may or may not work. I would give it a try.
Here is a ZigBee dry contact relay that can be made to do what you want (momentarily close and open) with the proper custom device type.
A smart Sense multi may not be a fair test. It is a battery powered device and may not have the range of a mains powered ZigBee router. However, if it does work you should be in good shape.
I purchased one of these Particle Electron 3G Cellular Kit and have played around with a Device handler called carcontrol. I am able to set a port to high and blink an LED using SmartThings. I think this may be the key to being able to control my MightyMule gate opener from anywhere.
Now I just need to set up a project box with this device in it, pull 5 Volts off of the MightMule controller and build a relay that is actuated by the hi or low voltage of one of the pins on the Electron…when I get around to it;-)
