Z-Wave or Zigbee tilt sensor on vehicle to detect open tailgate?

stew
Sun, 27 Aug 2017 00:24:10 +0000
Connected Things

I am trying to figure out how to prevent a garage door from being closed on an open minivan tailgate. The garage opener is manual, so the close action would happen from the standard wall switch, garage remote, homelink button etc. Certain unnamed family members have done this already on the old van. and I don’t want it happening on the new van!

I was thinking of using a tilt sensor on the tailgate, and a dry contact relay to interrupt the safety sensors and make it appear to the opener that the door should not close. The tilt sensor will need to automatically re-connect to the home network in about 15 to 30 seconds when the van returns home. One issue I have is this will be the first sensor, so may also need to add a relay node to get coverage.

So the question is - which would be better for the tilt sensor: Z-Wave or Zigbee? NYCE make what appears to be a nice NCZ-3014-HA ZigBee tilt sensor.

An alternative is a second set of infrared beams set at the right height to break the current garage safety circuit.

Do you all have any thoughts on this use case? The cost of these sensors is much less than repairing and repainting the minivan tailgate! Thanks.

7 posts - 6 participants