Current best practice for garage doors?

[livitup]

Would like to get my garage door openers into Control4 next. I’ve got three openers. All three are LiftMaster MyQ compatible, but not MyQ equipped (I’d have to buy the MyQ modules). I do not have wiring from the opener locations to the controller.

 

Most important to me is integration with Control4. I want a single-app house, so I don’t want to use any app besides the Control4 app to control them. Second most important is cost.

 

I am not totally adverse to hacking extra wireless remotes and hooking them up to relays on my controller if that’s the best solution (combined with position sensors?). I have an EA-5 and an I/O Extender and none of the relays or contacts are used yet - though like I said, I can’t really run wire from the garages to the rack. Trying to make this as much of a DIY project as C4 will let me.

 

Advice would be appreciated!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dcovach]

The most reliable integration is with contacts, relays and a motion sensor (optional).  That would take more of your time and a bit of creativity to run wires to the proper locations but the status will be instant.  You can rely on this type of monitoring.

The easiest and fastest method is with the MYQ gateway and the Houselogix MYQ control4 driver.  http://www.houselogix.com/shop/liftmaster-myq-control4-driver-license.  The downfall of this method is the potential delay in status on most occasions when using the factory garage door remotes.  The driver will not poll more frequently than 60 seconds so the status could be off by a whole minute.  Sometimes the status is almost instant but that can't be expected unless using Control4 methods to open/close the doors.  I can help you with this if interested.

[C4 User]

3 hours ago, dcovach said:

The most reliable integration is with contacts, relays and a motion sensor (optional).  That would take more of your time and a bit of creativity to run wires to the proper locations but the status will be instant.  You can rely on this type of monitoring.

The easiest and fastest method is with the MYQ gateway and the Houselogix MYQ control4 driver.  http://www.houselogix.com/shop/liftmaster-myq-control4-driver-license.  The downfall of this method is the potential delay in status on most occasions when using the factory garage door remotes.  The driver will not poll more frequently than 60 seconds so the status could be off by a whole minute.  Sometimes the status is almost instant but that can't be expected unless using Control4 methods to open/close the doors.  I can help you with this if interested.

Can you say more about how you would use the motion sensor in C4 integration?

[sonic30101]

Not a motion, it reports back open/close status to c4

[dcovach]

52 minutes ago, C4 User said:

Can you say more about how you would use the motion sensor in C4 integration?

Its not necessary for integration but it could enhance security while the doors are open or simply turn the garage lights on when motion is sensed.  The lights built into the garage door opener are usually not bright enough.

[livitup]

The most reliable integration is with contacts, relays and a motion sensor (optional).  That would take more of your time and a bit of creativity to run wires to the proper locations but the status will be instant.  You can rely on this type of monitoring.
The easiest and fastest method is with the MYQ gateway and the Houselogix MYQ control4 driver.  http://www.houselogix.com/shop/liftmaster-myq-control4-driver-license.  The downfall of this method is the potential delay in status on most occasions when using the factory garage door remotes.  The driver will not poll more frequently than 60 seconds so the status could be off by a whole minute.  Sometimes the status is almost instant but that can't be expected unless using Control4 methods to open/close the doors.  I can help you with this if interested.

So if I wanted to go the contacts and relays route, but couldn’t actually run wires from my garages to my controller? Are the Card Access boxes still a thing? Would I need three of them for three doors? Does someone sell the clips or brackets or whatever to mount the sensors to the doors?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[msgreenf]

1 minute ago, livitup said:

Does someone sell the clips or brackets or whatever to mount the sensors to the doors?

https://www.amazon.com/Seco-Larm-SM-226L-Q-Mount-Magnetic-Contact/dp/B0013CQXO6/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1520212022&sr=8-5&keywords=garage+alarm+sensor

[koxkp]

23 minutes ago, dcovach said:

Its not necessary for integration but it could enhance security while the doors are open or simply turn the garage lights on when motion is sensed.  The lights built into the garage door opener are usually not bright enough.

I haven't got into integrated motion sensors yet, but for room like the garage and mudroom when walking in it made more sense for me to go with a simple switch like this.

C4 integration didn't really make sense, just because it should always turn on and off in the garage and no need for it to be "smart". Same in mudroom walking in. Nothing smart, just always motion detects when you walk in to turn the lights on.

As far at the actual garage integration, I'm also interested after the free myQ driver broke last year. I'm still not really convinced $200 to integrate the driver is worth the value IMO I just don't use it that often, but the nice thing is having the front door keypad open the door. I do have some extra wires run in my attic above the garage I could use to run back to the HC800. If I have wires available for the relays is there a way to hard wire and not use the MyQ driver or is the relay WITH the MyQ driver for better polling? I'm still confused on the setup with relays. I'd like to figure out the contact relay solution so its directly integrated and not rely on a third party driver and broken API's

[twmoonly]

The motion could also be used to automatically close doers after a period of time if no motion is detected.

As far as controlling it you will need a wire to the myq keypad on the wall and a wire to a garage door sensor to track if it’s open or closed. You will need to solder the wire onto the keypad on the wall then connect it to a relay on controller or card access piece. As far as the door sensor that can run back to a contact on the controller or contact on card access piece.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dcovach]

1 hour ago, twmoonly said:

The motion could also be used to automatically close doers after a period of time if no motion is detected.
 

I do like this idea but if you're in the driveway washing the car/boat/motorcycle the door could close if you're nowhere near the motion sensor.  I'm sure there's way to program around this.  Maybe include a condition to exclude the motion sensor from closing the doors if music is playing in the garage (if it's an audio zone).

[rea]

5 hours ago, dcovach said:

The most reliable integration is with contacts, relays and a motion sensor (optional).  That would take more of your time and a bit of creativity to run wires to the proper locations but the status will be instant.  You can rely on this type of monitoring.

The easiest and fastest method is with the MYQ gateway and the Houselogix MYQ control4 driver.  http://www.houselogix.com/shop/liftmaster-myq-control4-driver-license.  The downfall of this method is the potential delay in status on most occasions when using the factory garage door remotes.  The driver will not poll more frequently than 60 seconds so the status could be off by a whole minute.  Sometimes the status is almost instant but that can't be expected unless using Control4 methods to open/close the doors.  I can help you with this if interested.

I have the MYQ driver and that is the biggest problem with it, particularly when trying to use door status as a trigger for lights, etc. Sometimes, it's really fast and other times, it closes in on that minute before anything happens. That's why I'm adding a motion detector to my garage to eliminate that as an issue. 

Truth be told, I probably wouldn't have spent the money on the MyQ driver in the first place knowing how little  I use it now. It is nice to have a fail/safe "close doors" action built into my goodnight scene. But being the MyQ app gives you alerts when it's accidentally left open (or more often, the sensor didn't detect it shutting--why I have a camera in there to confirm at least), I really only find myself interacting with the app in those situations. 99% of the time it is still the wall button or the opener in my car. May be worth at least thinking about how you'll actually use the C4 app/navigators/touchpads to control the garage doors before you go to too much effort in integrating. 

[dcovach]

1 hour ago, livitup said:

So if I wanted to go the contacts and relays route, but couldn’t actually run wires from my garages to my controller? Are the Card Access boxes still a thing? Would I need three of them for three doors? Does someone sell the clips or brackets or whatever to mount the sensors to the doors?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

Control4 sells a 2 garage door kit which includes the 2 brackets, 2 magnetic contacts, and 2 zigbio to io devices.  This could all be controlled wirelessly with c4 without having to run wire back to the controller.  Wiring instructions comes with the kit

[twmoonly]

I do like this idea but if you're in the driveway washing the car/boat/motorcycle the door could close if you're nowhere near the motion sensor.  I'm sure there's way to program around this.  Maybe include a condition to exclude the motion sensor from closing the doors if music is playing in the garage (if it's an audio zone).

Yeah you could program off of music or time of day to only close automatically after sunset.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[livitup]

12 hours ago, rea said:

Truth be told, I probably wouldn't have spent the money on the MyQ driver in the first place knowing how little  I use it now. It is nice to have a fail/safe "close doors" action built into my goodnight scene. But being the MyQ app gives you alerts when it's accidentally left open (or more often, the sensor didn't detect it shutting--why I have a camera in there to confirm at least), I really only find myself interacting with the app in those situations. 99% of the time it is still the wall button or the opener in my car. May be worth at least thinking about how you'll actually use the C4 app/navigators/touchpads to control the garage doors before you go to too much effort in integrating. 

Valid points that made me re-examine my goals here.  However, they are still valid because:

1) I hate the remote clipped to the visor.  Hate it even more buried in the car somewhere.

2) My newfangled openers aren't compatible with the HomeLink transmitters in any of my cars.

3) Ergo, due to 1 and 2, I have to buy some kind of box anyway, even if it's just the HomeLink adapter.

4) My wife is OCD about the garage doors being shut at night

5) I frequently tell my wife that they are shut, even though I'm not sure, because I don't want to get out of bed to check.

6) Ergo, due to 4 and 5, a green light on a wall keypad visible from the bed, would be a huge plus.

Thanks for making me think, though!

[janthony6]

I use the MyQ Home Bridge appliance so it natively works in iOS.  Previously I was using the Homebridge driver for c4 and the c4 house logix driver.  

 

[BraydonH]

I have done both and the MyQ solution is mediocre at best. Your wayy better off get get a z2io and nyce tilt. I have had service calls on MyQ. Its not that reliable.

https://www.control4.com/docs/product/z2io/data-sheet/english/latest/z2io-data-sheet-rev-a.pdf

http://nycesensors.com/products/ncz3014/

Another cool benefit of doing it this way is you would also get temperature and humidity readout on your C4 navigators. Not that you would want humidity but knowing the temperature in the garage is handy for sure.

Make sure you program them to send a notification if left open for 10 minutes and automatically close if left open for 30.

[koxkp]

57 minutes ago, livitup said:

1) I hate the remote clipped to the visor.  Hate it even more buried in the car somewhere.

 

So do you plan to open your phone for the control4 app instead of the visor button in the future? I feel like i'm missing something since that doesn't seem too safe. This is also more button clicks moving the app to room garage, security, and then the door instead of something that is one button click now.

[rea]

46 minutes ago, livitup said:

Valid points that made me re-examine my goals here.  However, they are still valid because:

1) I hate the remote clipped to the visor.  Hate it even more buried in the car somewhere.

2) My newfangled openers aren't compatible with the HomeLink transmitters in any of my cars.

3) Ergo, due to 1 and 2, I have to buy some kind of box anyway, even if it's just the HomeLink adapter.

4) My wife is OCD about the garage doors being shut at night

5) I frequently tell my wife that they are shut, even though I'm not sure, because I don't want to get out of bed to check.

6) Ergo, due to 4 and 5, a green light on a wall keypad visible from the bed, would be a huge plus.

Thanks for making me think, though!

Well, it sounds like you have plenty of reasons to integrate! Just wanted to bring up those questions because sometimes you're like me and you like integrating for the sake of integrating and 2 months later you're still trying to figure out why you bought that driver. 

Really unfortunate that your HomeLink doesn't work with your openers--odd problem there with your openers. 

 

[livitup]

1 hour ago, koxkp said:

So do you plan to open your phone for the control4 app instead of the visor button in the future? I feel like i'm missing something since that doesn't seem too safe. This is also more button clicks moving the app to room garage, security, and then the door instead of something that is one button click now.

My phone is always in the holder within eyesight and reach.  My garage door opener remote is either in my center console or another storage cubby that is blocked by my phone.  Yes, I get that it's more taps/swipes to use the C4 (or any other app) than a physical button.  Depending on how much I hate the app route, I may buy the HomeLink compatibility kit anyway.  Having HomeLink working does not solve my entire problem set, but having C4 integration might.

42 minutes ago, rea said:

Well, it sounds like you have plenty of reasons to integrate! Just wanted to bring up those questions because sometimes you're like me and you like integrating for the sake of integrating and 2 months later you're still trying to figure out why you bought that driver. 

Really unfortunate that your HomeLink doesn't work with your openers--odd problem there with your openers. 

 

My new openers use what Liftmaster calls "Security 2.0" and I suspect is just a newer/more secure version of the rolling code technology that replaced DIP switches.  It requires a new version of the HomeLink software, that comes pre-installed in cars produced near/after the introduction of Security 2.0, but isn't available for cars produced prior to this "innovation."

1 hour ago, BraydonH said:

I have done both and the MyQ solution is mediocre at best. Your wayy better off get get a z2io and nyce tilt. I have had service calls on MyQ. Its not that reliable.

https://www.control4.com/docs/product/z2io/data-sheet/english/latest/z2io-data-sheet-rev-a.pdf

http://nycesensors.com/products/ncz3014/

Another cool benefit of doing it this way is you would also get temperature and humidity readout on your C4 navigators. Not that you would want humidity but knowing the temperature in the garage is handy for sure.

Make sure you program them to send a notification if left open for 10 minutes and automatically close if left open for 30.

OMG.  Nyce Sensors.  Where have these been all my life.  This, plus the remote hacked into the relay ports on the controller should do the trick!  Off to chat with a dealer.

[ecschnei]

OMG.  Nyce Sensors.  Where have these been all my life.  This, plus the remote hacked into the relay ports on the controller should do the trick!  Off to chat with a dealer.

Who has a how-to on hacking the remote into the relay ports?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[F0ZZ]

I’d like to see the remote hack as well. I’ve been able to find bits and pieces but not enough to go by.

for what it’s worth, I looked at the drivers and sensors available. It would be more cost effective to buy a new opener. I bought the home bridge and use Apple HomeKit in the back ground. My wife’s garage door opens once she is in the driveway (she always parks in the garage) and mine is voice activated. I still have the remote but I use voice commands more often.

there needs to be a driver to integrate HomeKit. Not sure if it’s possible, but it would be nice.

[eggzlot]

Disregard 

[BraydonH]

Probably wont help most of you here but on the official dealer forums there is a 7 page thread titiled " Interfacing with new (more complex) Garage Openers "

It goes into detail and I cant copy the whole thread but perhaps this one jpg will do the trick

 

[F0ZZ]

Are we able to get a little more information? I’m thinking of voltage differences (do I need to add a step down DC/DC power supply) and how to actually connect to the Controllers. 

 

[mallom]

All you are doing is using the relay from your controller to trigger that button.