Garadget

[Dr. Venkman]

I recently added a Garadget to control our garage door (after not doing anything for a while after MyQ broke).

I like it a lot - it’s quick and smart, has good variables and programming options, lives only on the local network, but I’ve got one problem I’m trying to solve. 

It appears to be an experience button that it uses for control (and to convey the state), rather than a more traditional garage door proxy that would be connected to a contact sensor. It works very well, and I like it for the most part, but this means it doesn’t show up as a door for things like the security light driver or the garage door monitor.

Per my dealer, it doesn’t have contact sensor connections available to report the state to a garage door proxy.

Anybody have what they think is the best way to get back the functionality of those other two drivers that monitor the state of the pre-existing garage door proxy? I could blow away everything tied to my existing garage doors and do it all in programming off the new one, but that seems like a lot of work. 

Would it make sense to leave the garage door proxies I already have and program the Garadget to set the state of those proxies every time it opens or closes?

Apologies if I’m off on my terminology.

Thanks. 

[RAV]

12 hours ago, Dr. Venkman said:

Would it make sense to leave the garage door proxies I already have and program the Garadget to set the state of those proxies every time it opens or closes?

Sounds right.

[ILoveC4]

On 2/2/2022 at 5:36 PM, Dr. Venkman said:

I recently added a Garadget to control our garage door (after not doing anything for a while after MyQ broke).

I like it a lot - it’s quick and smart, has good variables and programming options, lives only on the local network, but I’ve got one problem I’m trying to solve. 

It appears to be an experience button that it uses for control (and to convey the state), rather than a more traditional garage door proxy that would be connected to a contact sensor. It works very well, and I like it for the most part, but this means it doesn’t show up as a door for things like the security light driver or the garage door monitor.

Per my dealer, it doesn’t have contact sensor connections available to report the state to a garage door proxy.

Anybody have what they think is the best way to get back the functionality of those other two drivers that monitor the state of the pre-existing garage door proxy? I could blow away everything tied to my existing garage doors and do it all in programming off the new one, but that seems like a lot of work. 

Would it make sense to leave the garage door proxies I already have and program the Garadget to set the state of those proxies every time it opens or closes?

Apologies if I’m off on my terminology.

Thanks. 

Can you tell me specifically which Garadget device you added? I’m sick of not having garage control on C4. I have new motors with MyQ. 

[RAV]

You need a secruity 2.0 interface, either a remote or wall button with connections soldered to it's buttons and wired to a relay in Contro4, one per door. Or I like the 3 door wireless remote option, less parts.

Then you'll want some way to know the door state. There are options.
1. Wired sensors, one or two depending on your desire to know definite position, usually a rail contact sensor.
2. Control4 battery powered tilt sensors, they seem to go wonky after time.
3. Gargadget just added a WiFi lasser sensor.

Minium that's 1 contact and 1 relay per door tied into Control4 experience button.

[Dr. Venkman]

1 hour ago, ILoveC4 said:

Can you tell me specifically which Garadget device you added? I’m sick of not having garage control on C4. I have new motors with MyQ. 

Sure. It's the Garadget for Control4. It's a new product of theirs - just started shipping in January. I've only had it a few days, so I can't vouch for it as a long-time user, but it seems really promising so far. My dealer was at my house in December and mentioned that he had heard it was coming out, so I pre-ordered (I had never heard of them, but he seemed confident enough in their products that I went ahead and gave it a try).

A little background on my setup: I've got three Chamberlain Security 2.0+ openers - I liked the MyQ integration just fine. The controls worked great until it broke. I didn't love the infrequent polling (I had thought I wanted to be able to program off the opening of a door). I added NYCE tilt sensors to try to improve the polling, but I never got them to work reliably.

The Garadget appears to solve both problems, with the only issue I've found so far being the lack of a door proxy described above (though, again, it's early).

A little about the Garadget:

• It's a little round disc, about the size of a hockey puck - it seems really well made.
• It mounts (with an adhesive pad) to your opener and points a laser at the garage door. A reflective sticker is included for the door.
• It's powered by a micro USB cable that needs to be plugged into an outlet (the power supply is included), so hopefully you already have an outlet on the ceiling right above your opener.
• In my case (and yours, I would guess) a Security 2.0+ adapter is needed. I bought the one Garadget sells, but you could make your own if you like to solder.
• Wires run from the terminal on the back of the Garadget, to the push-button adapter, then to the opener, and the Garadget simulates a press on the opener.
• It connects to your network on WiFi (all local, no cloud), and C4 speaks directly to the Garadget device.
• It took me just a few minutes to configure and install the device, and it took my dealer about 5 minutes to add the driver to C4 (the driver is a free download from Garadget's website).
• The reporting of the door's state seems pretty much instant, and (so far as I can tell) has been accurate and reliable.
• As mentioned above, the driver creates an experience button that shows the state (open, closed, opening, closing), and you tap on the experience button to open/close.

Once I sort out the programming I had in place on the pre-existing garage door proxy, I think I'm going to be really happy with it.

If you want pictures or have any questions, let me know.

[ILoveC4]

3 hours ago, Dr. Venkman said:

Sure. It's the Garadget for Control4. It's a new product of theirs - just started shipping in January. I've only had it a few days, so I can't vouch for it as a long-time user, but it seems really promising so far. My dealer was at my house in December and mentioned that he had heard it was coming out, so I pre-ordered (I had never heard of them, but he seemed confident enough in their products that I went ahead and gave it a try).

A little background on my setup: I've got three Chamberlain Security 2.0+ openers - I liked the MyQ integration just fine. The controls worked great until it broke. I didn't love the infrequent polling (I had thought I wanted to be able to program off the opening of a door). I added NYCE tilt sensors to try to improve the polling, but I never got them to work reliably.

The Garadget appears to solve both problems, with the only issue I've found so far being the lack of a door proxy described above (though, again, it's early).

A little about the Garadget:

• It's a little round disc, about the size of a hockey puck - it seems really well made.
• It mounts (with an adhesive pad) to your opener and points a laser at the garage door. A reflective sticker is included for the door.
• It's powered by a micro USB cable that needs to be plugged into an outlet (the power supply is included), so hopefully you already have an outlet on the ceiling right above your opener.
• In my case (and yours, I would guess) a Security 2.0+ adapter is needed. I bought the one Garadget sells, but you could make your own if you like to solder.
• Wires run from the terminal on the back of the Garadget, to the push-button adapter, then to the opener, and the Garadget simulates a press on the opener.
• It connects to your network on WiFi (all local, no cloud), and C4 speaks directly to the Garadget device.
• It took me just a few minutes to configure and install the device, and it took my dealer about 5 minutes to add the driver to C4 (the driver is a free download from Garadget's website).
• The reporting of the door's state seems pretty much instant, and (so far as I can tell) has been accurate and reliable.
• As mentioned above, the driver creates an experience button that shows the state (open, closed, opening, closing), and you tap on the experience button to open/close.

Once I sort out the programming I had in place on the pre-existing garage door proxy, I think I'm going to be really happy with it.

If you want pictures or have any questions, let me know.

Thanks for the detailed write up. Does the one unit control all 3 garage doors? Or do you need one per door?

[Dr. Venkman]

1 hour ago, ILoveC4 said:

Thanks for the detailed write up. Does the one unit control all 3 garage doors? Or do you need one per door?

One unit and driver instance per door. It's a laser sensor and a hard-wired opener controller in one, and it can only do one garage door at a time. It only has one laser and one control terminal. (When I say "hard-wired," I'm referring to the connection from the Garadget to the opener. The connection from the Garadget to C4 is via Wi-Fi.)

[RAV]

1 hour ago, Dr. Venkman said:

One unit and driver instance per door. It's a laser sensor and a hard-wired opener controller in one, and it can only do one garage door at a time. It only has one laser and one control terminal. (When I say "hard-wired," I'm referring to the connection from the Garadget to the opener. The connection from the Garadget to C4 is via Wi-Fi.)

Understand, if it's a MyQ Security door system, you still need a security 2.0 interface between it and the opener terminals. You can NOT wire the Garadget direct to a current MyQ opener.

"Connect the included wiring between the Garadget’s terminal labeled G and try contact terminals of the garage door opener. Polarity of this connection is not important. Adapter will be required for Security+ 2.0 systems."

[zaphod]

But Garadget sells the modified remote control openers, like this one for a three door opener.  Don't you just wire this up to the Garadget and the Garadget closes the right relay which simulates a button press on the Liftmaster remote?  I wonder what Liftmaster will do next to stop this from working?

[Denis]

Hi, I'm designer of Garadget.

@zaphod,

Indeed above dry contact adapter can handle up to 3 openers. It requires separate dry contact sources (relays) for each door. This works nicely if you use a multi-relay module.

Theoretically you can use it with three Garadgets, but because the controllers are mounted on or near the garage door openers you'll have to run long wires to connect those multiple Garadgets to a single adapter. A cleaner option is a separate wired dry contact adapter with each Garadget controller.

 

@Dr. Venkman,

Thank you for your feedback. I'll look into a  garage door proxy situation. Please let me know if you have any other suggestion or questions about the product.

[Dr. Venkman]

@Denis, connections in the driver for a garage door proxy would be very cool. Though obviously not completely necessary, it might allow people to slot a Garadget into their project without disturbing any existing programming.

FWIW, I submitted an inquiry on Garadget’s website while I was installing mine, and Denis emailed me back and answered my question very quickly. (Denis, if you’re curious, I was the dummy that asked about getting the terminal to bite on the wire).

[ILoveC4]

On 2/4/2022 at 2:21 PM, zaphod said:

But Garadget sells the modified remote control openers, like this one for a three door opener.  Don't you just wire this up to the Garadget and the Garadget closes the right relay which simulates a button press on the Liftmaster remote?  I wonder what Liftmaster will do next to stop this from working?

Couldn’t you just hook this up to relays on a C4 controller and toggle the door open and closed that way?

[Dr. Venkman]

7 hours ago, ILoveC4 said:

Couldn’t you just hook this up to relays on a C4 controller and toggle the door open and closed that way?

Absolutely. You still probably want a sensor to monitor the state of the door, but if you've got a sensor already set up and working well, this is probably the best way to go.