Garage Door Integration

[ajd123]

What do you think are the benefits of having a garage overhead door integrated into a control4 system?

What are some examples of integration you have done with garage doors?

[RAV]

When opens - turn on lights, send notifications, if his/hers customize music etc.
When left open - send reminder, garage heater off
Ability to open - allow access, if detached garage run into in the rain from the house without waiting for the door, forgot keys, if detached warm up car (don't sell this feature)
Ability to close - security, good night, lock up, insulation from temperatures, detached close easily when you forget

Control the power to the opener - lockout when away, classic car, etc.
 

[RyanE]

I have both of my doors integrated with both an 'Opened' and 'Closed' sensor, and use the Garage Door experience button that shows the status on the Navigators, so I can see when a door is open, closed, or partially opened.

The driver also has an event that fires if the door does not close in time (configurable time), mine are set to 18s.  If the doors don't close in time, I get a notification.  It also has an event that fires if the door has been open too long (configurable), mine is set to 20 minutes.  I also send a notify in that case.

Previously, I had notifications for when the door was opened or closed, now I only notify when it's opened, and when it fails to close or is open too long, so I have fewer notifications.

I also have it turn the garage lights on dimly if the door is opened at night, and I have it notify ZoneMinder, so that it marks an event on the door states change, to be able to monitor when cars have left or arrived.

RyanE

[ajd123]

8 hours ago, RAV said:

When opens - turn on lights, send notifications, if his/hers customize music etc.
When left open - send reminder, garage heater off
Ability to open - allow access, if detached garage run into in the rain from the house without waiting for the door, forgot keys, if detached warm up car (don't sell this feature)
Ability to close - security, good night, lock up, insulation from temperatures, detached close easily when you forget

Control the power to the opener - lockout when away, classic car, etc.
 

I should have been more specific with my question.  I have alarm contacts on the garage door which provides functionality for notifications, lighting etc.  Only thing I cannot do is physically trigger the garage to open or close from Control4.

Wondering what the benefits are of having that ability?

[ajd123]

6 hours ago, RyanE said:

I have both of my doors integrated with both an 'Opened' and 'Closed' sensor, and use the Garage Door experience button that shows the status on the Navigators, so I can see when a door is open, closed, or partially opened.

The driver also has an event that fires if the door does not close in time (configurable time), mine are set to 18s.  If the doors don't close in time, I get a notification.  It also has an event that fires if the door has been open too long (configurable), mine is set to 20 minutes.  I also send a notify in that case.

Previously, I had notifications for when the door was opened or closed, now I only notify when it's opened, and when it fails to close or is open too long, so I have fewer notifications.

I also have it turn the garage lights on dimly if the door is opened at night, and I have it notify ZoneMinder, so that it marks an event on the door states change, to be able to monitor when cars have left or arrived.

RyanE

I like the idea of having two sensors (fully open or fully closed) which would tell you if the door is in a partially opened/closed position.  Does anyone know if MyQ can be integrated into Control4?  I noticed there was a paid driver for this by Cindev (https://drivercentral.io/platforms/control4-drivers/utility/garage-agent-liftmaster/) but it was discontinued.

This was an interesting thread: 

 I take it nothing has changed? 

[Cyknight]

Not a thing, MyQ is solder or the engaget adapter piece.

[zaphod]

Stay away from MyQ.  Chamberlain are hostile towards third party integration.  Use Genie which is available here in the Great White North as well.

[cdcllc]

11 hours ago, ajd123 said:

I should have been more specific with my question.  I have alarm contacts on the garage door which provides functionality for notifications, lighting etc.  Only thing I cannot do is physically trigger the garage to open or close from Control4.

Wondering what the benefits are of having that ability?

Probably marginal value, but value none the less.  The garage door button on the wall is kind of like a TV remote - I still need/use it from time-to-time.  On the way out of my house, I find it more convenient to single-press a button to turn on the hall lights, open the garage door, and then turn the hall lights off 10 minutes later.  And while MyQ, or the keypad on the garage door will do the same thing, I can open the garage door when I’m coming home from a bike ride or walk - no waiting on the door to open (I said marginal value!).  Also, I’ve used both MyQ and direct link with C4 via Z2IO, and the response time of the Z2IO is like night and day vs MyQ - which I didn’t think was all that important until I switched and experienced the difference. 

[ajd123]

It’s weird because Liftmaster offers the MyQ app for free which provides no recurring revenue.

sadly I have 2 jackshaft ooeratirs which are 2 years new so cannot justify replacing them.

The doors have alarm contacts which provides me with 90% of the control4 functionality I require.  With respect to Control4 triggering the door to open or close, I cannot think of many uses for that (especially since I don’t use geofencing).

 

 

[therockhr]

i open my garage door from control4 all the time. either to let someone in or if i forgot to close it at night, etc. one of the things i use most with c4. might just be how my house is and how i let people in.

[ajd123]

6 minutes ago, therockhr said:

i open my garage door from control4 all the time. either to let someone in or if i forgot to close it at night, etc. one of the things i use most with c4. might just be how my house is and how i let people in.

I agree being able to open and close the doors remotely is a highly used feature. The LiftMaster garage doors come with an app (MyQ) that allows for this functionality, so the odd time I need to let someone in or close it if it was left open I just use the app that comes with the motor.

The purpose of my question was to determine if there is a benefit in integration of the motor for opening and closing via Control4 programming.

[RyanE]

13 minutes ago, ajd123 said:

I agree being able to open and close the doors remotely is a highly used feature. The LiftMaster garage doors come with an app (MyQ) that allows for this functionality, so the odd time I need to let someone in or close it if it was left open I just use the app that comes with the motor.

The purpose of my question was to determine if there is a benefit in integration of the motor for opening and closing via Control4 programming.

Only not having to open a separate app, and that it operates more quickly.

If you have available relay outputs in the system and available at the garage, it might be worth hardwiring it for the redundancy of having Control4 control in case MyQ were down (or if you were on-property and the Internet were down, where the Control4 app should still work, but the MyQ app would not), but otherwise, if you're OK with the slight inconvenience of opening the MyQ app, you're right, there's not much benefit.

There's another reason I can think, and that's in-house control.  Similar to how you can use the app or touchscreens locally to open/close the garage on-site, without an Internet connection, you can use local control with keypad buttons.

At my house, the garage doors' status is on 2 keypad buttons throughout the house.  I can see the garage door is open, and I can press the button to close it, or I can open it as I'm going out the front door, walking around to the garage, without having to pull out the MyQ app and/or going through the house door to the garage.

RyanE

Edited May 2, 2023 by RyanE
Local control is useful

[cnicholson]

In terms of use case for *controlling* and not just monitoring, I have several garage doors in two different locations on my property and have a DS2 near each set of garages. I use programming to use special codes on the DS2 to open/close each door.  Cleaner and easier than having several manufacturer's wireless keypads (with batteries that need replacing).   I set up the DS2 codes in the format of base code + door number "suffix" to make it easier to remember.   I also find it convenient to open/close doors using C4 interface when you're far away from garage.

In terms of MyQ integration, I have done this using a fairly Rube Goldberg-esque approach: The open source program "Homebridge" has a free plugin to bring MyQ into Apple's Homekit/Siri ecosystem.  The paid DTI Siri driver connects Apple ecosystem with C4.  In this way, I can use C4 to control MyQ devices.   You would not do this *just* for MyQ control, but you get that ability "for free" (at the margin) if you've already used the DTI driver to add Siri voice control to C4.

As a further aside, one of the cool things about the new Halo "voice button" is that you can use it to invoke the DTI/Siri voice commands (since Apple TV's native Siri functionality already does that).  So you could press the Halo voice button and say "Open Large Garage Door" and it will happen.  Or, outside garage control context, you could tell Halo "turn on the lights" and it would turn on the lights in the room that you have placed the Apple TV that Halo is talking to (but not your other lights).

[dreres]

I use an axxess rcs3 to monitor and fire the garage door to open.

[slim42dog]

Is it possible to leverage the contact/relay sensors on the back of the ea5 to accomplish this integration?   Has anyone tried?

[msgreenf]

20 minutes ago, slim42dog said:

Is it possible to leverage the contact/relay sensors on the back of the ea5 to accomplish this integration?   Has anyone tried?

if you can run wire that far, yes

[slim42dog]

Do you know how many wires are needed per garage door?   Can they be routed into the garage door buttons on the wall or does it have to go to the unit itself?  Basically looking for Open/Closed/State

[RAV]

Pair per door contact sensor.

Pair per door button trigger. If MyQ type you’re modding at the wall button. Or supplying your own trigger, please use search for that.

[slim42dog]

It's a Liftmaster MyQ setup.  

Best and easiest case would be to add to these buttons on the wall.  I can easily access behind the wall here and go into basement below where the ea5 is.  

[lippavisual]

Buy a 3 button remote, pair it to the motor and tie your wires into that. 

[zaphod]

19 hours ago, slim42dog said:

Is it possible to leverage the contact/relay sensors on the back of the ea5 to accomplish this integration?   Has anyone tried?

You can do that, or use another C4 compatible device with relays and sensors like an IOX.

[RAV]

1 hour ago, slim42dog said:

It's a Liftmaster MyQ setup.  

Best and easiest case would be to add to these buttons on the wall.  I can easily access behind the wall here and go into basement below where the ea5 is.  

As an installer, we do the buy a 3 button remote method, #893LM
Being that close, real easy to put the remote near the EA5, solder to the three buttons, and done with the open/close part of the project.

As an owner, this is the concept for the wall units....
https://www.007systems.com/blog--how-tos/how-to-automate-your-chamberlain-or-liftmaster-myq-garage-door-opener-with-home-automation-controller-like-the-vera

[slim42dog]

Thanks!  Will the 3 button remote method allow me to check the state of the garage in addition to open and close?   I have several of those since my cars have the universal garage opener button, so I don't even use those.   

[RAV]

12 minutes ago, slim42dog said:

Thanks!  Will the 3 button remote method allow me to check the state of the garage in addition to open and close?   I have several of those since my cars have the universal garage opener button, so I don't even use those.   

No.
If you want status you have to add some form of a contact sensor on each door and connect that to the Control4 system as well.
The wall button, or the wireless 3 button remote, will each only get you the ability to open / close.

[RyanE]

1 hour ago, slim42dog said:

Thanks!  Will the 3 button remote method allow me to check the state of the garage in addition to open and close?   I have several of those since my cars have the universal garage opener button, so I don't even use those.   

Here's a reply to a different post a couple of years ago that show how I wired my door contact sensors:

https://www.c4forums.com/forums/topic/38679-myq-drivercentral-driver-now-completely-dead/page/5/#comment-304344

Hardwired to contact inputs on a controller in my case.  4 wires per door, 2 for each sensor (fully open / fully closed).  This is the 'cadillac' of garage door sensor wiring.  If you don't have that many wires, use 2 per door, with a single 'door closed' sensor.

RyanE