5 ms·
Smart garage door controller is no longer smart
- chromakode 3y agoratgdo is the perfect bridge for folks who want local-only control -- it can even read the open/close/light state off the signal wires.
- sam_bristow 3y agoAt least here on New Zealand this would likely qualify for a full rufund on the purchase price under our "Consumer Guarantees Act".
- averageRoyalty 3y agoSame in Australia under Consumer Law.
- moribvndvs 3y agoBurn companies like this to the ground.
- atonse 3y agoF*ck these assholes. Pardon my language but I can’t hold back. Someone somewhere decided that this was a problem worth solving? You can’t stop it and also say it affects a small number of users. Which one is it? Was it a noisy neighbor problem? I used homebridge for years and now this nonsense. Maybe someone can build an SDR version that simulates the garage door remote? Then these jackasses can’t stop it. Does anyone know how they were able to stop third party use? Certificate pinning to the API?
- upon_drumhead 3y agoratgdo [https://paulwieland.github.io/ratgdo/ https://paulwieland.github.io/ratgdo/] already exists and works great. For the current roadblock, it appears it was due to cloudflare bot protection [https://community.home-assistant.io/t/the-current-state-of-myq-from-the-codeowner/630623 https://community.home-assistant.io/t/the-current-state-of-m...]
- atonse 3y agoOrdered it, thanks. I saw it in the article too. Glad people like this exist.
- mgerb 3y agoI haven’t previously heard about the ratgdo, but I recently did this myself with an ESP8266, relay, garage door remote, and Tasmota for the firmware. It works flawlessly with MQTT/Homeassistant. The individual components (excluding the opener) are < $10.
- onedognight 3y agoYou are missing the beauty of the ratdgo. The ratdgo has open source firmware that implements the encrypted serial communications needed to control and get status (open/opening/closed/closing) from Chamberlain / Liftmaster garage doors (without needing the myQ hub).
- carlivar 3y agoThere's also this, which I have used successfully for a while now with an old opener. https://opensprinkler.com/product/opengarage/ https://opensprinkler.com/product/opengarage/
- function_seven 3y ago+1 for OpenSprinkler! I have their sprinkler controller. Works with Home Assistant, it's awesome. I don't have a garage door, but if I did, I wouldn't hesitate getting this one.
- elmerfud 3y agoThese companies know that they can do this with impunity. Even if there is a lawsuit it will be a slap on the wrist that comes many many years later. Remember the PS3 thing. What needs to happen is new consumer protection laws need to be put in place. Like when these changes occur to stop allowing functionality the manufacturer can either open source everything needed so the purchaser has the ability to self manage and retain the prior functions or the must offer a full refund in the amount of the MSRP regardless of age or proof of purchase, just return the product. Without a downside this will continue to happen. Open sourcing would probably be their best option. Because it's been repeatedly shown that if they offer a good product people will still pay as the hassle for running/managing things like this isn't what most people care to do. The sad fact is they produce a subpar system and they only way they can get customers is to trap them.
- xattt 3y agoLegislated “local access first” for devices that don’t logically need Internet access would be the most appropriate mandate, but you’ll need some sort of savant word wrangler to codify into law.
- ars 3y agoAre there any openers that are just Z-Wave and that's it? No WiFi no company owned cloud. Or should people just get a dry-contact Z-Wave relay and do it themselves?
- m463 3y agoI think the problem with using a relay is that you probably miss state information like open/closed/obstructed, etc.
- coupdejarnac 3y agoYou're on the right track here. Garage doors are a security risk and safety hazard. All these homebrewed, cobbled together solutions aren't tested to UL standards like the official stuff is.
- function_seven 3y agoYou can leave the infrared sensors in place, and use the relay to simulate a button press. It wouldn't be any more dangerous than clicking your remote when you can't see the door.
- coupdejarnac 3y agoYou'd close a garage door blindly and ignore any problems that could occur? You haven't thought this through.
- seszett 3y agoI'm pretty sure that's how most remote controlled garage doors get closed. Maybe some people in individual houses watch and wait for their door to be fully closed before driving away, but that doesn't seem to be the norm for collective housing (I've certainly never cared myself) or even for most individual garages around here.
- nomel 3y ago
- kennethrc 3y agoTough room. Have deployed three of these- for every HN IFTTT-style user lamenting the API's death, there's approximately 99,345,223 of the rest of us who use the accompanying app to open/close our garage doors and let us know if we forgot to close them; Chamberlain taking a "don't let the garage door drop down on your ass on the way out" stance probably won't even make a noticeable blip in sales.
- ckolkey 3y agoIt's the H in HN, my friend.
- beeboobaa 3y agoThis is a perfect example of why remote attestation is an evil technology. Here it is being used to make people their lives objectively worse.
- Always_Anon 3y agoThis didn't involve remote attestation.
- IIAOPSW 3y agoWell, there's a remote, and I'm sure many people will attest to its lack of function, so I suppose it qualifies on both counts?
- saagarjha 3y agoIt does. Their app does a check of the device to see if it looks legitimate, otherwise the APIs lock you out.
- Always_Anon 3y agoThat's not what's happening, unless you have a source. They're now only allowing API calls from specific approved integrations like ITTT.
- saagarjha 3y agoYou can look inside the app and see that it's using Firebase for this
- beeboobaa 3y agoRead the link, they are using firebase app check which is remote attestation.
- Always_Anon 3y agoWhat link? No link that I can find mentions anything about MyQ and remote attestation.
- noodlesUK 3y agoIn case anyone is interested, the Meross HomeKit garage door controller works great. I’ve had two running for a couple years with essentially no hitches. They don’t require internet access or an app other than HomeKit, which meets my needs perfectly.
- ENadyr 3y agoSame, good experience, with the Meross Homekit capable garage opener. I do like that it’s a wired setup, which us more secure (I just erased all the paired radio openers). My only gripe is that I have Apple Watch Series 3 and the resent forced upgrade of the Home app means I can bo longer control anything from my watch which sucks!
- saagarjha 3y agoDoesn't the garage door use some proprietary protocol that the opener doesn't support?
- SkyPuncher 3y agoThe Meross works with basically everything. It basically mimics a physical button closing the loop. We use the Meross opener since the previous owner installed some cheap, incompatible opener.
- Turskarama 3y agoI honestly don't know how anyone can feel confident buying any "smart home" gadget that requires an internet connection to work, especially when HomeKit and HomeAssistant exists! If HomeKit/HomeAssistant didn't exist I would simply have a dumb home, it's not worth the risk.
- dburkland 3y agoJust bought one and the accessory for my opener yesterday, looking forward to getting it installed next week.
- unixhero 3y agoStallman Was Right
- latchkey 3y agoThere is a device on Amazon that hooks up to Smart App (or Alexa) that you can get for about $20. It is just 2.4ghz wifi and a couple wires and hooks up in a few minutes. Comes under a bunch of various chinese knockoff sellers... this thing works great. https://www.amazon.com/AGSHOME-Control-Compatible-Assistant-Smartphone/dp/B07TCW1WJ1/ref=sr_1_8 https://www.amazon.com/AGSHOME-Control-Compatible-Assistant-...
- saagarjha 3y agoOh, it's smart all right. They want you to use their app that has ads all over it.
- nirav72 3y agoOne good thing still about Chamberlain garage door openers is that the screw terminal to wire up the wall switch is still accessible. So when I recently had my garage door replaced, I never bothered to activate the MyQ crap that came with it. I simply wired up my old Z-wave garage door opener module and sensor via two small wires to the two terminal screws. Then paired the module to HASS. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if one day companies like these block access to the terminal leads for the wall switch and replace it with some proprietary cable connector and switch.
- drewcoo 3y agoAlong with a right to repair, we should have a right to interoperate with anything we own. And if that means not running all traffic through the cloud, all the better.
- cowboyscott 3y agoFor whatever it is worth, my skepticism of devices that require a separate app or remote API integration has steadily then dramatically increased over the last few years. I cannot rely on 1) small, perhaps-VC-funded operations continuing to exist more than a few years and 2) even for large players in the IOT space (Apple, Google), I worry about long term support. At what point will I be faced with the prospect of buying a new car to ensure that I can continue using CarPlay? (At that point I'll just buy a phone mount.) To that end, I recently picked up a Flirc remote to control my byzantine gaming and home theater setup [1]. It doesn't support all the features I need (yet), I'm concerned that the company will not be able to delivery on their roadmap, BUT they release their remote configuration tool as a stand-alone app that I know I can keep running, perhaps in a VM if needed, for the lifetime of the remote. All of the other smart remote alternatives require smartphone apps to program and maintain, and I have zero faith that they won't disappear and turn the remote into ewaste long before the remote hardware fails (or I stop having a need for it). 1: https://flirc.tv/products/skip1s-remote-universal-remote-control https://flirc.tv/products/skip1s-remote-universal-remote-con...