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I helped my friend instal one of these closed source ones and I never saw the point. They shut down their integration with his Alexa and other automations later
by nsxwolf 2y ago
I helped my friend instal one of these closed source ones and I never saw the point. They shut down their integration with his Alexa and other automations later which was amusing, but it kind of just showed off the fact that, yeah, you pretty much push the button in your car or the button inside your garage or on the keypad outside your garage and that’s pretty much all you ever do with a garage door so this smart home stuff doesn’t really add much.
- oslem 2y agoOne thing I like about them is the peace of mind it brings. On the very rare occasion that I somehow forget to close my garage when I leave (maybe I’m in a rush and the button in my car didn’t register), it’s nice to be able to close the door remotely.
- edderkopp 2y agoYou can also open the garage door remotely for someone, e.g. your kid who wants to take out their bike, or a person who was supposed to pick something up from you but you couldn't be at home.
- atoav 2y agoI don't even have a garage, but I run the media tech at German university. I wouldn't care for Alexa, but having actual remote control (and monitoring) over things can be incredibly useful. Not that useful that you have to have it at any cost, but still useful.
- JoBrad 2y agoI have an automation that locks my front door, closes the garage door if it’s open, and arms my home alarm. I can let someone in my house if I’m away, and I can see at a glance if someone left the garage door open when it should be closed. That’s pretty damn useful in my book.
- pests 2y agoLocks front door - great, someone left it open and yes it's locked, but it's not closed (more expensive locks have a sensor to ensure the deadbolt made it into the frame) Garage door - similar, you don't know if someone disconnected the automatic and it's just reporting itself in the down position because the chain/drive has moved but the door hasn't. Both solvable just some failure modes no one talks about.
- JoBrad 2y agoMy security system and the door lock have sensors to detect if the front door and the garage are closed or open.
- pests 2y agoWhat system / hardware is that?
- earleybird 2y agoNot gp but when we built our house we put magnetic switches in the jamb that close when it senses the metal bolt.
- JoBrad 2y agoRing alarm system, and Yale door lock. I use ring-mqtt, so I can see the individual door sensors in Home Assistant, and have automations setup that include them. Edit: I also have some older Ring door sensors directly connected to Home Assistant via ZHA, and use those to monitor my garage door’s position. Because I’m using RATGDO in dry contact mode, I don’t get door position from it. So I created a “synthetic” cover entity in Home Assistant that incorporates the additional sensors and the status from RATGDO to show the “real” status of my door. It includes time outs, so if someone stops the door half way, the entity will switch from “closing/opening” to “open” if the door isn’t closed after the time out.
- SoftTalker 2y agoI don't see the point in 95% of home automation projects, but I've decided to accept that other people see it differently and if they have fun with these kinds of projects, it doesn't hurt me in any way at all.