{"id":411,"date":"2017-01-28T19:27:34","date_gmt":"2017-01-29T01:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/?p=411"},"modified":"2017-02-24T22:12:34","modified_gmt":"2017-02-25T04:12:34","slug":"iot-garage-door-openers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/?p=411","title":{"rendered":"IoT Garage Door Openers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our garage\u00a0has a Chamberlain 4620 door opener<\/a> that has Security+ (not Security+ 2.0). I wanted to control the garage door from my bike (when riding home) and also to control it from inside our house without having to buy additional remotes for each location\/vehicle. Everyone in our\u00a0family carries an iPhone or has access to a mobile browser, so those would be great remotes. I’m a fan of open source hardware and software, so any solution coopting those technologies would be cool. Anyway, the following three were considered:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Chamberlain MyQ<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. gLink<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Garadget<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The first logical consideration\u00a0is the recently updated Chamberlain MyQ, a drop in solution compatible<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0my opener. Unfortunately, it requires two devices be powered up; one in the garage and one\u00a0plugged into the\u00a0internet router with a Cat5 cable. I was pleased to read MyQ\u00a0works with Siri; however, proprietary\u00a0hardware and software sucking power in multiple locations irked me.<\/p>\n

    Looking to third party competitors, gLink popped up. Its a single device that controls the opener with a smart phone,\u00a0but\u00a0the remote control occurs\u00a0over\u00a0Bluetooth. Our alley has a significant amount of foliage and I know vegetation is not good for radio waves, so I ruled it out.<\/p>\n

    Bugged that I wasn’t finding what I wanted, I reviewed Indiegogo and Kickstarter offerings\u00a0some more\u00a0and came across\u00a0Garadget, which had several advantages over the previous items\u00a0I looked at. First, the software and hardware are open source – major win here! If my Garadget were to break someday and the manufacturer decides to stop producing them, there are instructions to purchase parts and make your own. Second, Garadget is one device that communicates directly with\u00a0our home’s existing wifi network,\u00a0a second device\u00a0isn’t necessary. Third, because Garadget is open source, plug-ins for homebridge<\/a> and other platforms are available to enable\u00a0Siri and\u00a0HomeKit. Fourth, because Garadget joins our home’s\u00a0wireless network there’s not a range issue as it makes your opener accessible through any\u00a0internet connection. Fifth, Garadget’s compatibility with IFTTT\u00a0means\u00a0the door can do things like automatically open as I ride up the alley returning home. Sixth, Garadget\u00a0can\u00a0monitor its condition during\u00a0specific hours of the day\u00a0and send alerts.<\/p>\n

    I’ve only had it installed for a day now, but I’m pleased with the results. Will report more later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Our garage\u00a0has a Chamberlain 4620 door opener that has Security+ (not Security+ 2.0). I wanted to control the garage door from my bike (when riding home) and also to control it from inside our house without having to buy additional … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schwie.com\/brad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}