How To Automatic garagedoor opener by presence via WiFi for just $12

[Jilles]

Hello,

Just for inspiration purpose here is a how to make it possible to make a automatic garagedoor opener/closer by just driving on or leaving your driveway.

Note: I had to split the preparation and automation information into 2 seperate posts because I got errors in the editor

Usecase: previously when I arrived at home with my bike and wanted to store it in the garage I had to come off the bike and open the door of my house to go to the garagedoor switch to open the garagedoor. This was very inconfinient, especially in raining conditions. Same story when leaving.

So that brought my up to a idea of make a automation in which I would have no need to step off the bike or even push any buttons.

Preparation
I had to open some bodywork of the NC for installing a Android Auto display for navigation purpose, so that gave me a opportunity to make some more adjustments. As a home automation enthousiast en familiar with the subject I first looked around on this form to see a possibility for a switched output. On this link I saw a lot of info. thanks @CapeMan for the provided info. After reading his thread I was happy to see with the auxiliary harness that besides a switched output there also was a blue wire for switched power when a High Beam was active. So at that moment I thought, well, if I have a device which sends a signal to the garagedoor when the High Beam is pushed that gives me a opportunity to make it possible to open the door by pushing the high beam switch. To my suprise my bike didn't had the switched blue wire on the auxiliary connector . See picture on the left. So I kept looking for other possibilities. For my navigation display I saw that in the powersplit wire that came with the auxiliary wiring for my fog lights and 12v socket 1 of the 3 splitted wires was not used. So I bought the connectors mentioned in CapeMan's post, see link above, and made a wiring box to connect it to the wires of the navigation unit. See the black round wire with in the top of the photo a grey plastic piece of the wiring box.

Looking for a alternative switched wire for the high beam I found it on the connector on the left side of the bike (If I remember, see picture, the black wire with green lining. Thanks @Marcin NC750XD for his post with more info, see this link
Important notice: this is not the direct headlamp connector mentioned in Marcin his post but a connector of the whole switch unit which includes the high beam wire.



So now I had a switched power for in the grey box for:
A. my new navigation unit
B. A device that could purpose as a garagedoor opener.
+
C. 5v to 0v power if the High Beam switch is pushed.

SEE MY NEXT POST FOR THE AUTOMATION

 

[Jilles]

Garagedoor automation
PLAN A.
My original plan was to use a small device that could house in the greybox and convert a 5V reversed signal (0v on high beam on) into a signal that would open the garagedoor. Working with home automation stuff I looked around for a device that could handle a various 12~14v signal. I used a Shelly Uni for this purpose. It is really small, has a build in voltage regulator and has multiple inputs and outputs. Best of; it costs really nothing, around 12 USD. The UNI connect to a wifi network and can send commands over the wifi network by input/output.

I already connected a Shelly UNI to my garagedoor motor unit so now I had to figure out which HTTP GET command was needed to send from the UNI on my motor to the garagedoor UNI when the high beam switch was pushed.
On the UNI webinterface on my motor I could select if a voltagedrop below 5v was active (in my case 0v when the switch was pushed) which HTTP GET Command must be send. In my case a HTTP Get command to my UNI which was connected to my garagedoormotor unit. This works, but keep in mind that you must have Wifi outside your house for the UNI to connect to or make use of a hotspot on your phone and some kind of gateway (VPN) to your home network.

So my original plan A worked but there is always room for improvement => Plan B.

PLAN B
Since Plan A worked I could have stopped here but as a home automation enthousiast Iooked around even a more convenient way to open my garagedoor. As noticed above, WiFi precence on your driveway is needed to send a command.
I have a home automation controller (Homey) which already has a app on it which knows by scanning (ping) if a device is on the network. In my case my phone. This is used for presence control, for instance, all lights off if no device is present. In my case that my phone is with me when I leave the house.

Since I had this up and running, it was a small step to give the shelly Uni on my motorbike a fixed IP and added in my presence app on my home automation controller. After adding this I made a automation that if the garagedoor is open (sensor on my garagedoor UNI) and if start up my bike outside the garage, my garagedoor will automatically close when the UNI on my motor gets noticed by my presence app on my homey controller. So when I leave my driveway, the garagedoor automatically closes.

The other way around; when I arrive, my UNI on my motor connects to the Wifi, the presence App on my homecontroller starts a automation. In this case; when the garagedoor is closed (same sensor on the UNI on the garagedoormotor); open the garagedoor and turn on the light in the garage. This really works. So when I arrive, even a split second before I drive on my driveway (good Wifi outside), the garagedoor already opens and the light in the garage goes on (also a automated lightswitch)

Failsave; if PLAN B doesn't work, I can still push the High Beam button (PLAN A) to open or close the garage. Of course only if I am in range of Wifi or a hotspot.

OPTIONAL : The UNI's do have function for Access Point (AP) so maybe this gives a opportunity to connect directly without a home WiFi network. So in this case the UNI connected to the garagedoor motor has a hotspot AP and the motorbike UNI connects directly to that AP.

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[Jilles]

OPTIONAL
2) I read that there is a possibility to flash the firmware of the UNI with Tasmota, you can use tasmota with build in MQTT. It can probably send a MQTT command when powered on and connected to a MQTT server. This is maybe a possibility do do automations without a dedicated home automation device like my homey.

You than can probably use the LTW topic that will be pushed if the device goes online or offline.
+ Some automation with "rules" f.i. 'Wifi#Connected'.

3) I think it is even possible without a MQTT server by make a rule with "Websend".
See this youtube-clip

I am not familiar with this kind of automation, so if someone got this working without a home automation controller and just 2 UNI's (motorbike + garageredoormotor) + a optional a MQTT server (arduino?) than let me know :0

 

[bpguy]

Hmm. I just put my garage door opener in the inside pocket of my jacket and press the button from the outside when I pull into the driveway.

 

[Jilles]

Hmm. I just put my garage door opener in the inside pocket of my jacket and press the button from the outside when I pull into the driveway.

Yes yes you're right, it's a bit overdesign :') unfurtunately my remote has really tiny buttons, so that probably doesn't work for me. But since I had to open the bike, for me it's just a small addon.

 

[Rabbit]

Mor-Dor is the brand I really like.

 

[Dan German]

Mor-Dor is the brand I really like.

Do you mean Mo-Door? Mordor is where I throw away old rings and such…

 

[Rabbit]

Do you mean Mo-Door? Mordor is where I throw away old rings and such…

Yes I do. Thank you for the correction

 

[Dan German]

Yes I do. Thank you for the correction

I shouldn’t correct people. It’s a bad hobbit.

 

[Rabbit]

I shouldn’t correct people. It’s a bad hobbit.

I WILL send the Nazgûl after you if you’re insisting on being punny.