HAI OmniPro II with relay and Liftmaster 8550 garage door opener

Hey all, i have read a number of the posts/threads with regards to garage door openers and home automation systems, but none with these specifics, so i was hoping someone might have some personal experience with these and shed some light? (I am planning to have my garage door installed next week, and need to know if this door opener will work or will another model be more accomodating to what i want to do.)

First off, this is the hardware im planning to use, i have everything besides the liftmaster 8550:

Liftmaster 8550 garage door opener

Omni Pro II security board

HAI Access control Keypad

54A00-1 - mounted outside garage door on fascia with wire going to rack room where omnipro II is located​

Liftmaster 8550 push button - located at door to house from garage, this location has 1 LV wire from it to the garage door opener location on the garage ceiling​

HAI 8 Relay HAI19A001 - located in rack room next to omni pro II , This location has 1 LV wire from here to the garage door opener location on the garage ceiling​

So after reading a few of the garage door threads, i am under the impression that i should have also had a wire going from the liftmaster 8550 push button location to the Relay/rack location... as from what ive read it almost seems like i need to solder the LV wire coming from the relay to the push button connections on the board of the 8550 push button, rather than do anything with the at the opener itself.. when i wired it originally i had expected to just splice in the wires at the opener itself on the ceiling of the garage and assumed that a simple 1 second contact would trigger the garage door to open.​

Anyways, i don't have a wire going from the relay to the liftmaster 8550 push button location at the door to the house from the garage. I only have a wire going from the relay to the liftmaster 8550 location on the ceiling of the garage.​

I would like to have the bells and whistles of the 8550 and thats why im not 100% happy with just wiring in a basic push button in replacement of the liftmaster one, and honestly if i were to do that i wouldnt need to buy the liftmaster 8550 i could just get another less expensive opener. So if that is my ONLY option please suggest some other openers, but if you do have a suggestion to make this work with the current setup/wiring i have id love to hear it.​

I would like for when i type in the alarm code on the HAI access control keypad on the outside of the garage, the garage door opens.​

I would also like to be able to open the garage from the push button at the door to the house.​

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Thanks for any help you can offer.​

Reilly​

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Honestly, this is probably your best option:
http://cocoontech.com/portal/articles/tutorials/home-automation/33-how-to-automate-a-garage-door-using-its-wireless-remote

Doesn't need any wires run; won't interfere with your smart touchpad; gets disabled when you lock the garage door (good or bad?); worst case, every 5 years you may need to change the battery.

What Work2Play said will work, but in my opinion it is not the cleanest solution. You said you ran a wire to the LIftmaster. You wire the N/O contacts of the HAI relay across the two wires that lead to the remote that is on the wall of your garage.

Program the HAI to close the relay for 2 seconds to activate the door. Do not use 1 second or it will be unreliable due to a bug in the HAI software. I have the same Liftmaster, btw.

In my case, I completely removed the Liftmaster radios and controls, and everything is completely controlled by the HAI. My cars send commands to the HAI, and the HAI controls security and opening / closing of the garage door through programming.

In addtion, there is code to insure that the door closes properly if I leave the house. When closing the door, a 30 second count down timer is started. If the door is not secure at the end of 30 seconds, a "Garage door trouble" is sounded, and it sends an SMS message to my Blackberry and announces on the house speakers. So if a kid leaves a bike in the way of the door, I cannot drive away accidentally leaving the door open.

Bam!

Correction: I checked and turns out I have a different model, not 8550. I am reading the manual now to verify this will work with your opener.

Looks like Liftmaster has made a completely proprietary system here with this model. I can't say if a relay will work without trying it. Their manuals are not technical.

I think it is a tragic mistake to make a door opener like this that cannot accept external connections from an automation system, if that is actually the case.

Work2Play said:

Honestly, this is probably your best option:
http://cocoontech.com/portal/articles/tutorials/home-automation/33-how-to-automate-a-garage-door-using-its-wireless-remote
Doesn't need any wires run; won't interfere with your smart touchpad; gets disabled when you lock the garage door (good or bad?); worst case, every 5 years you may need to change the battery.

Click to expand...

Problem with this is that i believe the liftmaster 8550 changes its wireless code everytime the door opens to protect from thieves stealing the code. So i don't think this method would work.. Correct me if im wrong, i just briefly scanned that thread as i have to goto work right away.

Basildane said:

Looks like Liftmaster has made a completely proprietary system here with this model. I can't say if a relay will work without trying it. Their manuals are not technical.
I think it is a tragic mistake to make a door opener like this that cannot accept external connections from an automation system, if that is actually the case.

Click to expand...

Yea i agree proprietary is garbage. What model are you using?

Nifield said:

Problem with this is that i believe the liftmaster 8550 changes its wireless code everytime the door opens to protect from thieves stealing the code. So i don't think this method would work.. Correct me if im wrong, i just briefly scanned that thread as i have to goto work right away.

Click to expand...

I don't have the model number handy, but its a standard Liftmaster without the smart keypad you are looking at.
As for the rolling code, that will work fine with Work2Play's suggestion. We all use rolling codes, as long as you have a compatible remote.

Basildane - The OP specifically stated that he wanted to keep the smart keypad features which is why I didn't suggest doing exactly what you said. I personally agree - I toss out the smart controls and stick with a standard doorbell style button so nothing is lost when I control with external systems.

Nifield - The hack I mentioned uses whatever compatible rolling code remote you'd normally use in your car - with a relay soldered on in place of the button - it's the exact same thing as a human pressing a button on a car transmitter, so it's compatible with any system.

I've messed with the garage door openers in my last 6 houses and done this for others - it's never been a problem for me to just use a relay across the terminals at the garage door opener. That said, if you have the fancy smart panel, that requires some communication for the light trigger, lock, etc - to function. Normally those can be removed and tossed though. All that said, this current house I moved into had a smart panel that was broken anyways when I bought the place - it's a liftmaster - and for some reason this model requires you to trigger the button twice (the first time it just flashes the light) - so it seems less compatible with the traditional interface options - one of these days I'll likely just sacrifice a remote for it as well because from the normal remote, a single button press is all it needs.

I wired two 8500 doors from the smartpanels to an HAI board without any problems. You can also look at Liftmasters 829LM garage and Gate Monitor accessory.

Basildane said:

Looks like Liftmaster has made a completely proprietary system here with this model. I can't say if a relay will work without trying it. Their manuals are not technical.

I think it is a tragic mistake to make a door opener like this that cannot accept external connections from an automation system, if that is actually the case.

Click to expand...

There are ways with the smart keypad...can you solder?

Basildane said:

Looks like Liftmaster has made a completely proprietary system here with this model. I can't say if a relay will work without trying it. Their manuals are not technical.

I think it is a tragic mistake to make a door opener like this that cannot accept external connections from an automation system, if that is actually the case.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't call being able to program transmitter without getting out a ladder a tragic mistake. I'd call that an innovation.


See my post above. There is always a way.

Yep, I can see some people would like those features. None of them are useful to me at all.
I don't program the opener from a ladder. I disable it's receiver completely. Every advanced feature it has I can do better with my own control systems.

But if you didn't have an automation system, and never intended to get one, this looks like a great door opener.

I went through the same process about 8 weeks ago.

I bought the Liftmaster without the Smart Panel option.

The Smart Panel option doesn't allow control of the GDO from a contact closure.

But others have shown you can wire the remote control to the HAI to mimic a button press.

Search for liftmaster here on CT.

The myq platform may not be compatible with HomeLink transmitters directly. You may need an interface.

I also went through this a few months ago. I always had my panel via relay control the opener but I went another route to simplify things.

1. I went with Liftmaster 3800 Jackshaft opener which comes with Smartpanel and remote. I also didn't *need* Smartpanel features but thats what it comes with. It also came with 2 remotes.
2. I don't use remotes. I have 1 car with Homelink and other 2 cars use the awesome Flash2Pass.

Yes, there are several threads here that talk about the issues with using the Smartpanels. If you wire it up in the typical way power gets interrupted and the Smartpanel 'reboots'. As was also mentioned in those threads and as gatchel points out, apparently there is a way to wire the Smartpanel directly to maintain control without rebooting it.

In my situation I had the wire from the panel/relay going to the opener head. Relocating that to where the Smartpanel goes would have proven difficult. I also had the Flash2Pass to deal with and it is essentially a receiver (that for best range I had mounted on the frame around the garage door) with a wire going to the opener much like the panel/relay. So I would have had to run another wire from there to the panel and hopefully it would have worked piggyback with the panel.

So.... as much as I didn't want to do it at first, I had a spare remote/xmitter I wasn't going to use so I went with the method in BSR's how to. This isn't necessarily the 'easy way out' as you still need to identify proper contacts, solder, etc. I was able to very easily move my panel/relay wire to the garage door frame using old 'eye sensor' as a pull string and both the opener and Flash2Pass receiver were already there. I wired a pigtail with connector from the Flash2Pass and the panel relay and then hacked the remote with another pigtail. So all the wiring is all right there and the remote had a perfect place to clip on a conduit like a foot from the opener. There is already power there for both the opener and Flash2Pass (it needs separate power since it can't steal it from opener any more) so I am tempted to also wire a wall wart to the remote but I am going to see how long the batteries last first. It all on a simple slip and a quick disconnect so it should be easy to change the battery when needed. It's also just a foot away from the opener head so even with a weak battery it should work well.

So far I am very happy with the way its working. The Flash2Pass (the most important part!) is working flawlessly and I still have control of the door via panel or phone. So even as is worst case I will change the battery every few years. So for those thinking this is some sort of less reliable or messy hack, reconsider, I did and am very happy with the result. I'll have to grab a pic and add it here.