Idea to handle Garage Doors

[hagak]

Thanks Lou. I have 2 doors and I like the idea of having 1 button for closing all doors.

Your Bypass gives me another idea. I have dogs and well you have to let them out ALOT which means I am arming/disarming from stay mode a good bit just so I can open one door. Seems like I could use one of the F keys to make a rule that will bypass that single door for a set period of time and then unbypass the door.

 

[apostolakisl]

Thanks Lou. I have 2 doors and I like the idea of having 1 button for closing all doors.

Your Bypass gives me another idea. I have dogs and well you have to let them out ALOT which means I am arming/disarming from stay mode a good bit just so I can open one door. Seems like I could use one of the F keys to make a rule that will bypass that single door for a set period of time and then unbypass the door.

It is a nice feature.

As far as the dogs, If you write rules for the f-key that are the same as for button 2 or button 3 on the homelink, It will bypass the zone and open the door. When you push the button again, it will close the door and unbypass it via this rule

Whenever
area 1 is armed
and
zone garage overhead 1 becomes secure
then
unbypass garage overhead 1


Whenever
area 1 is armed
and
zone garage overhead 2 becomes secure
then
unbypass garage overhead 2

 

[apostolakisl]

What rf reciever are using for homelink? I have those in my car, so I thought maybe I would add them to the system, but I can't seem to find much via google. What I did find cost as much as an entire garage door opener.

 

[hagak]

I have not ordered one yet but you should find them if you google liftmaster rf receiver Search the forums here a member posted doing a similar interface as well.

 

[Basildane]

I'd like to offer my opinion too. I don't like delays and I recommend you avoid them if you can.

What I do is I remove the radio from the garage door opener or disable it.
Then I use the HAI wireless receiver to receive door commands from a transmitters in the vehicles.
An output from the HAI goes to the door opener. The HAI has full control of the door, not the remotes or wall button.
The car requests that the door open (or close) and the HAI does it. It disarms security at the same time.
The garage door is an Instant Perimeter zone. There is no delay needed.

Wife doesn't need a keyfob or any different behavior. You just drive up, press the opener button, and it works just like you would expect.
You can wire the vehicle transmitters to the car auxiliary circuit so that the car has to be on before the button will work (for security).

If you are on foot, the whole family have pass-cards issued with card readers at the doors.

They all love it and have no problem with the technology, including a 7 year old.

Another nice thing about the HAI having control is that we can use programming to do other things, like prevent the garage door from opening when in NIGHT mode, for example, or closing it at bedtime if you forgot to close it earlier. I have 215 steps of programming for this installation so far...

 

[tmbrown97]

Thanks Lou. I have 2 doors and I like the idea of having 1 button for closing all doors.

Your Bypass gives me another idea. I have dogs and well you have to let them out ALOT which means I am arming/disarming from stay mode a good bit just so I can open one door. Seems like I could use one of the F keys to make a rule that will bypass that single door for a set period of time and then unbypass the door.

I *rarely* use this feature so it's not fresh in my brain, but there's a way you can just press the "stay" button and it'll start the exit delay - it's in there specifically for a spouse who wants to leave and leave the system armed, or someone who's letting their dog in/out. I believe you have to enable the option.

With it enabled, you walk up to a keypad - hit "stay" - it starts the timer - you let the dog out; 60 seconds later it's armed again. Dog wants back in - you press "stay", and get the dog back in; no disarming step needed.

 

[tmbrown97]

You won't want to use the timer to arm the garage, set the garage as a froce-arm zone, this automatically bypasses it until it closes at which point it automatically unbypasses.

With Force Arm, doesn't it require you to enter the code to arm if the door is open? That's the turnoff for me.

 

[michelkenny]

With Force Arm, doesn't it require you to enter the code to arm if the door is open? That's the turnoff for me.

It does. I thought that would be a turn off for me too, but now that it's configured like that, it's not the end of the world.

 

[apostolakisl]

It does. I thought that would be a turn off for me too, but now that it's configured like that, it's not the end of the world.

It doesn't if you arm from a rule. In other words, if the keyfob closes a zone, and the zone closure triggers a rule that arms the system, nothing else need be done. This is how I use my system.

If I were to manually arm the system, then yes, I would have to enter the code, but once you have a keyfob, you will never again arm the system that way upon exiting the home. And when you go to arm while home (night or stay mode), this feature forces you to take note of the fact that the garage is open (which you probably don't want).

 

[Basildane]

When we arm in NIGHT mode, if the garage is open, it is closed automatically.
If things like shed doors are still open, then a message is displayed and an announcement "SHED IS OPEN", or whatever.

As for the garage, when it is closing, a 20 second timer is started.
If the door is not secure at the end of 20 seconds, another announcement sounds "GARAGE DOOR TROUBLE".
Did that after I thought the door was securing for the night but the next morning found a kids bike had prevented it from closing...

 

[apostolakisl]

When we arm in NIGHT mode, if the garage is open, it is closed automatically.
If things like shed doors are still open, then a message is displayed and an announcement "SHED IS OPEN", or whatever.

As for the garage, when it is closing, a 20 second timer is started.
If the door is not secure at the end of 20 seconds, another announcement sounds "GARAGE DOOR TROUBLE".
Did that after I thought the door was securing for the night but the next morning found a kids bike had prevented it from closing...

I'm not a huge fan of auto closing of garage doors when no one is in the area. It is not that uncommon for something to be blocking the door and not blocking the safety beam. I saw the garage door close on a broom causing it to flip around and wack the car. Also, if the Tahoe isn't pulled in far enough, the cargo doors will hit the garage door when open but not block the beam.

I do have the Elk check the status of all the doors and close the open ones when you arm with the keyfob, but this is only used when leaving the house from the garage area.

Every once in a while I'll take my chances and use the "close garage doors" task which checks all three doors and closes the open ones. The typical situation for that is on one of those nights where one or more doors are open, I'm in bed, and I just don't want to get out of bed to go take a look.