UPB Garage Door - any way to do if/then without software?

[Ira]

I bought a cheap ($20) wireless relay that is activated by a keyfob. The relay is wired to an "ignition on" circuit in the car. The buzzer is wired to the contact side of the relay. One of the keyfob buttons is wired to an elk relay. The garage door is a typical Elk zone. When the door is opened, several Elk rules are used to close/open the Elk relay, which "presses" the keyfob button for two seconds, then "releases" for one second. This continues until the door closes (and maybe for a specified time limit, but I can't remember if I did that or not). When the keyfob button is "pressed" by the Elk relay, the wireless relay in my car closes and the buzzer sounds. The wireless relay and buzzer are behind the dash, out of site. I also turn on/off a LED in the car (using the same wireless relay) as a visual indicator, but I haven't mounted it yet. The range on the wireless relay is about 200 feet, which is plenty for me.

The problem I wanted to solve was me driving away from the house, without paying attention to whether or not I closed the garage door because my mind was on something else. I would drive a block or two, then couldn't remember if I had closed the door. I would have to turn around to check. Every time I had closed the door, so turning around was a wasted effort. Haven't had the problem since then.

 

[tmbrown97]

The problem I wanted to solve was me driving away from the house, without paying attention to whether or not I closed the garage door because my mind was on something else. I would drive a block or two, then couldn't remember if I had closed the door. I would have to turn around to check. Every time I had closed the door, so turning around was a wasted effort. Haven't had the problem since then.

And *this* is why I have an Elk to begin with - No buzzers, but I can double-check from my phone as I drive away. My OCD caused me to circle the block up to 3 times before I'd give up. And never once have I left the door open!

 

[electron]

I rely on reminders every x minutes if the door is left open (plus door opened/closed events are announced as well). If the house detects no one is home, it can send an e-mail out to my and/or my wife's cell, so no need to ask myself if I closed the door or not. It also sends me a regular e-mail, in case I am remotely check my e-mail. Web interface allows me to control the door from anywhere.

 

[Ira]

And *this* is why I have an Elk to begin with - No buzzers, but I can double-check from my phone as I drive away. My OCD caused me to circle the block up to 3 times before I'd give up. And never once have I left the door open!

The reason I like the buzzer in the car is that it is a passive indicator that the door closed. It doesn't require me to do anything to check. Under normal conditions, my garage door should be closed before I reach the end of my driveway (still in wireless range). So as I am driving down the driveway, I hear the buzzer until the garage door closes, then the buzzer goes silent. If for some reason, the garage door had reversed, the buzzer would continue to sound. So without doing anything to check, I know if I attempted to close the door, and more importantly, if the garage door successfully closed.

 

[tmbrown97]

Don't get me wrong - that's an awesome solution!

 

[123]

Buzzes until closed or I am out-of-range.

Theoretically, one could drive out-of-range (buzzing stops) before the door was truly closed. The 'out-of-range' can produce a false-positive confirmation of door closure.

You compensate for this failure mode by confirming the buzzing stops at the end of the driveway (which is still in wireless range). If this check is not performed then the reporting mechanism becomes unreliable the moment you are out-of-range.

If it works for you, great. That's all that matters.

 

[Ira]

Yep...it's a case of ymmv. My garage door takes almost 10 seconds to close. That gets me half way down the driveway, at most, if I press the button just as the car clears the door opening. Under normal conditions, it takes about 30 seconds for me to get out of range. It's the "unconscious" action of pressing the GDO button when I clear the door opening (without thinking about it) that I'm trying to verify. If I press it later, consciously, as I'm going down the driveway, I always watch it to make sure it closes.

Another thing I thought about doing (but didn't) when I implemented my solution was to mount a 2nd sensor on the door so the Elk could detect when the door started to close. If the door doesn't completely close within 30 seconds of starting to close, take some action, e.g., send an email or text message. Kind of a 2nd line of defense, "behind" the buzzer.