I’ve previously been using Qubino relays and my electrician initially said it would need a volt free relay so I provided a Qubino Flush 1D. This seemed to be the option suggested on the Qubino website too. He’s come back saying it actually requires two relays, one for the “up” command and one for “down”.
He’s suggested the Qubino Flush 2 could do this as it has two “load switching” outputs but I’m now confused as to whether this is the right solution.
My understanding is that if it’s on two separate relays surely when I turn the up relay to “on” to open the door I won’t be able to trigger it again without turning it off first, which won’t do anything. Unless I set a scene to turn the up relay to “off” whenever the down relay goes to “on”.
Is this normally how it would work or is there a better way to connect this via z-wave?
I’d also like to be able to add the garage into my alarm system. I’m assuming putting something like a door sensor on this would be the easiest way to include it?
Any suggestions of how I can make this work would be very much appreciated. Thanks!
The Flush 2 can be used as he suggests if the garage door circuit is 24V DC. Some are low voltage AC at odd voltages. So confirm that.
Adding a door sensor is almost a necessity. You’ll soon discover without it that you’ll wish you had it, because it’s really useful. It’s absolutely a necessity on “two wire” control circuits, because you cannot determine whether pulsing the circuit opens or closes the door without knowing the door is currently open or closed.
Add a switch between the “go” relay contacts and the opener to disable the relay automation. This will save your sanity when you are working in the garage and need the doors open for an extended period. It also gives you a way to quickly prevent the closing of the door if you hear/see the alarm from item 1.
Add a second set of door sensors (the light beams that sense blockage of the door path) at mid-door height. Do not relocate your current/required sensor up, add a new sensor set (wired in parallel on the emitter side, in series on the receiver side), because you need a low sensor for small pets/children (code). Scenario you prevent: parked SUV/truck halfway in the garage, so low sensor is between wheels and clears the underside of the car; opener therefore doesn’t know there’s a car there, and automation could close the door on your car. I recommend this whether you do automation or not, if you own a vehicle the chassis of which is higher than the low sensors.
Seconding @rigpapa on all points. I would suggest having two Z-Wave door sensors for open/close detection. Using @rigpapa’s Reactor plugin will allow you to construct whatever control logic you need, and dual open/close sensors can protect from a single sensor failure.
Thanks both. I’ll ask him to check if the garage door circuit is 24V DC before doing any work. With the Flush 2 would I end up with one switch for “open door” and one for “close door” in my devices? And do I then need to make the “on” of one switch also trigger “off” on the other and vice-versa? If so this seems a bit messy and makes voice commands via Alexa more complicated but I can live with it if it’s the simplest solution.
If it isn’t 24V DC what would my next step be? I need to make the instructions as simple as possible as we’re both pretty new to smart homes so are learning as we go!
I’m in the UK so don’t believe I need the alarm, and I never put a vehicle in the garage so I’ll just stick with the low sensors but thanks for the advice.
@rigpapa Is your point 2 something essential for all controllers or does it depend on the specific model and how this works?
Thanks for your reply. I was actually referring to list of devices within my Vera control panel rather than physical switches, am I correct in saying by using the Flush 2 it will create two different on/off switches, one for the up command and one for the down command? This is the scenario I was ideally trying to avoid. And to clarify, if it does turn out to be volts free am I only left with the option of using two separate flush 1D relays?
It’s odd about the lights and buzzer on the controller. If ours has them then they haven’t worked since we moved in so I may ask the electrician to take a look at that too.
By the way, you previously gave me some great advice on connecting my smoke alarm system to my controller via z-wave which I’m pleased to say is working very well so thanks for that!
Yes i knew that, was just letting you know that you could have a physical switch locally if you wanted.
As to buzzer and light, there are dip switch settings so i think it can be enabled.
If you want one 3 position switch take a look at switchboard plugin, with it you can create a virtual 3 position switch with auto return. This can be mapped to your physical vera switches .
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