I am looking for the following capability and not sure which garage door automation product to get:
Can be zwave or wifi
Capability to not allow remote opening of garage when alarm is armed
I already have a tilt sensor on my garage door so I know when it’s left open and status of open/closed.
However, I want to ensure that when my alarm is armed the garage door does not respond to remote opening via the standard Genie RF remote controls.
Do any of the automated garage door products interrupt that path? E.g., can they be set to a mode that I can trigger via zwave/vera lite when my alarm is armed?
When my alarm is armed I already get email notifications and I have a script that then triggers my PTZ cameras in a specific location as as well as contacts my vera lite box to ensure my front door is locked. I’d like to do a similar integration that puts the garage door in “lock” mode while the alarm is armed and then “unlock” the garage door when I disarm the alarm.
Any pointers? From the descriptions of most of the home automation garage door products it is unclear to me if they support the “lock” option I am looking for to disable remote opening and that the interface can either be associated to vera lite or an API I can query / post to directly.
Just an idea and you can let me know if I am completely off base: The motorized garage door openers are usually AC powered right? The only way I know of preventing the RF remote from opening them is to cut power to the motor and RF receiver. I don’t think any of the other automation solutions can do it since they are only toggling the open close signal in parallel with the RF remote signal, generally mimicking the signal from the local wired panel.
The best way to do this is to plug your garage door motor to a zwave /relay outlet and run a scene on the vera to turn off that relay when you alarm is armed and turn the plug back on when the alarm disarms. As for the garage door opener, I personally use zwave and the go control GD00Z.
I think that’s the route i’ll go. I found some garage openers have a “vacation mode” or “lock mode”, that does prevent the remotes from working… however, mine is older and does not… so i’m looking at zwave outlet and setup the scene as you mentioned. Thanks for the feedback!
I have a remote using encryption and rolling codes. Plus, I extended my alarm with a zone in the garage and a timeout of 30secs to disarm in time. No need to cut power. When alarm is set (vacation, away or night Mode) I also send short videos to me and my wife when there’s movement or an entry is opened.
I have a Genie Intellicode which I thought was rolling codes (maybe no encryption)…
We also have an alarm sensor on the garage door and cameras in the garage.
We’ve had our garage door pretty much open randomly 4 times in the past 2 months. None of the times was when the alarm was armed… we were home at the time each time. Our garage door is actually set to immediate trigger of alarm rather than delay as well.
The last thing I need to happen is be on vacation in an area I have spotty cell signal and our garage is opened up, alarm goes off, and my ability to respond / close the garage is limited by weak cell signal. That’s the scenario I’m trying to protect against. Up until recently I was pretty much in the same scenario as you, but the random opening of my garage either from a malfunction of a remote, the opener itself, or something more malicious has led me down the path of where I’m at now.