I have a winter home in AZ where I spend 3-4 months a year. Two different companies have access to my garage: a pest control company that needs access to the attic (pack rat traps) and a golf cart company that fills the batteries in my golf cart with water every month since it is kept on a charger. Last week my friend who lives nearby went to my house only to discover that the garage door was open. I finally tracked down that the golf cart company had been there the previous day. This is the second time this has happened, and there is stuff in the garage that could be taken (tools, propane grill, patio furniture and the golf cart). We do keep the door from the garage into the house deadbolted, though it is a pretty flimsy door.
So when I go back there this winter, I would like to install a zwave device that detects whether the garage door is open (tilt meter) and that also communicates with the existing mechanical garage door opener so I could remotely close the garage door if left open. I have a touch pad on the outside of the garage for remote access from the companies mentioned above. When I went to the Vera compatible garage door openers, I saw both the Nutone and the Linear zwave plus devices listed. I would gravitate toward the Linear device but are there other garage door openers that are compatible that users recommend? Which of the two mentioned would be best and why? I have a Vera Plus with about 35 devices on it already including flood sensors, electrical switches, motion detectors, temperature sensors (come with flood sensors), water valve, water flow device, and a front door lock. I haven’t updated the firmware in a couple of years so am still running 1.7.2935. I will probably be updating to the new firmware, 1.7.4453, when I get back this winter (when I would also be installing this device). Thanks for any help.
Addendum: It should be noted that the newer firmware mentioned above indicates that both the Nutone and Linear garage door openers are fully integrated with that firmware.
You could replace the opener, but it’s easy to add Vera control to an existing opener. Depending upon the brand of your current device, a simple Z-Wave pulsed relay and a garage door tilt sensor are all that is required. There are several plug-ins that integrate the relay and tilt sensor into a virtual garage door control.
If your opener is more sophisticated and can’t accept the simple contact closure trigger, the same pulsed relay can be used to “push” the opener button on a standard garage remote control. This will require a bit of soldering but is easy to do. @rigpapa’s Reactor plug-in can easily provide an automatic close after a predetermined time period if the service people forget.
Let us know which direction you want to go and we’ll go from there. NOTE: Garage door openers are subject to UL 325 safety standards, and fully-automated operation requires sounding a warning tone prior to automatic operation.
I have mine setup this way: free contact relay, simulating a push button, to open or close the door, plus a door sensor to know if it’s open. It works very well. On two other entries I use a magnetic contact connected to a fibaro binary sensor doing the contact thing.
Some garage door openers have a more sophisticated wall control control with an LCD screen and several buttons. The relay won’t work for this, unless you want to get inside and connect the relay contacts across the open/close button. I use the “relay to push the button on a remote” and it works great.
It also means that you don’t have to make any connection to the opener and can site the relay/remote anywhere you want.
Here in Europe an aux button is very common. I have mine on the wall and hooked to a relay. I try to avoid battery device when possible, but your solution is common and acceptable.
That is exactly what I was going for in my thread opener above. Both Nutone and Linear sell those with the latter apparently through Vera unless the compatible devices hasn’t been update recently:
The only problem will be getting power to that device that will be connected through my current wall remote. That particular device does sound both a noise and light alarm prior to moving the garage door.
I use that same z-wave controller, and it shares the outlet with the operator and a ceiling mounted camera. I have setup PLEG to start a 10 min timer when the door is opened, and send me a notification (via VeraAlerts and Pushover) every 10 minutes until closed. Just some ideas.
I’ve been a fan of the Linear. It includes a flashing light and beeping function as a safety measure to audibly and visually alert anyone who may be standing in the way of the door that it’s about to close or open. Nice for us since we have kids around. Works great with Vera.
That said, older models have a known problem and are almost guaranteed to fail after 18-30 months or so due to a faulty LED. This can be prevented or fixed with less than $2 worth of parts using the great instructions here, but I can only recommend this if you’re comfortable with soldering (if you are, it’s a very easy fix): Linear Garage Door Opener Stopped Working - #65 by timnord - Connected Things - SmartThings Community
I would guess both the Linear and Nutone would be affected by this problem as they look like they came from the same factory. I’m not sure if this has been addressed for current production models, but I liked it enough to buy again when we moved to our new place.
If you’re not comfortable with the issues above, I suggest looking at alternatives.
I have a couple of newer ones. You can tell from the labels on the back on the units… Between Linear/GoControl/Iris, they are all the same but are loaded with different FW versions. The latest models are zwave plus. I have not had this problem on my two units.
I installed the Linear/Nutone GD00Z-4 on one garage door - Vera support helped (did the work, actually) with a small LUUP script that checks my door at 9 PM and fires a close command and a notification - similar script to do the same for Schlage front door lock. With the Vera Plus these work very consistently. Only issue I have had is with the Linear main unit and power surges. Twice now, after different storms, the power has either surged or momentarily cut off - when power is back, the GD00Z-4 loses it’s Z Wave connectivity and the LED starts flashing and beeping. Removing the power plug from the outlet and plugging it back in does not work - you MUST physically remove the power connector from the device itself, plug it back in and let Vera run Configure Node on the device again. This works with no problems, BUT - the reason I replied is the security concern. I am here all the time, so I can “easily” fix this, if it happens. If you are not there, how would you know if your garage door, no longer connected in zwave, is sitting there beeping and flashing? And you have someone that has access to the house for you in case this happens? Just an FYI, and I do have a whole house surge protector in place.
I do have a friend who lives in the same retirement community who checks on the house once every 2 weeks or so. We also have new next door neighbors who could check on this for us in case of a power surge issue, so perhaps this unit would still work.
When you say unplugging the unit from the outlet doesn’t work but removing the power connector from the device does work, I am not certain would you mean and if I understand it, why the latter works but the former doesn’t. This whole issue would lead me to connect it to my remote opener near the entrance to the house from the garage rather than on the ceiling near the mechanical opener itself. The other issue is that my mechanical opener is rather old, so I will need to check to see whether this unit can be used with it at all.
Interesting. I haven’t had this issue myself, even when shutting down the mains to work on the house, but good to be aware of it and to know how to resolve it if it comes up. Even with the whole house surge protector, it might be a good idea to have separate surge protection just for the garage opener. I can’t verify this, but I’ve read claims that the endpoints (outlets) still need to be protected since often times surges take place within the electrical system within the house.
Either way though, all HA gear (routers, switches, hubs) is prone to the same weaknesses, so it’s a good reminder.
I have the real GoControl -5 version garage door controllers. They have been working for over 2 years now with my older Chamberlain openers. Be really careful as they have mixed their supply chain to get rid of old Linear/Nutone Zwave300 versions by just placing a new sticker on the box to make people thing the device is actually new. (it is not)
These generally have the older box graphics and Linear/Nutone logo on the unit. If you go with this brand, make sure you get one that is GoControl labeled on the device and does not have a cover sticker on the box . These are likely the newer Zwave+ based hardware. The only way to be sure is either opening the unit and looking at the chip, or checking for the PlusInfo variable when paired to Vera.
I have a previous post detailing my saga with having to place multiple orders to get the one I actually ordered. Including talking to a reseller and them proving to me via their distributor order that Linear purposefully polluted their distribution with mixes of parts. (Same part number with different versions)
Otherwise, I now stay far, far away from anything Linear/Nutone/GoControl if I can help it. A majority of my switches, dimmers, relays, and scene controllers (over 2 dozen) from them have failed in the last couple of years and they have been useless for support. Lost two more (dimmer and switch) devices in the last 6 weeks.
@gregritz53, you may want to swap out the power adapter with a compatible one. Those cheap bricks are generally a common failure source for many devices. Its likely it is having problems regulating power during brownouts or related. It is also possible an electrical noise filter could help if a new power adapter does not fix the issue. (surge protectors are not noise filters).
So are the old Linear models zwave plus? I was thinking of ordering this from Vera itself as it is a cheap as anywhere I could find it, and it is touted as zwave plus (which in mind is newer but perhaps not that new).
From my experience Linear labeled ones are more than likely the older Zwave (non-plus). The GoControl boxes that I have are labeled with Zwave Plus logo however the device itself has no Zwave logo on it. Just a date code and SW version. Mine is 16189 (2016 Day 189) and SW 2.1.
Since the GoControl versions are the same part number GD00Z-4 as many of the non ZwavePlus, the only indicators from the outside are actual GoControl boxes, and date codes since 2016 . I had no trust in their labeling so I actually opened the controller and confirmed a ZM5202 module is installed and that the PlusInfo variable shows up in Vera.
It has been almost 3 years since my experience so hopefully it is better now and I would hope the vera devices are actual Zwave+. However, I suspect that Vera just drop ships from a distributor and does not carry the inventory itself. Since it is clear that Linear/Nortek has purposefully mixed their inventory it may still be a gamble. I would shop where you can easily keep returning until you get what you want. No need to even open the box.