Smart home tech

[DT]

Left in a bit of a rush yesterday, heading out with the daughter to pick up the wife from the Town Center, got about 10 miles north on A1A, could not for the life of me remember if I closed the garage door (again, the daughter had run back in for something ...). I've got a camera in the garage, so it's easy to check, but no way to do anything about it, heck, even if the across-the-street neighbors were around I'd hit them up to close it.

So just ordered the Meross garage door opener, and a Liftmaster 883 switch that I'll modify to provide the proper Security+ signal to the Meross (just involves soldering a couple of wires).

(The garage was closed )

Hmmm, I guess all this talk was kind of OT for this thread, maybe we should move it to the home automation topic ...

 

[Herdfan]

Left in a bit of a rush yesterday, heading out with the daughter to pick up the wife from the Town Center, got about 10 miles north on A1A, could not for the life of me remember if I closed the garage door

I our last house, me leaving in the morning was sort of a running joke. "Will he back down the street to see if he closed it?". Happened at least a couple of times a week. And I swore the next house I would be able to see it as I drove off. That was good for about 5 years until the vegetation grew up so I can no longer really see it.

So I installed 2 Liftmaster's with MyQ so I can check them on an app.

FYI, in the original scenario, IT WAS ALWAYS CLOSED. LOL

 

[DT]

FYI, in the original scenario, IT WAS ALWAYS CLOSED. LOL

My paranoia over the garage being left open? 1 in 3 times I leave the house.

Number of times it's actually been left open? Zero.

 

[Eric]

My paranoia over the garage being left open? 1 in 3 times I leave the house.

Number of times it's actually been left open? Zero.

No worse feeling than leaving and not remembering, we now have both the LiftMaster with MyQ and an alert that let's us know if it's been open for more than x amount of minutes and for extra peace of mind a camera in the garage.

 

[fischersd]

I would highly recommend people avoid the Level locks: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0886K9GHC/

We've had this one since February (we needed one that looked like a regular deadbolt - strata bylaws) - we wanted the "unlock when I get close to the door" function to work - well, it's only gotten worse and worse over time. The thing also chews through a CR2 battery about every 4 months.

Only thing that has been reliable has been the auto-lock - but we've seen lately the lock is randomly unlocking by itself?! That's a little scary. May end up putting the original deadbolt back on the door and seeing if I can't get some of my $ back on this on Craigslist.

Oh - and the "touch" feature of the lock - it's so damn slow, you may as well pull your keys out of your pocket.

 

[Citysnaps]

I have a Liftmaster garage door opener and like it a lot. Went with their direct drive jackshaft model and have had zero issues over the last three years. I installed my own door open sensor that ties into my home automation system, Just need to coordinate that with the house alarm being set or the door being open under certain other conditions.

 

[DT]

I also scored a good deal on another coupleof Eufy cameras.

We had the kit that was 2 cams, 1 base station, great cameras, good night vision, solid software, they're also HomeKit compatible, so you can view through any HK device including the AppleTVs, support automations, triggers, recording, face detection. They use a rechargeable battery and last for like 6+ months, super easy to remove, or just charge in place with a battery pack, and have been very weather resistant (given our weather).

The base handles the connection to the network, and has WiFI and ethernet, can handle 16 devices. Our current garage and front door works decent with the current placement of the base (using WiFi).

Single cameras are usually around $99 (always some discount running). I wanted another one, but two would be handy, so there was sale (Amazon) where I could get another base and two cams, same kit we got the first time for $169!

Even without the case that's a better per camera price, but I'm going to keep the existing garage cam to the existing base, add a new camera at the far left corner for base 1, then use the new base for the front door and the other camera on the far right corner of the yard. The single base couldn't quite cover both corners, so this will be perfect.

 

[DT]

Ha!

I put a Meross smart plug on the outlet the kettle uses in the kitchen, now we can turn the switch off, turn the kettle on, and I have an automation set to run just before we usually get up. So hopefully tomorrow we'll have pretty hot water waiting for us (will almost for sure need to heat it up again, but it'll save 6 or 7 minutes )

 

[DT]

So just ordered the Meross garage door opener, and a Liftmaster 883 switch that I'll modify to provide the proper Security+ signal to the Meross (just involves soldering a couple of wires).

Oh, hahaha, I actually cancelled that order. I kept seeing it $10 less, and it bugged me, figured no rush and they eventually drop in price. Kind of forgot about it, weeks later, it did drop to $39 again, re-ordered and it is sitting here.

I need to make time to bust out the soldering stick, modify the Liftmaster button, do the install - maybe this weekend! I already setup the opener itself, easily registered in HomeKit, flashed the latest firmware with the Meross app (already installed for our smart outlets).

 

[DT]

Whew!

That was a chore modifying my own button, it was smaller than I realized, about the size of a doorbell, so the solder points were __small__. In fact, I initially wrecked, it, hahaha, then fixed it (removed some excess solder), then got a good attachment on the two leads from the switch (basically the smart opener "pushes the button"). This was required because of the Security 2.0+ spec.

Got the magnetic close/position sensor installed too, I was going to skip it today, but had car moved, ladder out, already into it so finished it up. I ran it right down the center ceiling, used some eyelets and zip ties, it's nice and secure, the magnet I just stuck onto the door using 3M trim tape, it didn't need to be super close, I've probably got a good 1/4"-1/2" gap between the two when closed.

Works great! I can open remotely from my iPhone, my Watch, via Siri, I get all sorts of notifications (including to the downstairs AppleTV), and since it's HomeKit you can setup all sorts of automations like triggers for when you leave the house, at a certain time, good stuff, very cool!

 

[fischersd]

Finally given up on the Level Lock Touch:

Awful company to deal with. Next to no post-launch dev support.

- random unlocking that isn't logged in the app (your door is left unlocked)
- lobotomized since iOS 16 - thinks you're on the other side of the door, so bluetooth unlocking when you arrive home doesn't work - and unlocks itself when you get close to the door with your phone sometime afterwards (in my case, usually happens 15-20 minutes after I'm home).
- touch feature is insanely slow (much faster to get out your key)
- using the cards or fobs that they sell separately is similarly slow
- their "low" audio option is quite loud - all of your neighbours in an apartment/condo complex will know you have a smart lock (so, so much for stealth)
- chews through CR2 batteries every 3 months

All of that is with their own software - the unreliability of HomeKit automations, you can't lay at their feet (I didn't use them) - finally re-tried the HomeKit automations at the end to see if there was some way that we could keep this and make it useful - nope.

 

[Herdfan]

Placed my order for Lutron's Radio Ra3 lighting control system today for the new house.

I currently have Homeworks in my current house, but Ra3 has a lot of the capability of HW (at least for what I want and need) and HW would be overkill in the new house.

 

[Cmaier]

Just had my 1980’s garage door opener replaced with a top of the line Chamberlain with MyQ.

I bought a cheap compatible wall push button, took it apart, soldered wires to each button contact, then stuck it up on the ceiling plugged into the garage door opener. Then i took those two wires and spliced them to my old meross homekit garage door adapater and to my old home link adapter.

Worked perfectly. No need to set up myq, no need to use their (no longer sold) homebridge or use a plug in for the software homebridge running on my synology. No need to reprogram my cars to use the new opener.

The garage door guy was flabbergasted that my hack worked.

 

[Citysnaps]

Just had my 1980’s garage door opener replaced with a top of the line Chamberlain with MyQ.

I've had a Liftmaster/Chamberlain opener (jackshaft mounted) on a very heavy garage door for three+ years now without any issues. I think you'll like yours.

 

[Herdfan]

The garage door guy was flabbergasted that my hack worked.

Me too. When I replaced my openers with new higher end Chamberlains, the old simple contact closure buttons wouldn't work. Had to use the buttons that came with them.

FYI, Utilitech LED's from Lowe's work great and don't cause remote issues. I was going nuts because the opener would work coming home, but wouldn't when I was leaving. Finally figured out when the old LED bulb was on, it was creating interference.

 

[Cmaier]

I've had a Liftmaster/Chamberlain opener (jackshaft mounted) on a very heavy garage door for three years now without any issues. I think you'll like yours.

My old no-named one worked for more than 40 years, apparently, which is about all you can ask for. I was relying on external boxes to add homelink and homekit, which was fine by me (and of course now I am still using them).

The thing has a camera in it, which is apparently compatible with nothing and they want to sell you a subscription to even see any past recordings. Every time I use the app it tries to sell me something. I’m glad i shouldn’t have to use it for anything now that I have it working with homekit.

Main improvement for me over the old one is it’s much quieter (it’s a belt. My old one was a shaft) and it has a backup battery.

 

[Citysnaps]

Main improvement for me over the old one is it’s much quieter (it’s a belt. My old one was a shaft) and it has a backup battery.

Mine also has a battery. But I do wonder how long it will last unused. I assume there's some kind of trickle (perhaps periodic) charge.

 

[Cmaier]

Mine also has a battery. But I do wonder how long it will last unused. I assume there's some kind of trickle (perhaps periodic) charge.

Looks like a replacement battery costs around $40, so I’m not too worried about it.

 

[Citysnaps]

Looks like a replacement battery costs around $40, so I’m not too worried about it.

Any thoughts on how often to replace it? Not worried about cost. Just want it to have enough capacity should I ever need to rely on it in the future.

 

[Cmaier]

Any thoughts on how often to replace it? Not worried about cost. Just want it to have enough capacity should I ever need to rely on it in the future.

Just by looking at it it seems to me to be lead acid, so it’ll probably last quite awhile, much like a car battery. I’ll probably start testing it after 3 years to see how quickly it runs down at that point.