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What’s automated in your garage?

3K views 42 replies 33 participants last post by  naiku 
#1 ·
It started with run of the mill motion sensing flood lights that would turn on at night when we pulled into the drive way.

Next came a series of upgrades to smart lights (Phillips HUE... awesome system especially for older homes that can’t use WiFi wall switches), inside and out that turn on lights from sunset to sunrise so we never come home to a dark house.

Adding motion sensors and tweaking the routines, the driveway lights go from accent lights to full bright and back again when we get home. Walking into the garage, lights come on automatically.

Then the WiFi enabled garage door openers were added (Liftmaster) and the phone app proved hella useful.... Did the boy leave the garage door open again? We can check history to see when he comes home at night ;) We can open the door remotely if someone forgets a key.

This weekend the MyQ Home Bridge was added and we have Apple HomeKit integration. Now I can say “Hey, Siri! Get in the kitchen and bake me a pie. Oh, and tell me if the garage doors are open.”

Anyone else having fun with (and enjoying the functionality of) automating their garage? What systems are you using?

#AMA anything about HUE or MyQ.
 
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#32 · (Edited)
I have two wallmount LiftMaster openers with MyQ wifi so I can open them with an app on my phone. If they ever get Ring integration I'll buy the internet gateway.

The door from the garage into the house is a Yale smartlock that's integrated with the Ring alarm.

I also have a Ring spotlight cam over the garage doors that turn on a light when they detect motion. In case the light between the doors and the pole light in the yard aren't enough.

You even have to open the doors by hand.
That's miserable.
 
#5 ·
I never really thought about home automation in the garage. I have been planning on adding a range extender out there for Wifi, and have considered adding on a wifi-enabled opener to my existing Craftsman opener, like the Chamberlain myQ BUT...

I'm very very keen on privacy and IoT devices really bother me. I'm not so much into connected devices as I am true automation, so eventually if I go full ass on it, I'll run openHAB on my local server and configure things to truly automate based on events/triggers/time/etc. I have a handful of PoE and WiFi enabled cameras in-home that are managed by a piece of software called BlueIris that runs on my server. Everything is stored locally/accessed locally via my own hardware. I have a similar setup with OTA antenna TV, a HDHomeRun Quatro and PLEX media server. I also run (on a VM) PiHole to block ads/advertising companies/cookies/etc from certain sources. Last but not least, the Ubiquiti EdgeRouterX handles the routing part of the network. With VLANs, I can segregate certain devices onto separate LAN's and keep everything tidy and secure. It's worth it to be self-reliant and have everything local.
 
#16 ·
Oooo. I haven’t had a chance to look into home brew automation systems....

Now I just need to find the time to build out my home server. And the proper case... I don’t think my wife will be happy with a 36U rack with a 4U server in it adding a ton of dB to our current living space.


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#12 ·
- Alarm hood pins on bay doors, run to led ceiling lights which come on/off going in and out.

- Alarm hood pins on drop down attic door, as you pull down the ladder the attic lights up, turns off once put the ladder back up.

- Apple mag safe auto charging system, trips on when volts drop.

- Just built a swamp cooler 2hrs ago for a attic (~160F+)...so hot I could barely pull out the metal bare handed (steel and aluminum) to store into a ground shed. Will use a temp trip to activate it...yet as it's looking it'll probably never auto shut down still ~Sept.
 
#13 ·
my garage door opener, i can open it with my phone and I love it !


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#17 ·
I’m actually quite proud of a couple things.

Certainly the auto meter elite boost gauge hooked up to my pool pump output. Right now it’s just facing my back door, but if I ever upgrade my garage door system I have plans to hook it up to my Arlo maker so it will notify me on my phone if the pump shuts down.

I have two Arlo Makers installed with magnetic switches on the garage doors.

And I have a Rachio sprinkler setup with an additional zone to fill my pool, so J can ask Alexa to Gil my pool.

I have a huge Frigidaire A/C unit with WiFi control.

F privacy when this stuff makes my life so easy. And my phone is listening to everything anyways???
 
#18 ·
I have 'dumb' occupancy/motion sensors for the main lighting.
This is the only thing "automated" in that it will do something without touching a thing.

I also have zwave tilt sensors on the garage doors, that tie into smartthings to text me when the door opens and closes. Have an ST reminder if a door is open left open for 45 minutes, and then again if it hits 830pm and the door remains open. Not really automated, but providing status and monitoring. At some point I will work on setting up zwave/zigbee switch/relay to be able to close the doors through ST. Dont know that I will worry about any specific open/close automations though.
 
#20 ·
On topic: Garage door buddy for the openers.



Off topic: The solid state relay and thermocouple interface for my home made text messaging electric smoker sit in the garage, that is 'automated' with closed loop temp control and various faults / alarms.




 
#21 ·
Liftmaster for me. My wife had a really bad habit of leaving the garage door open, sometimes overnight. Not a great idea when you live on an alley. I have alerts set up on my phone app that ping me when the door opens and when it closes. I can also open and close it remotely as well. My new Hyundai also has BlueLink. I can check it, locate it, lock it and start it from my phone. I am not too big into remote starting as I see people here in MN who let their cars idle for 20 minutes on cold mornings but occasionally when I need to drive my kids to school on a clod January morning, I would remote open the garage then remote start the car just to get the oil circulating. Pretty handy. The BlueLink is expensive though so it is unlikely that I will renew it once my new car trial period ends.
 
#23 ·
Have you guys seen a temp controller for a heat fan?

My house has radiant water heat boiler system and I have a small radiator fan in the corner of my garage. The fan is on a switch. It would be cool if the fan turned on whenever the heat got BELOW 60.

Id also want to turn it off completely at night. Does anything like this exist? I could only find attic fan vent controllers which do the opposite; turn on when it gets hot.


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#24 · (Edited)
MyQ connected to HomeBridge. I think that’s it in the garage itself.

Rest of the house is fairly automated at this point...all but two rooms have most lights automated, two Nest thermostats, automated window shades in a few rooms, occupancy/door/water sensors are also connected to HomeKit. We have a Pi + 3 hubs all connected to HomeKit.
 
#25 ·
It started with run of the mill motion sensing flood lights that would turn on at night when we pulled into the drive way.

Next came a series of upgrades to smart lights (Phillips HUE... awesome system especially for older homes that can’t use WiFi wall switches), inside and out that turn on lights from sunset to sunrise so we never come home to a dark house.
I drank the HUE koolaid years ago and love the product, however I don't have any in the garage. rest of the house? oh yeah.

the only automation we currently have in the garage is an Arlo Pro 2 camera. part of my 2020 upgrade plan is to replace the opener with a wifi compatible opener, mainly from a "yes it's closed" perspective.

otherwise, not really an area I feel we need smart bulbs or automation.
 
#29 ·
I have several Hue bulbs outside of the garage. Very handy, especially usefull when I come home at night as I am in the sticks and it can be very dark here.
 
#26 ·
“What’s a garage?”

Reminds me of when I first moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. The housing scene down here was very different. In Pennsylvania, I had a full walk-in basement, a full walk up attic, and garage.

North Carolina, most houses are built on slabs and there is no basement. Only the pricier 5000 square-foot homes seem to have a walk up attic. Most houses have a barely usable crawlspace up there for some storage if you’re lucky. And the garages… Carports. I was confounded as to where everybody kept their tools and outside use equipment. Many seem to have sheds.
 
#28 ·
And yet, you can find plenty of NC residences with a garage, and a crawl space big enough to walk into, if you try.

ask me how I know

Not a basement, but a place to store all your outdoor power tools, that can handle the humids.

Car ports? I recall that from being a yout in GA. Still, that house had a crawl space tall enough to walk into (including my old man - I was scared of that place at the time).
I guess it's a matter of lot geography.
 
#41 ·
I’m sure it varies from area to area. My sister-in-law has a house built on a hill and on the backside there is a walk-in door to a crawlspace underneath but it’s only about 10 feet deep and not the length of the house. Perfect for push mower, hoses, and some other outdoor equipment. We do have a crawlspace under the house but I wouldn’t put anything under there with 6 foot snake skins that we’ve pulled out.
:eek::what:

Overall build quality does seem to be better down here versus Pennsylvania but that varies also. We live in an older farmhouse that was built with wood taken right off the land and we literally have solid plank walls under the plaster and sheetrock.

Someone told me that basements are not common because of the heavy clay soil. To make sure the basement walls don’t implode, you have to dig a footprint twice the size of the house which takes up more space and then make sure the walls are extra reinforced. Not sure if that’s true but it makes sense.
 
#30 ·
For everyone looking at WiFi openers and addons to confirm their door is open, you could also do what I did - I have an outdoor security camera above the back mudroom door that also is pointed at the garage (detatched) so I can kind of cover my backyard and garage plus the rear entry point with the cam. It's as simple as checking the camera to see if the garage is open! :laugh:
 
#31 ·
I wanna add spotlights that automatically turn on when I drive into the garage but need to add more outlets first.

Quick and dirty way would be to remove the 2 bulbs from the garage opener, add outlet adapters, then plug the in the power cord from the lights into them. That takes advantage of the existing automated feature of lights but not very slick.
 
#33 ·
Air conditioning (mr cool)

Garage Doors (my Q)

Air compressor (no name smart plug from Amazon). The compressor is in a separate 12x12 shed that’s attached to the garage with copper air lines through the walls (you’d have to go around the outside to turn it on without smart feature).

Music: Alexa * a Bluetooth enabled 2ch amp with ceiling mounted speakers.

Those are the only ones I really care about making “smart” right now. The lights only be on when I’m in there anyways. A/c is the key one so I can get it cooling a half hour before I actually want to work in there. No hub for now - pretty much just using Alexa and the individual apps for the devices.
 
#34 ·
Wow this is awesome. Long term (10+ year) goal for me would to do something just like you with the air compressor - maybe after I build the lean-to I want to build. I need to have an electrician come and run 220 with a breaker panel out to the garage underground. I'd have to dig up a trench but it would be relatively easy, and they could just cut the current underground 110v run.

As for HVAC, I'm not in a very hot climate here in the USA. 80-90F during the day is generally the avg over the summer so I simply do my work in the AM or the late evening in the summer. Winter time though, what I want to do is get a propane Hot Dog forced hot air heater and a 100lb propane tank out back behind the garage. That would be the cats behind. For now, I get by with my salamander which does a commendable job. I flipped a car last winter with the help of that and it made the garage a pleasant place to be in 30 minutes on even the coldest of days. Not bad for $100!
 
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