Installing OpenGarage for use with Home Assistant

After the dissapointment that was Chamberlain preventing third-party api access to MyQ, I looked for alternatives. I wanted to control my garage door from Home Assistant and came across OpenGarage. It is a little more expensive than some of the other options but it ticked off all of my boxes. Plus one I didn't know was an option!

  • Open source. I was done with dealing with companies deciding what I could do with something I paid for.
  • Local only. I didn't want or need a cloud solution. Tailscale is my remote access solution. OpenGarage does have cloud functionality but it's optional.
  • Has a built-in Home Assistant integration. While I was ok with some additional effort like using HACS, I preferred a more plug n play approach.
  • Well packaged hardware. This the one area that OpenGarage falls short. It's perfectly fine but won't win any awards.

The extra feature is vehicle presence detection. I am excited about using this in the future. I think this will make some of my Tesla api calls more streamlined. I've found it difficult to determine if the car is at home. The primary method of detecting the state of the garage door is with an ultrasonic sensor. this also allows it to detect if a vehicle is present.

One thing that I underestimated is how it handles Security+ 2.0. I was good with their approach and felt it would work out fine. This turned out to be more complicated.

While not a deal breaker, this brought me into soldering. I might do a post just on that. Before I get into that, let's review the installation steps. It's pretty straightforward. Here are the steps.

  1. Decide where you'll mount the OpenGarage unit.

    1. You'll want it where it will be above the garage door when it is open. I almost didn't put mine close enough.
    2. You'll also want it above the vehicle to detect it.
    3. The instructions indicate you can use double-sided tape to attach it. I decided to use screws through the holes in the unit. I didn't think there were any good surfaces for double-sided tape.

  2. Run wire from the garage door opener to the OpenGarage unit.

    1. This was trickier than I expected.
    2. The length for me was an issue as I have a wall mounted opener. I underestimated how much I needed until I measured it.
    3. It took me a bit to find appropriate wire too.

  3. Connect the wire to the opener

    1. It was then trickier than I expected to insert these wires into the opener along with the wires from the opener wall control unit.
    2. I needed to strip a little more insulation from the wires so that both wires could fit into each terminal on the opener.

  4. Connect the wire to the OpenGarage unit.

    1. At the time I ordered the OpenGarage, only the hard-wired Security+ 2.0 adapter was available.
    2. You connect the pre-wired ends of the adapter to the OpenGarage unit.
    3. You then connect the wire you ran forom the opener to the adapter.

  5. Pairing the adapter to the opener.

    1. This did not work for me. I could not get the adapter paired.
    2. The opener opened at two different times after pairing the adapter but never a second time.
    3. I looked on the product page and noticed that they have a wireless adapter option and have noted that the hard-wired adapter doesn't work with every opener.
    4. I decided to open the remote I have, solder two wires, and then connect it to the OpenGarage unit.
    5. My soldering isn't good, but it still works!
    6. I don't think the wireless adapter is as reliable as hard-wired, but if the hard-wired one doesn't work...

  6. Set up the OpenGarage unit.

    1. You connect a device (phone, tablet, computer with a browser) to the OpenGarage as it is initially in wifi ap mode.
    2. Configure it for your wifi network.
    3. Change the Device key.
    4. Assign an ip address. I do this through my dhcp server but you can also do it on the unit under Advanced.
    5. You might need to adjust the door and vehicle threshold values. The default values work for me.

  7. Add OpenGarage to your smart home.

    1. I use Home Assistant and it has a built in integration for OpenGarage.
    2. It was easy to add. Just add a device/integration, specify OpenGarage, and accept the defaults.
    3. The config page for the unit has an option for IFTTT. There are other options too.
    4. I suggest you read through the manual and search for how to use it with your smart home setup.
    5. I used Home Assistant to publish the opener functionality to HomeKit.
    6. I can use Siri to open and close the garage door too!

Security+ 2.0 and Soldering This was dissapointing and frustrating. I'm over it. I have chalked this up to being an open source project. It would have been nice to know that the wired adapter doesn't work with every opener. I would have tried the wireless adapter first but didn't want to buy another adpater. The diy instructions on the product site were good; I figured it out. The bigger issue was the soldering. I had a soldering iron from a while ago when I thought I would solder and didn't. After watching a couple of videos, I was able to create a good enough connection. I soldered separate wires to each connection point on the opener remote. The other ends of the two wires are then attached to the OpenGarge unit by screws.

Wrapping it up. After a few weeks of using it, I am pretty happy especially with ignorning/forgetting the Security+ stuff. The opener has worked except one time; I assume that is because it's wireless. The HomeKit integration has worked well. I was skeptical of the ultrasonic sensor but it has been reliable and consistent. Overall I am pleased with OpenGarage. I look forward to trying our the vehicle presence feature.