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Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes

arstechnica.com

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Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes

#21

Post by brightball »

fidotron wrote: post #4

The brazenness of Chamberlain here is incredible given how problematic a garage door that opens by itself could prove to be, and they could have chosen to go on about that, but instead they just go for the full crazy angle. Ultimately this whole using-a-product-means-using-the-user-experience-dictated-by-the-product-seller, be it SaaS, mobile app or hardware is a total dead end. The part Richard Stallman missed when…

I wish this door opener from Ryobi had caught on. Thought it was a great idea.

https://www.homeconstructionimprovement.com/ryobi-launches-l...

Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes

#22

Post by Someone1234 »

fest wrote: post #7

I use a very crude DIY setup for garage doors and yard gate: bought a spare keyfob on aliexpress, took it apart and connected it to wall power supply and ESP relay board running esphome. Works great and will work as long as my garage door and yard gate openers work. The only drawback is that it's less secure, as it uses RF but I can't be bothered to dig a new cable to gate motor through already paved driveway.

That solution has multiple drawbacks, not least of all you lose access to the sensors (motion, door open/closed state, etc) but also it is difficult to install.

Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes

#23

Post by thedougd »

emmet wrote: post #14
SargeDebian wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you intentionally remove functionality, why would any functionality be safe from that?

Sorry, my question is if Matter is baked in or can be stripped. Not sure if they can remotely kill the Thread radio or not.

Yes they could push a firmware update and do whatever they want. Matter is also available over WiFi. Leviton is pushing new firmware to enable Matter on existing devices.

Of course, a power user could block their Matter network from accessing the Internet or update server.

Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes

#24

Post by thedougd »

Their integration with Google was terrible and last I used it only worked with Assistant and not Home. They’re dropping HomeKit and Google Assistant support now as well. So most customers won’t get what they want and will look elsewhere.

Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes

#25

Post by eps »

dwighttk wrote: post #10
jve wrote: post #5

> Ah, now it makes sense. Your garage door opener app isn't here only to open your garage door; it's here to display ads and upsell you on services. > "I clicked door open/close event and it popped up the video storage subscription dialog to ask me to subscribe," I mean... who, while waiting to get into or out of garage, sitting in the car or soon to be sitting in the car clicks on ads to buy something? Wouldn't conv…

Slightly less irritating than garage door, but: I’ve been going to my baseball team’s website recently to buy stuff because they won, and a 5 second video ad pops up every time you go… I’m here, I want to spend money, and you want to show me ads?

The correct question is why you are on HN and yet don't use an ad blocker.

Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes

#27

Post by scioto »

rft wrote: post #19
gpderetta wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The add-free version will be soon be available for 9.99€ per Month.

In a year you need to subscribe to the 14.99€/month tier to remove all ads, the 9.99€ tier will show you "a low number of highly relevant ads to provide you with information on how to more optimally use our^Wyour device and support our continued development of these industry leading services". On a less snarky note, I hate how this has become so common that for some reason this is not "sue the company into non-existe…

More like in a year you'll need to subscribe to the 14.99€/month tier to get it to work at all.

Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes

#28

Post by passwordoops »

eps wrote: post #25
dwighttk wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slightly less irritating than garage door, but: I’ve been going to my baseball team’s website recently to buy stuff because they won, and a 5 second video ad pops up every time you go… I’m here, I want to spend money, and you want to show me ads?

The correct question is why you are on HN and yet don't use an ad blocker.

Yes and no. OP is pointing to the forest, while your reply is focused on his tree

Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes

#29

Post by londons_explore »

robbywashere_ wrote: post #26

An esp32, a mqtt node and iftt hooked up to google/Siri goes a long way

Unfortunately, mqtt autodiscovery seems fraught with bugs...

I just want some way for devices to publish/report their model numbers and what features they offer/support so everything can auto-configure itself rather than requiring me to manually set MQTT paths/filters/parsers for every device I get.

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