Aren’t garage door button just simple momentary switches? So use an aftermarket “smart” remote or button?
Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API
71–80 of 655 posts
Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API
#72If you buy a device that relies on a server connection for functioning, you might legally own it, but it essentially is 'on loan' by the company. Well, you could always strip it for copper, I guess...
Devices that rely on cloud infrastructure should be required to carry an expiration date right on the box. "This item guaranteed to receive support until XX/XX/XX"
The date should at least match the expiration date of any root CA public certificates installed on the device.
Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can access the device when you're away from home if it's internet connected. Of course, the server doesn't need to be doing much besides proxying connections.
Why would you need to access a garage door opener when away from home?
Putting aside the very legitimate use cases highlighted in other messages, a very simple one is: you're just arriving at home, but are still not (yet) connected to wifi.
These very practical daily occurrences can make devices incredibly annoying and frustrating for typical consumers who want it to just work.
Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
On top of the lack of integration support, the MyQ app used to open garage doors is full of advertisements. It's ridiculous. I regret buying their products.
> the MyQ app used to open garage doors is full of advertisements. This will most likely be a significant factor in though, though good luck getting them to admit it. HA users will mostly be bypassing the app and therefore not providing revenue via ad impressions.
The fact that a garage door accessory company relies on showing ads is a triumph for MBAs programs and a tragedy for the human race.
Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API
#75Great to know which vendor I will NOT be buying from.
Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API
#76I use Home Assistant and have this openner. My installer recommeneded it because he’s had happy customers like me who use home automation. I can tell you that I a) will never recommend or buy the brand again, and b) have already complained to my installer about his recommendation of this line (and he is moving to another brand). I wish ratgdo a ton of success and have several on order.
On top of the lack of integration support, the MyQ app used to open garage doors is full of advertisements. It's ridiculous. I regret buying their products.
And there you have it folks. That's the number one reason why they are forcing you to use their app.
Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API
#77FYI if you want smart things that are not yet limited by this bs decisions, afaik IKEA products are pretty neat
Yepp, I have some IKEA buttons and they are just Zigbee devices. They also sell lamps etc., mostly Zigbee based from what I remember.
For the Germans (maybe other countries as well): The Lidl smart home things are nearly all Zigbee based. So far no problems with them and they are, IMO, reasonably priced. I somehow trust Lidl more to not burn my house down than random Amazon sellers. They also sell a Zigbee gateway that phones home by default, but can be converted to local only, dumb mode that works fine with Home Assistant [1] with a tiny bit of soldering. I use these exclusively without problems, even the one I rooted for my parents works without any maintenance.
Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
This thing probably phones home every time you open or close your door, no matter if you do it via their smart portal or manually.
Yes, but according to their statement, the official client seems to behave better than the HA-implementation. Maybe HA is brute forcing something, like pulling state every 10 seconds or so. And this is a legit complaint from their side if this is the case.
If pulling the state goes through the cloud app it is their (self-inflicted) problem.
Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can access the device when you're away from home if it's internet connected. Of course, the server doesn't need to be doing much besides proxying connections.
And of course, you can easily run a VPN/Tailscale/ZeroTier/whatever to achieve the same without the downsides.
I'm quite confident my parents and the many people like them in the world would not find running VPN/Tailscale/ZeroTier to be "easy." Nor would they have any idea how to troubleshoot when those services have issues. Nor would they want to play intermediary between Tailscale and myQ customer support to figure out which one is broken and fix it.
Having options like this is great for powerusers, but the vast majority of people are not that. They need something that just works. Of course that still doesn't mean they need their garage door collecting telemetry data, but they need something more than a LAN-connected smart device.
Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API
#80Is this "myQ ecosystem" the only way to interact with these garage doors? i.e. is there no way to communicate with them without involving the manufacturer's server?
My garage doors (purchased within the last year) have "regular" buttons / car remotes to open them, myQ was 100% optional. I basically use it as a way to alert me when the garage door opens (someone just came home, amazon is doing that semi-weird in-garage delivery thing, etc)