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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

#51

Post by Tyr42 »

brightball wrote: post #21
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...

That is pretty cool. I would buy the ceiling cord and maybe the speaker. No more tripping hazards.

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

#52

Post by _ea1k »

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…

That "opens by itself" angle is their excuse for not allowing good Alexa or IFTT integration.

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

#54

Post by jihadjihad »

jasode wrote: post #47
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…

>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 conversion rates be ridiculous? This reddit thread says it uses a UI dark pattern of moving the "open/close button" from a familiar screen position formed by habitual use such that you accidentally click on an ad for a $3000 pet door: https://old.reddit.com/r/myq/comments/xoxr…

It almost reads as parody: right in my Q zone. It's the Darmine Doggy Door!

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

#55

Post by maxwell »

infecto wrote: post #41
bastard_op wrote: post #38

This is the unfortunate future of all "smart" devices, but this is still truly a scumbag move on their part, particularly since they're only doing the pump and dump on Android phones. It's like selling crack in poor neighborhoods. Now I know never to buy Chamberlain products in my home, and recommend anyone I know doesn't either.

Thats the problem. There are really only two garage door companies in America and they are both terrible from a tech perspective.

That seems to be the problem across most industries in the U.S.

Seems expected after the courts stopped enforcing the Sherman Antitrust Act and started allowing vertical restraints.

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

#56

Post by zikduruqe »

nunez wrote: post #48

They never technically allowed it in the first place. Homebridge and Home Assistant used a popular Python library that reverse-engineered the MyQ API from the Android app. Many companies couldn't care less until abuse ramps up, but given that Chamberlain (Blackstone-owned) has gone into rent-seeking mode all of a sudden, they decided to turn the Cloudflare Super Bot Fight stuff way the hell up on their OIDC token exc…

Yep, I kicked MyQ out of the house for Meross.

Added benefit, is that Meross opener is just a dry on switch. It doesn't have to be for a garage door, but for any momentary push button.

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

#57

Post by wolrah »

brightball wrote: post #21
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...

I have one of those and trust me, you do not want it.

I was excited about it when we bought the house, but:

1. The remote control range is terrible. Both of our remotes regularly fail to operate the door from less than a car length in to the driveway, through a normal garage door in a normal wood framed home, even with fresh batteries.

2. EVERY control accessory is proprietary, even the wall button. Our house came with the button missing and it can't be replaced with just a normal button. The entire line is out of production as well so the only options for replacement are expensive NOS. Likewise for the keypad and remotes, there are no third party replacements that are compatible and the first party stuff is out of production.

3. The app doesn't work, it won't even detect the opener. Because even the button is proprietary I can't even install an aftermarket controller.

The Ryobi opener has some great ideas like the accessory ports and the support for a battery backup using a battery many of us already have, but they went out of their way to make it worse than any other opener on the market in multiple ways and then abandoned their users. I'm going to be replacing mine with a simple dumb Genie or similar with a DIY controller hooked to the wall button port as soon as we get some garage work completed.

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

#58

Post by mym1990 »

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…

I think it’s not so much about getting a conversion right there and there, but slowly chiseling away at someone’s willpower so that eventually they do buy the thing…whether it’s from their couch or somewhere else.

Also, if you’re about to go into your house, the ad in the car may be priming you for buying something.

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

#59

Post by londons_explore »

londons_explore wrote: post #29
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.

Specifically... The mqtt server should advertise itself on the local network via mdns. The devices should auto-discover the server. Therefore, no config required of the device beyond wifi username/password.

Then dashboards/controllers (who should also auto discover the server via the same method) should be able to send some message to some well-known topic on the server to find all connected devices.

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

#60

Post by devmor »

iSnow wrote: post #11
djhworld wrote: post #6

The home assistant blog post goes into this issue as well https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2023/11/06/removal-of-myq... If anything it highlights the point that having a cloud service to handle your smart home device is a recipe for shenanigans like this. Stick with ZigBee/Matter devices, and if the device is WiFi try and at least make sure it works over the local network.

Buying smart home devices with cloud integration also just means that at some point, the manufacturer will declare it obsolete and will rip out support to force you to re-buy every 5-7y.

Or force you to make an account and opt-in to their metrics instead of using your devices locally-only after years. Looking at you, Phillips Hue.
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