I agree that MyQ shouldn't have e to support an API with a bunch of ad-hoc users if they don't want to. I just don't understand why everything has to be an internet connected API for a cess. I wish companies would provide local access and the option to disable the connected functionality.
Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes
111–120 of 191 posts
Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 wi…
Yikes. Well, I feel better now. Guess that's why they discontinued it.
> Yikes. Well, I feel better now. Guess that's why they discontinued it.
My understanding is that the discontinuation was actually over patent issues or something in that general area.
Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 wi…
In my personal experience with Ryobi products, I would have been equally served buying from Harbor Freight. At least the prices would have been cheaper for an item that is expected to be a crap shoot on it working. Ryobi batteries have been known to be badly manufactured so a newly purchased battery will not charge. If you take the time to research it and call (no webform for this), they will ask for serial numbers a…
For what it's worth my experience has been the opposite. I bought one of their multiple tool bags back in the mid-00s and I'm still using all the original tools as well as a few more I've purchased since. The original NiMH batteries are all toast, but the tools run better on the new lithium batteries than they ever did on the NiMHs. I have about 8 years on my first set of lithium batteries and those are still going strong too.
When I bought my house I was planning to get in to Ryobi's yard tool ecosystem since my experience with their 18v tools had been so good, but the garage door opener experience was enough to give me a push to eGo.
Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes
#114One less company I need to consider for the new house we're building.
Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes
#115Why does one company have so much market share in garage doors anyway? This should be a commodity. Just a bunch of motors attached to a door attached to a rpi.
Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes
#116Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes
#117The 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 don't think Richard Stallman missed that point at all.
The dude started the whole FSF movement because he wanted better printer drivers. As you may notice, forty years have passed and the printer drivers are still shitty, and still proprietary. So while his opinions about the goals may be interesting, his opinions on the means can be safely disregarded IMO.
Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes
#118Knowing someone involved with the Chamberlain technology stack, it sounds like certain users had reverse engineered the API and suddenly caused a DDOS on the Chamberlain cloud with their requests.
This is a cloud service with real costs. Chamberlain has a responsibility to maintain access for its users.
I can’t speak for Chamberlain, but this reaction seems reasonable.
Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a strange point to make. - People complaining that their IoT device doesn't integrate with Home Assistant anymore... - Solution (?): Stop buying IoT devices so that nothing integrates with Home Assistant. That's kind of the exact opposite of people's goals in this situation.
IIR - the article describes Chamberlain's goal as "force all users to scroll past a bunch of ads in our Garage Door Opener app, in order to get to the OPEN/CLOSE button". To me, that sounds like a worse case than "Just use a dedicated 1990's-tech garage door opener, that I keep in my car". If Chamberlain's cloudy infrastructure was off-line (internet outage, went bankrupt, or the just lost interest), would there be a…
The MyQ garage doors have both an app and a regular opener.
Re: Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Assume you can just connect them to another hub?
Doesn't excuse philips but that was at least the only reason I'd consider using them.