Live data from Hacker News

Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes

arstechnica.com

161–170 of 191 posts

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

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opengarage is a similar option that comes out of the box ready to go. Also FOSS. https://opengarage.io/

Thanks for this, glanced at the site and I like that it's got a motion sensor built into the unit which is convenient. But I wasn't able to tell from an admittedly cursory glance if the opengarage can decrypt the Security+ 2.0 signal that's on the wire in MyQ devices, or if it's just a dry contact switch replacement which will not work for such devices.

I bought an OpenGarage for my brother maybe 5 years ago (“Black Friday” sale every year). He gave it back to me when he got a new opener. I updated the firmware , installed it on an old opener at our dad’s house and it works great. You might need the “Security 2.0” accessory, or they have instructions for soldering wires into an existing button:

https://openthings.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/...

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

#162
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Luckily, I just have to live with the nagging box about creating an account, but it continues to work without doing so. I just lose that screen real estate.

For now. The box informs us that the change is coming, not that it has come.

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

#163
post #120
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm told they do in fact work with other hubs. I've yet to try it, but I'll mourn the loss of my scheduling and scenes in the Hue app when I do.

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

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opengarage is a similar option that comes out of the box ready to go. Also FOSS. https://opengarage.io/

Thanks for this, glanced at the site and I like that it's got a motion sensor built into the unit which is convenient. But I wasn't able to tell from an admittedly cursory glance if the opengarage can decrypt the Security+ 2.0 signal that's on the wire in MyQ devices, or if it's just a dry contact switch replacement which will not work for such devices.

It will do Security+ 2.0 with an add-on module (or that was the case several years ago when I got mine).

The device has been fantastic, I got mine about 4 years ago and I just never think about it, it's never failed to work (even after power outages).

Mine isn't a motion sensor, it's a distance measuring device, it's how it can tell if a car is in the bay or the garage door itself is open (you set the distances in the device)

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

#165
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is only going to get worse. Manual operation seems perfectly understandable in this context. Odds of some AirBnB driving off accidentally with the remote approach 100%.

Honestly, a bigger worry imo is cars that have something like homelink. You can copy a garage door opener, and basically give yourself a garage door opener access whenever you want. I did this accidentally to an old rental house I lived in. When I moved out later I drove by one time and … turns out the homelink still worked. For a criminal, it’d be a very easy way to get back in without any trace.

Yeah but in reality former tenants are statistically unlikely to be criminals -- you probably ran a background check on them prior to them moving in, didn't you? Former tenants could have copied front door keys after all, and probably did for noble reasons like SOs, etc.

The garage door remote I modified with the Zigbee relay is a remote I purchased and paired with my rental unit's garage door opener, and then took apart for modification. I don't own the property or the garage door opener, I just looked up which model of remote it used, bought one, and paired it. I also have the landlord-provided remote as a backup.

I don't think HomeLink is particularly dangerous in this regard; anyone can purchase additional remotes and pair them, they don't need a car with HomeLink.

If you're really worried as a landlord, reset your garage door openers for every new tenant re-pair the remotes they presumably returned to you, and re-key your front door locks while you're at it. Microscopic cost compared to what the tenant probably paid you.

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

#166
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is only going to get worse. Manual operation seems perfectly understandable in this context. Odds of some AirBnB driving off accidentally with the remote approach 100%.

Honestly, a bigger worry imo is cars that have something like homelink. You can copy a garage door opener, and basically give yourself a garage door opener access whenever you want. I did this accidentally to an old rental house I lived in. When I moved out later I drove by one time and … turns out the homelink still worked. For a criminal, it’d be a very easy way to get back in without any trace.

Just wait until you see how easy it is to copy keys - and how basically zero landlords ever change them between tenants.

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

#167
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's when I found that they actually DRM'ed the button. The usual pair of wires was there, but I couldn't open the door by simply shorting them together. Oof. That's awful, but put a servo above the button that physically hits the button. Analog loopholes are immune to DRM.

As the DRM arms race continue, in the next model the button will be a fingerprint reader. To make sure you're not cheating, you can only use the reader in the precise moment an ad you have to watch will tell you so. Of course, even then you will have to watch the ad till completion before the button really does anything.

Haha, silicone case of my finger on the end of the button! taps forehead

The arms race continues I guess.

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

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't in the USA, because antitrust laws are seldom enforced. Hence "inflation" and shit like this.

Antitrust law doesn't help when "fucking over the customer" is a local minimum for the whole market. Everyone will independently arrive at the "solution", and outcompete those who won't.

And unfortunately, that is the local minima for most markets.

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

#169
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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!

We're this close to living the original Robocop timeline. Even they didn't expect Trump to actually be president though.

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

#170
post #125

"unauthorized users". They are authorized if they are trying to control their own garage door. The company I work for has a policy where we don't block third party clients, as long as they use a uniquely identifiable user agent and API key that we provide to them. That way we can easily monitor if they're calling endpoints excessively and make sure that our alarms don't go off when they did something wrong, but still…

I just connected my garage door opener to Home Assistant by taking apart the remote and wiring the button to a Zigbee relay. They can't stop me, no part of this is connected to their cloud. In any case, smart home stuff should never rely on the cloud. https://i.imgur.com/lNOXdhe.jpg

Thats cool, how do you monitor status of the door? Open/Closed/Jammed/Overloaded?
Post reply on HN