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Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

home-assistant.io

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Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#51

Post by neodymiumphish »

malermeister wrote: post #49
PurpleRamen wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Home Assistant users are power users, thus more likely to actually use the devices in question; >50% traffic from 0.2% of the users is far too big of a discrepancy to just explain it away with powerusers. Customers too have to follow a fair level of usage. > designed to discourage effective use (while maximizing data collection). What valuable data can they collect, if nobody is using it?

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.

As a former MyQ user, I can say definitively that this is accurate. There's a magnetic sensor that you put on the door for it to track the state of the door, so the app is always correct on whether it's open or closed.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#52

Post by PurpleRamen »

malermeister wrote: post #49
PurpleRamen wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Home Assistant users are power users, thus more likely to actually use the devices in question; >50% traffic from 0.2% of the users is far too big of a discrepancy to just explain it away with powerusers. Customers too have to follow a fair level of usage. > designed to discourage effective use (while maximizing data collection). What valuable data can they collect, if nobody is using it?

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.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#53

Post by rft »

j45 wrote: post #29

One extra step I’ve learned to follow is to verify if needed, could the hardware be permanently redirected to a local server, and worst case reflagged with a different firmware or it can be redirected to remain local. The latter is sometimes easier if it’s a Tuya based device, which a lot of these unknown devices are. https://github.com/make-all/tuya-local One of the main things these “smart” devices do is use your i…

> https://github.com/make-all/tuya-local

Just a small warning: make sure to check whether your device needs to be added to the Tuya cloud to get a local API key. I was only able to get "my" lamp working locally after registering it via the app and creating a developer account.

Another option can be flashing it with Tasmota: https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Tuya-Convert/

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#54

Post by tmccrary55 »

nijave wrote: post #32
api wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that these require some kind of server. Get one that just talks to HA over your local network. Why in the hell does a garage door opener need a server? Oh, data collection. And subscriptions. Nothing for the user. I avoid any home automation thing that has any cloud backing that's not strictly optional. It's a strong anti-feature. In home stuff cloud means it won't work when the Internet is down, it sp…

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.

You can also just do both.

I'd rather that it use the LAN, if I'm there at the time.

Data collection and remote access can just be their own functionality.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#55

Post by pmontra »

RobotToaster wrote: post #41
nijave wrote: post #32

Earlier 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?

I forgot it open.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#56

Post by hnbad »

ekianjo wrote: post #28

Why does a garage door need an API?

To allow remote control. Of course this is silly and the real answer is to make you dependent on their app which shows you ads.

Also many smaller smart home device manufacturers with an app seem to be heading in the direction of wanting to expand into other smart home devices and lock you into their proprietary ecosystem, while the rest of the industry simultaneously seems to move towards more interoperability via things like the Matter protocol, presumably to make it easier to interact with various voice assistants without requiring an individual gateway for each one.

This is just another reason to distrust any smart home device that doesn't support ZigBee, Matter, or a similar purpose-built local protocol.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#57

Post by neodymiumphish »

RobotToaster wrote: post #41
nijave wrote: post #32

Earlier 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?

Give access to a friend or family member when you're out of town.

Allow package deliverers to put a package in your garage instead of on your step.

When I had MyQ, I used it almost exclusively when I was on my motorcycle. I had it configured so that I could tap a button on my phone that tracked my location and enabled a geofence around my house so it would ping the MyQ to open when I got about a quarter mile from home. I called this my "riding home" mode. This saved me the trouble of having to get my gloves off and open the door through the app when I got to my driveway, and I didn't have to leave a garage door opener on/with my bike.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#58

Post by op00to »

I built my own HA integration with a tilt sensor and a relay to trigger the button. I have a camera on the door, I wonder if I can use that to validate the switch.

I normally leave it disconnected from the switch because I don’t need to open the door remotely and I am afraid that some exploit will have a Russian 13 year old opening and closing my door at 4am.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#59

Post by sokoloff »

malermeister wrote: post #50
sokoloff wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software escrow processes could (partially) solve this, at an upfront cost for every company developing and selling such a device (meaning, at a price that will ultimately be paid by consumers).

Some government agency could be doing the escrow, at no charge to the company.

There is still a process cost to participate in any escrow process, both on an initial and on-going basis.

(That's before the blindingly obvious observation that even something provided by the government at no cost at point of use has a cost which is ultimately borne by the people.)

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#60

Post by op00to »

HunterWare wrote: post #27
meindnoch wrote: post #20

Is 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?

You can buy little ESPHome devices that will speak it’s local serial protocol and control it. (And then link to them how you want) It’s incredibly annoying and dumb and I now have to get some. grumble

You can just use a relay to open and close the door if that’s all you want.

Edit: no you can't, if it's the fancy one. You gotta hack a switch like this: LiftMaster 883LM Security+ 2.0 MyQ Door Control Push Button

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