These companies know that they can do this with impunity. Even if there is a lawsuit it will be a slap on the wrist that comes many many years later. Remember the PS3 thing.
What needs to happen is new consumer protection laws need to be put in place. Like when these changes occur to stop allowing functionality the manufacturer can either open source everything needed so the purchaser has the ability to self manage and retain the prior functions or the must offer a full refund in the amount of the MSRP regardless of age or proof of purchase, just return the product. Without a downside this will continue to happen.
Open sourcing would probably be their best option. Because it's been repeatedly shown that if they offer a good product people will still pay as the hassle for running/managing things like this isn't what most people care to do. The sad fact is they produce a subpar system and they only way they can get customers is to trap them.
Legislated “local access first” for devices that don’t logically need Internet access would be the most appropriate mandate, but you’ll need some sort of savant word wrangler to codify into law.
In case anyone is interested, the Meross HomeKit garage door controller works great. I’ve had two running for a couple years with essentially no hitches. They don’t require internet access or an app other than HomeKit, which meets my needs perfectly.
Same, good experience, with the Meross Homekit capable garage opener. I do like that it’s a wired setup, which us more secure (I just erased all the paired radio openers). My only gripe is that I have Apple Watch Series 3 and the resent forced upgrade of the Home app means I can bo longer control anything from my watch which sucks!
I honestly don't know how anyone can feel confident buying any "smart home" gadget that requires an internet connection to work, especially when HomeKit and HomeAssistant exists!
If HomeKit/HomeAssistant didn't exist I would simply have a dumb home, it's not worth the risk.
For whatever it is worth, my skepticism of devices that require a separate app or remote API integration has steadily then dramatically increased over the last few years. I cannot rely on 1) small, perhaps-VC-funded operations continuing to exist more than a few years and 2) even for large players in the IOT space (Apple, Google), I worry about long term support. At what point will I be faced with the prospect of buying a new car to ensure that I can continue using CarPlay? (At that point I'll just buy a phone mount.)
To that end, I recently picked up a Flirc remote to control my byzantine gaming and home theater setup [1]. It doesn't support all the features I need (yet), I'm concerned that the company will not be able to delivery on their roadmap, BUT they release their remote configuration tool as a stand-alone app that I know I can keep running, perhaps in a VM if needed, for the lifetime of the remote. All of the other smart remote alternatives require smartphone apps to program and maintain, and I have zero faith that they won't disappear and turn the remote into ewaste long before the remote hardware fails (or I stop having a need for it).
There is a device on Amazon that hooks up to Smart App (or Alexa) that you can get for about $20. It is just 2.4ghz wifi and a couple wires and hooks up in a few minutes. Comes under a bunch of various chinese knockoff sellers... this thing works great.
I built garage door sensor using a Fibaro Z-Wave Smart Implant and $10 magnetic sensor off ebay. There's enough spare contacts on the implant to also drive the open / close contacts on the garage door if I wanted to.
You're on the right track here. Garage doors are a security risk and safety hazard. All these homebrewed, cobbled together solutions aren't tested to UL standards like the official stuff is.
>> I think the problem with using a relay is that you probably miss state information like open/closed/obstructed, etc.
> You're on the right track here. Garage doors are a security risk and safety hazard. All these homebrewed, cobbled together solutions aren't tested to UL standards like the official stuff is.
How so? I don't think anyone's talking about a homebrewed garage door opener, just a hacked garage door opener remote. It would almost certainly be physically and electrically isolated from the actual UL-tested opener.
If you're doing homebrew, a pretty easy and effective solution to the "state" problem is point a camera at the door. That also gives you better (remote) situational awareness when the door is going to close than any commercial solution on the market (though I haven't actually checked what's available in 10 years).
I actually built a IOT garage door remote about 10 years ago (I got the hardware working, but lost steam with the control software beyond running commands over ssh). The effort I spent to directly sense the door state was a waste. You've got a good solution with a Raspberry Pi, an off-the-shelf remote, a reed relay wired to one of the buttons, and a webcam.
But ultimately, the best and cheapest solution is neighbors who will help you.
You can leave the infrared sensors in place, and use the relay to simulate a button press. It wouldn't be any more dangerous than clicking your remote when you can't see the door.
Yep, but you need to do it on the board of a proprietary doorbell. Many projects take a cheap one and modify it. The unique thing about ratgdo is it reverse engineered the protocol.
I'm pretty sure that's how most remote controlled garage doors get closed.
Maybe some people in individual houses watch and wait for their door to be fully closed before driving away, but that doesn't seem to be the norm for collective housing (I've certainly never cared myself) or even for most individual garages around here.
F*ck these assholes. Pardon my language but I can’t hold back. Someone somewhere decided that this was a problem worth solving? You can’t stop it and also say it affects a small number of users. Which one is it? Was it a noisy neighbor problem?
I used homebridge for years and now this nonsense.
Maybe someone can build an SDR version that simulates the garage door remote? Then these jackasses can’t stop it.
Does anyone know how they were able to stop third party use? Certificate pinning to the API?
I haven’t previously heard about the ratgdo, but I recently did this myself with an ESP8266, relay, garage door remote, and Tasmota for the firmware. It works flawlessly with MQTT/Homeassistant. The individual components (excluding the opener) are < $10.
You are missing the beauty of the ratdgo. The ratdgo has open source firmware that implements the encrypted serial communications needed to control and get status (open/opening/closed/closing) from Chamberlain / Liftmaster garage doors (without needing the myQ hub).
One good thing still about Chamberlain garage door openers is that the screw terminal to wire up the wall switch is still accessible. So when I recently had my garage door replaced, I never bothered to activate the MyQ crap that came with it. I simply wired up my old Z-wave garage door opener module and sensor via two small wires to the two terminal screws. Then paired the module to HASS.
Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if one day companies like these block access to the terminal leads for the wall switch and replace it with some proprietary cable connector and switch.
Seems HN changed the link. the developer of the extension explains it on the home assistant forum. They are using firebase app check which uses remote attestation.
Tough room. Have deployed three of these- for every HN IFTTT-style user lamenting the API's death, there's approximately 99,345,223 of the rest of us who use the accompanying app to open/close our garage doors and let us know if we forgot to close them; Chamberlain taking a "don't let the garage door drop down on your ass on the way out" stance probably won't even make a noticeable blip in sales.
What needs to happen is new consumer protection laws need to be put in place. Like when these changes occur to stop allowing functionality the manufacturer can either open source everything needed so the purchaser has the ability to self manage and retain the prior functions or the must offer a full refund in the amount of the MSRP regardless of age or proof of purchase, just return the product. Without a downside this will continue to happen.
Open sourcing would probably be their best option. Because it's been repeatedly shown that if they offer a good product people will still pay as the hassle for running/managing things like this isn't what most people care to do. The sad fact is they produce a subpar system and they only way they can get customers is to trap them.