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.

The problem with this is Chamberlain also implemented an encrypted protocol over their control wires in the name of "security".

If there's a button somewhere, there's gotta be a place I can splice into and pretend to be a finger, right?

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.

You'd close a garage door blindly and ignore any problems that could occur? You haven't thought this through.

Yes? The garage door opener has limit switches and PIR sensors attached to it to handle the safety stuff, the remote is simply a switch..

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.

MyQ lets you close them blindly. In fact, it has a built in timer that will blindly close it for you, after 30 minutes, or whatever you choose.

They have pressure sensor strips along the bottom to detect impact that's not the ground, to make this reasonable.

It's not some new idea, it's the current state of all of these remote doors.