> With that in mind, Kevin O’Reilly, the executive director of the FULU Foundation (it’s an acronym for Freedom from Unethical Limitations on Users), a nonprofit that fights for consumer ownership of devices, runs a bounty program that involves awarding money to people who can restore functionality to devices that have been bricked by manufacturers.
This sounds awesome. Would be amazing if someone could do this for the Google Nest Protect system, which was bricked last year.
With garage doors, at least you can make a physical device that literally depresses the button (and perhaps optionally has a camera to show the current state). Other devices aren't so amenable to physical fixes like this.
> it is possible for a savvy user to partially control the newer hardware in limited ways by hacking open the wall button and soldering a connection to a third-party relay module that interfaces with your home control system. But your home control system won't know if the garage door is open, closed or in-between or if/when it was remotely activated from an arriving or leaving vehicle. It also won't know if the door stopped due to the electric eye being blocked. Knowing the full system state, activation history and sensor data is much better, enabling all kinds of flexible automations like auto opening as you enter your driveway.
You could, in theory, start adding more third-party sensors around your garage door opener like a tilt/angle sensor on the door, a voltage detector on the motor wires, etc but it's just more and more "science project" to regain access to information that should be yours to start with. It's not like Chamberlain is giving away these garage door openers for free - just buy a non-Chamberlain brand (note: they now own MyQ, LiftMaster, Merlin, Arrow and several others so shop carefully). If you have a 2.0 (or earlier) Chamberlain from before ~2022 get a RATGDO to open it back up 100%. If you're stuck with a post-2022 encrypted 3.0 Chamberlain, then your only options are science project hacking to regain some limited control or just replacing it. I'm fortunate to have 2.0 Chamberlains and I only bought them because they HAD an open API that worked with open source Home Assistant - then Chamberlain sprang their carefully laid trap. I don't believe it was "accidental" that they heavily marketed compatibility with open source while acquiring several competing brands, then discontinued API access at the moment they released new hardware with unnecessary encryption on wires that are internal to the user's home.
Yeah, having a system that knows the door's state would be ideal, but TBH we have cameras that can see the state already, so just checking that before hitting the button would do the trick for me. I recall seeing a smart device that can be used to push buttons on coffee makers or garage doors, or other devices that require physical button presses.
Yes, there are several cheap Home Assistant-compatible devices to do dry contact closure and/or a 5v pulse. The Shelly 1 is a popular turn key Wifi-based option but there are wired and Zigbee options as well.
Many come with (or can be OTA flashed with) Tasmota or ESP Home open source firmware, ensuring you'll continue to control them forever locally and/or via your cloud API of choice - which I highly recommend doing. I built a new house with 75 ESP 8266-based in-wall WiFi dimmer switches ($19 ea) plus dozens of other wall plugs, power strips, sensors, etc - all running Tasmota. It's great because each Tasmota device powers up and works as expected as a 'dumb' device. The dimmers always dim and the wall plugs/power strips have physical on/off buttons that always work.
But they'll also connect with each other via Wifi in ad-hoc device groups (if I enable that option) and will follow whatever rules I set in their on-device config - like "you are Device #3 in Group #2 and you follow-the-leader of Device #5". And they do this even if there's no Wifi router active. If there IS a Wifi router available, then they'll log on to the local-only subnet I've limited them to and work under local and/or cloud Home Assistant control with infinite automation possibilities. So it's an open, flexible, secure system that can be maximally "Smart" but has layered fallbacks which guarantee as long as there's 110v power - the lights, plugs and other devices always fucking work.
IMHO, open source with layered dumb --> local --> any-cloud-API-you-like is the only sane home automation architecture. There's no way I'm ever permanently installing some for-profit company's opaque, remotely updatable system into my home's walls. Even if they don't turn evil like Chamberlain did, it would be crazy to leave the basic functionality of my house's lights, door locks, HVAC, sensors, etc at the mercy of some vendor bug, broadband outage or regional S3 'mis-configuration'.
Chamberlain is one of the worst anti-user companies because they used a trojan horse deception while they were buying up other garage door opener companies to eliminate competition (they now own MyQ, LiftMaster, Merlin, CPSG, Arrow and several others). Their products used to have an open API and worked well with open source home control systems like Home Assistant. HA support was specifically why I chose to install their products in two homes (Liftmaster brand). Then around 2022 they pulled a Darth Vader and "changed the deal" by shutting down API access for third-parties - except for companies willing to pay them - AND releasing a new 3.0 version of their control hardware that's encrypted.
While the prior versions of their control hardware weren't documented, it was still possible to reverse engineer the serial protocol. But the new hardware even encrypts communications between the wall button and lift motor for no legitimate security reason other than "securing" Chamberlain's revenue stream. Fortunately my units are the older 2.0 version hardware so third-party add-ons like RATGDO can tap into the system and open it back up. While adding that hardware is an extra hassle I didn't expect, newer customers don't even have that option. I used to have a Home Assistant failsafe automation that closed the garage door if it was accidentally left open and we weren't home. That automation worked great for years and then just stopped working when Chamberlain disabled their open API.
Even if Chamberlain provided a similar capability in the set of minimal "free features" in their walled garden of paid upgrade app features (they don't), I wouldn't use it because they lace their apps and panels with pop-ups ads. And there's ZERO fucking chance I'm giving some company's black box device access to my family's real-time phone/vehicle locations or internal home motion sensor data to enable the most useful deep automations. It's bad enough their untrusted device is still in my home. There's no way I'm giving it access to my network, much less the Internet.
(To be clear, it is possible for a savvy user to partially control the newer hardware in limited ways by hacking open the wall button and soldering a connection to a third-party relay module that interfaces with your home control system. But your home control system won't know if the garage door is open, closed or in-between or if/when it was remotely activated from an arriving or leaving vehicle. It also won't know if the door stopped due to the electric eye being blocked. Knowing the full system state, activation history and sensor data is much better, enabling all kinds of flexible automations like auto opening as you enter your driveway. Never buy a garage door opener from a Chamberlain-owned brand).
> With that in mind, Kevin O’Reilly, the executive director of the FULU Foundation (it’s an acronym for Freedom from Unethical Limitations on Users), a nonprofit that fights for consumer ownership of devices, runs a bounty program that involves awarding money to people who can restore functionality to devices that have been bricked by manufacturers.
This sounds awesome. Would be amazing if someone could do this for the Google Nest Protect system, which was bricked last year.
https://archive.is/Jqf1d
With garage doors, at least you can make a physical device that literally depresses the button (and perhaps optionally has a camera to show the current state). Other devices aren't so amenable to physical fixes like this.
Quoting from my more detailed post below...
> it is possible for a savvy user to partially control the newer hardware in limited ways by hacking open the wall button and soldering a connection to a third-party relay module that interfaces with your home control system. But your home control system won't know if the garage door is open, closed or in-between or if/when it was remotely activated from an arriving or leaving vehicle. It also won't know if the door stopped due to the electric eye being blocked. Knowing the full system state, activation history and sensor data is much better, enabling all kinds of flexible automations like auto opening as you enter your driveway.
You could, in theory, start adding more third-party sensors around your garage door opener like a tilt/angle sensor on the door, a voltage detector on the motor wires, etc but it's just more and more "science project" to regain access to information that should be yours to start with. It's not like Chamberlain is giving away these garage door openers for free - just buy a non-Chamberlain brand (note: they now own MyQ, LiftMaster, Merlin, Arrow and several others so shop carefully). If you have a 2.0 (or earlier) Chamberlain from before ~2022 get a RATGDO to open it back up 100%. If you're stuck with a post-2022 encrypted 3.0 Chamberlain, then your only options are science project hacking to regain some limited control or just replacing it. I'm fortunate to have 2.0 Chamberlains and I only bought them because they HAD an open API that worked with open source Home Assistant - then Chamberlain sprang their carefully laid trap. I don't believe it was "accidental" that they heavily marketed compatibility with open source while acquiring several competing brands, then discontinued API access at the moment they released new hardware with unnecessary encryption on wires that are internal to the user's home.
Yeah, having a system that knows the door's state would be ideal, but TBH we have cameras that can see the state already, so just checking that before hitting the button would do the trick for me. I recall seeing a smart device that can be used to push buttons on coffee makers or garage doors, or other devices that require physical button presses.
Yes, there are several cheap Home Assistant-compatible devices to do dry contact closure and/or a 5v pulse. The Shelly 1 is a popular turn key Wifi-based option but there are wired and Zigbee options as well.
Many come with (or can be OTA flashed with) Tasmota or ESP Home open source firmware, ensuring you'll continue to control them forever locally and/or via your cloud API of choice - which I highly recommend doing. I built a new house with 75 ESP 8266-based in-wall WiFi dimmer switches ($19 ea) plus dozens of other wall plugs, power strips, sensors, etc - all running Tasmota. It's great because each Tasmota device powers up and works as expected as a 'dumb' device. The dimmers always dim and the wall plugs/power strips have physical on/off buttons that always work.
But they'll also connect with each other via Wifi in ad-hoc device groups (if I enable that option) and will follow whatever rules I set in their on-device config - like "you are Device #3 in Group #2 and you follow-the-leader of Device #5". And they do this even if there's no Wifi router active. If there IS a Wifi router available, then they'll log on to the local-only subnet I've limited them to and work under local and/or cloud Home Assistant control with infinite automation possibilities. So it's an open, flexible, secure system that can be maximally "Smart" but has layered fallbacks which guarantee as long as there's 110v power - the lights, plugs and other devices always fucking work.
IMHO, open source with layered dumb --> local --> any-cloud-API-you-like is the only sane home automation architecture. There's no way I'm ever permanently installing some for-profit company's opaque, remotely updatable system into my home's walls. Even if they don't turn evil like Chamberlain did, it would be crazy to leave the basic functionality of my house's lights, door locks, HVAC, sensors, etc at the mercy of some vendor bug, broadband outage or regional S3 'mis-configuration'.
Could be simpler than that even as several garage door openers have a simple hard line switch that you could hook into with some cable splicing.
Good on him!
I went with 2 https://opengarage.io/ and it integrates with HomeAssistant quite nicely. It also has ultrasonics to detect cara as well.
Chamberlain is one of the worst anti-user companies because they used a trojan horse deception while they were buying up other garage door opener companies to eliminate competition (they now own MyQ, LiftMaster, Merlin, CPSG, Arrow and several others). Their products used to have an open API and worked well with open source home control systems like Home Assistant. HA support was specifically why I chose to install their products in two homes (Liftmaster brand). Then around 2022 they pulled a Darth Vader and "changed the deal" by shutting down API access for third-parties - except for companies willing to pay them - AND releasing a new 3.0 version of their control hardware that's encrypted.
While the prior versions of their control hardware weren't documented, it was still possible to reverse engineer the serial protocol. But the new hardware even encrypts communications between the wall button and lift motor for no legitimate security reason other than "securing" Chamberlain's revenue stream. Fortunately my units are the older 2.0 version hardware so third-party add-ons like RATGDO can tap into the system and open it back up. While adding that hardware is an extra hassle I didn't expect, newer customers don't even have that option. I used to have a Home Assistant failsafe automation that closed the garage door if it was accidentally left open and we weren't home. That automation worked great for years and then just stopped working when Chamberlain disabled their open API.
Even if Chamberlain provided a similar capability in the set of minimal "free features" in their walled garden of paid upgrade app features (they don't), I wouldn't use it because they lace their apps and panels with pop-ups ads. And there's ZERO fucking chance I'm giving some company's black box device access to my family's real-time phone/vehicle locations or internal home motion sensor data to enable the most useful deep automations. It's bad enough their untrusted device is still in my home. There's no way I'm giving it access to my network, much less the Internet.
(To be clear, it is possible for a savvy user to partially control the newer hardware in limited ways by hacking open the wall button and soldering a connection to a third-party relay module that interfaces with your home control system. But your home control system won't know if the garage door is open, closed or in-between or if/when it was remotely activated from an arriving or leaving vehicle. It also won't know if the door stopped due to the electric eye being blocked. Knowing the full system state, activation history and sensor data is much better, enabling all kinds of flexible automations like auto opening as you enter your driveway. Never buy a garage door opener from a Chamberlain-owned brand).