Mimic Control Gate Garage Door remote 433 mhz ( 50 meters range )

Cloud Integrations
1

I was trying to buy “The hook” but is sold out. So i have to make my own hook

What I’m trying to do is control my gate garage door ( which I believe is 433 Mhz) with smarthings using IFTTT, or at least using IFTTT only. Not sure what’s the range of “the hook”, but I need it something that works at least 50m.

I read that most of the 433mhz transmitter works in the range of 30 cm or less.

Could you recommend a transmitter/receiver that works at least 50 meters and that is compatible with particle photon?

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Does anyone tried this?

3

Take a look at the HopeRF transmitters. The RFM69 range works with Particle, see the library info discussion. You can select versions in both 433 MHz and 915 MHz (however sounds like you have to go with 433). The high power “H” +20 dBm version will give you way beyond 50m range (under the right conditions yadda yadda).

However, I’m not sure how you will sniff the required transmission for activating each device (you can purchase tools for this). And then making sure you can control the transmission satisfactorily to produce the right signal. But would love to hear about your progress!

PS: If you’re testing it with dumb devices you’ll definitely want to switch off the encryption capabilities in the library.

4

Is there a specific reason you want to use RF? Most garage door motors can be triggered via a relay system. Here’s a similar project using a Particle Core and some relays: http://makezine.com/projects/particle-core-garage-door-opener/

You would probably be able to use the tinker part of the Particle app and avoid using IFTTT. I’ve messed around with IFTTT and my Photon, there can be up to a 7 second delay vs the half second via tinker on the app.

1 Like
5

That’s a cool idea, but the garage door is in my apartment building,
so i cannot modify anything on the door,
i can only emulate the remote control using something like this

However, the range of these transmitters are very short and adding an antenna doesn’t help most of the time ( I saw many posts about that using arduino, even using long antennas, the range is very short )

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BTW i just got my particle board, so this is my first project, my knowledge in this area is very low, so a project like this would be perfect

but again… the range is the problem

7

Ah gotcha, that’s too bad.

8

If the Photon is connected to the Internet, what’s stopping you from setting it close enough to the garage door opener to be within range? Power? There’s probably an outlet right above the garage door motor.

That solution I mentioned earlier probably wouldn’t get you in trouble with the apartment complex, as it’s not a permanent fixture to the garage door motor. It can be easily removed.

9

If the Photon is connected to the Internet, what's stopping you from setting it close enough to the garage door opener to be within range? Power?

Short answer: The landlord.
I'm not allowed to modify anything outside my apartment, that is why it has to be something that i can make from my apartment. I'm on the second floor

10

The extremely lazy method would be to have a servo push the actual button on the opener, that way, you won’t have to modify anything. Depending on the system you’re using, the (rolling) codes can give you a giant headache.

Have you spoken to your landlord about this? I’ve recently made the same project, initially wanting it to be wireless as well. I then found out there are connectors on the opener which are used for manual control anyhow. Often, you’ve got some sort of push button (doorbell) that you can use to manually open the port. That does nothing more than closing a connection between to connectors. As such, you won’t really have to modify anything. It’s basically screwing in a wire in a screw terminal, nothing fancy really. Might be worthwhile discussing it, while explaining how little impact it has, and how easy it is to remove.

1 Like
11

Have you spoken to your landlord about this?

thanks for the suggestion, yes i did,
that's why i have to do it from my apartment.
But i'll also will try to control those cheap 433mhz outlets, so the project will have more than one function

1 Like
12

hi, do you have a remote for opening the garage door?
if so, you could connect it to a photon like described here…

EDIT: oh, maybe the range could be an issue here

13

Using only ifttt you could code your particle to have three functions, one where you use a phone location when youre in range to then set a variable to true that then is required for your ifttt button to to trigger to garage door, then a “leave area” trigger to make it false again. Something like this (sorry on mobile):

Bool nearHome = false;

Function triggerHome() {
nearHome = true;
}

Function triggerGarage () {
If (nearHome) {
openGarage ();
}
}

Function triggerNotHome() {
nearHome = false;
}

EDIT: Shoot, I didn’t read the whole thread and thought it was about specifically mimicking a RF button.

14

I got the transmitter from ebay,
but i’m not sure how to clone the signal from the remote to the photon , so i can control it with IFTTT.

Any idea???