What a pleasant surprise. At 9:01 pm this evening, Sense added four detections back to back. Best I can tell they aren’t accurate but identifying will be fun.
I now have 27 active and I’m less than 2 months in.
3 Likes
I love it when I get one of those notifications from sense. My wife doesn’t seem to like it so much but she doesn’t pay the bills and I am stuck with them and I actually have fun figuring these things out. Keeping my fingers crossed in the hopes that sense will find my garage door opener. Took a screenshot of it this morning when I left for work and green is opening and red was closing.
1 Like
Even I get a little giddy when I see them in the morning. 
2 Likes
I too love the morning notification for a new device.
But why do you get them in the morning? I know sense seems to recognize things in “batches”, but wouldn’t it be a better user experience to store that device until the next time it’s on? First thing I do for all new devices is select notify me when it comes on.
Next time I turn on the blender “sense found a blender” seems like a way better user experience.
Or even better, next time I turn on the blender, sense found “unknown motor 15” - hmm bet that’s the blender…
1 Like
Do you have AC or DC motors in your opener ? AC is high likelihood, DC not as much… Yours look DCish. Here’s AC 1/2 HP.
@mike_gessner and @kevin1
How were you able to verify if they were A/ or D/C?
Did you ha e the documentation that went with themot look it up? I’m also trying to determine what mine are and none of the labels gives me an idea.
I found the info for mine here and i downloaded the user manual from the internet but if you have a make and model number im sure we can help you find the info
https://support.chamberlaingroup.com/s/article/Electrical-specifications-for-garage-door-openers
Mine is a Genie intellicode IS550/A
I’m sure it was the cheapest thing the builder could use at the time.
It does at its 6 amps but one door does draw around 700 watts but the other is around 400. Both doors and openers are the same.
Judging by you signature, mine is probably D/C also.
At 400-700W, 6A, I’m guessing yours are AC… Look at @mike_gessner ‘s power usage (DC) vs mine (AC). BTW, any lifter model with battery backup is DC.
When I compare @kevin1, mine look more like
@mike_gessner.
I went and raised them up and down a few times and they started consuming the same wattage, around 500.
Here is a screenshot of up and down from each side, marked 1-4.
Don’t know if drive type makes a difference but mine have a worm or screw drive. Essentially a ten foot bolt that turns.
It’s an A/C screw drive
2 Likes
Yes, ours are DC and they run off the battery (including the lights) all the time. The power cord only re-charges the battery.
After more than two years Sense hasn’t noticed them
Wow, thank you so much @mike_gessner
We’ve actually been having issues with our garage door system and this will be just what I need to troubleshoot the wiring for the electronic eye issues.
I wish I would get a notifications for new devices. I have had sense installed for 3 months and the last new device was probably discovered a month ago. I only have 9 total. 
@attk11
9 is better than many others that have a year or more behind them. I can see where it would be disappointing when comparing to others with more detections in a shorter time period.
I’m not a big fan of the answers we get when we post or ask why detections aren’t better. It’s usually a house is “too noisy” or everyone’s home is different”. Something along those lines. I would love some specifics about “noisy” and exactly what that means and exactly which devices cause it. There is a little explanation but not enough to satisfy me.
If you contact support they may be able to tell you if something in particular is causing slower or less detection. I’ve read where quite a few people have had problems with deep well and geothermal pumps. From what some have stated, support basically told them they were out of luck.
Something I’m thinking of doing is operating on less breakers. I’m home alone during the day and I could shut off a bunch of breakers and leave others on. I’m wondering if having less going would make it easier for sense to detect devices. If it does work then it will be interesting to see if sense will still recognize them when the panel is fully operational again.
On the sense website I’ve wondered if their screenshots show a house that they installed it in and just turned on a breaker or a few a time until it picked up detections then flipped a few more and so on. They say you can’t help it learn but I’m not done experimenting.
I do a lot of our videos and some of our web screenshots. Let me tell you, I wish, with a passion, that I could do that. Trust me, that’d make my job a lot easier. Alas, usually when you see our videos, that’s my home you’re looking at with my hard-fought detections.
I have something that goes a bit deeper into this coming very soon.
3 Likes
I’m so glad you responded to this @RyanAtSense.
It great to know that what we are seeing is real world experience and hasn’t been manipulated in any way. (Sorry, I don’t know else to put it)
I think you have had the same ups and downs as anyone else without getting “special treatment “ of any kind.
It’s really exciting to hear we can look forward to getting some new information about the process.
I’m still going to try flipping some breakers. I’m thinking about the explanation about trying to single out a voice in a room with 39 people. When you have a child and go to pick them up at daycare and all the kids are whining and crying, you ha e no problem singling our your child. You’ve been at home alone with yours and learned that voice so recognize it immediately even when others are around. I want to see if Sense will work the same.
1 Like
I can’t help but think that those with light electrical demand have a better experience. That being said, if you’re gone and everyone else in the house is gone, it’s likely your house is as ‘quiet’ as it gets in normal operation.
I’m curious what breakers you could shut off while you’re gone that you do not need running?