My Sense is able to tell me when my garage door is activated. I’d like to be able to set it’s current state so that instead of Sense telling me that my garage door was on, it would tell me if it’s open or closed. I could then set it up that if my garage door is open at a certain time, say 9pm, or for a certain period, say more than 30 minutes, I could get a notification.
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That’s a great idea. If the state would ever get out of sync then it could just be set again. Each time it cycles the state would change.
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I was thinking state information wouldn’t even be necessary. There should be a slightly different signature present in going up vs. down. The heavier load would almost always be going up (unless your springs were sized incorrectly).
How would Sense know if it is open or closed? Why not simply get a readily available z-wave tilt switch and get your notifications that way (through your hub)?
It’s pretty simple really. Sense knows when my garage door opener was “on,” aka… when it changes state. A garage door is more or less a binary device - open or closed. If we set the current state, any time it’s on is a simple toggle of it’s previous state. If it’s set as closed and sense detects the opener was on, it’s new state is open. Then if it detects another operation it’s state is closed.
As far as your proposed solution:
- I do not own a smart hub.
- I do not want to own a smart hub (at this point)
- I do not see the cost/benefit of purchasing a hub (or z-wave tilt switch).
This is a fairly easy product improvement to an already purchased device…
You’re probably right. Maybe I’ll take an amp clam to the garage door and run a couple cycles to see what happens.
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All garage door openers manufactured since 1993 have entrapment safety devices. They reverse a closing door if extra resistance is detected while closing or an object is detected by an electric eye. If a door closing cycle is activated and during the closing cycle the entrapment devices are activated the door reverses in one smooth operation. Sense would see this as a completed cycle.
In real life that can be a cat scooting out the door, a rake falling, a dislodged toy or even extra resistance of a canted roller in the door track.
Further, there is the issue of sense missing a garage door opener cycle.
For this reason, and because a closed door message is a measure home security it’s easy to see why Sense should not have this function.
Now a tilt or door sensor (reed switch) with a hub can easily provide this information with near absolute accuracy for about 70.00
If 70.00 does not meet your “cost benefit analysis” don’t purchase one. But also don’t complain about a problem when a simple solution readily exists.
Thanks for the update. I’m confused where I was complaining? It’s a wishlist board. It’s where ideas go.
As far as it getting lost and confused… I can count on one hand the number of times my door tripped on one hand. Either way, a simple toggle correction is all it would take to reset it - hardly a major inconvenience.
Why even use an amp clamp when you own a Sense ? Just look at power draw when your house is fairly quiet… But I’m guessing that power/amperage difference between raising and lowering is fairly indistinguishable. In fact, my first experiment indicated that that lifting might actually use less power/energy than lowering. In the photo below, the power waveform on the left is opening/lifting, the right, closing/lowering.
I should also note that I just replaced all three of my openers on April 6th. Sense found all three of my original circa 1998 Liftmaster openers, but identified all three as a single device. Sense has yet to find my new model openers. I suspect that Sense will have a tougher time with the newer openers since they use electronic motor control.
Excellent point! Sense would have no idea if a door is open or closed when there is more than one door opener and they are the same brand. I imagine it would be possible to buy another different brand opener and Sense might be able to differentiate between the two. Of course a z-wave open\close sensor would be easier and cheaper.
You’re right, I could use sense. However, when specifically looking at a particular device, I like to isolate the look. I like sense and all, but I haven’t really looked to verify accuracy.
More than one opener? No problem… don’t use the feature. Mind blown!
Easier? Cheaper? No way. If they add the feature it costs me nothing and all of 10 seconds setting the current state.
Otherwise I have to spend $100 and time.
I’ll be interested to see your comparisons. I’m guessing that your meter has a larger time resolution than the Sense, plus a much larger RMS window.
Dek8ce, in early-mid 2016, this ‘garage door is open notification’ was a Sense app feature that Sense highlighted in their primary marketing/intro product videos. A notification something like, “It’s 9pm and your garage door is open.” That, and there was a cool “Vacation Alert: Your upstairs hallway lights just turned on” phone notification.
I think you’re asking for a great feature. Sense obviously did at one point too.
I’ve been installed since September, 2016 and Sense has never detected either garage door opener (one died, one replacement) or any of our homes lighting.
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What if the door opens, and then shuts? Or shuts and then reopens. Sense wont be wise to that state.
Then you quickly set the toggle back to what it’s current state is. Devices/Sense getting lost are inevitable… but it’s not a big deal if they’re only the result of rare occurancr and are easily fixed.
Wow, everyone. Thanks for the thoroughly thought out feature request. This seems like a great idea and the functionality sounds solid (but I am neither a programmer nor a data scientist, so I’ll leave that decision to them!). I will definitely pass this on though!
And @dek8ce, you can tag me instead of @BenAtSense from now on.
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Without a tilt sensor to confirm the state of the door I’m not sure how reliable this would be.
For those of us with more than one garage door we’ve seen how the openers are usually around the same age if not the very same make/model. Sense would have no way of knowing if you opened and closed a single door, or opened both doors at the same time.
Then layer on top if Sense just happens to miss the opener performing an action and you have to now figure out/reset the status of the door.
I embarrassingly have three tilt sensors on the top panel of each of our garage doors. One is for a GoControl Z-Wave garage door opener paired directly with the GoControl device, then the opener itself is paired to our Z-Wave controller. A second is a Z-Wave tilt sensor paired directly to my Z-Wave controller. The third is a wireless tilt sensor specific for our alarm system. I’ve gone through a few iterations of how I detect the state of my doors and just left each sensor in place. If anything I guess I have some over the top redundancy checking. 
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All post-2000 Chamberlain/Liftmaster openers have options for connecting to internet via MyQ so you can open/close and check status from cellphone or computer. I like the app and HomeKit integration. No need for Sense to tell me the status.
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