Ratgdo + Home Assistant = Automatic Magic Garage Door Opener!

Automatically open your garage door when you drive up your driveway! Install Ratdgo with Home Assistant and stop using Chamberlain/LiftMaster MyQ Garage Door Openers with their cloud.
Go to www.FutureProofHomes.net for Smart Home Design and Installation with Advanced Voice Capabilities.
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:16 - Purchasing Ratgdo
1:49 - Failing to flashing the Ratgdo firmware
3:26 - Use the right USB Cable & USB Hub
3:45 - Installing MacOS Drivers
5:32 - Successfully flashing Ratgdo firmware
6:12 - Connecting Ratgdo to Wifi
7:12 - Configuring Ratgdo to connect to MQTT & Home Assistant
9:45 - Connect Ratgdo to the Garage Door Opener
13:12 - Tracking your vehicle in Home Assistant to automatically open/close garage door
18:01 - Demoing the magic garage door that automatically open and closes

[@gleblavetko2565]

Cool guidance, Thanks!

[@FutureProofHomes]

More to come, Gleb! :)

[@albertopdt]

thank you! well explained!

[@FutureProofHomes]

Awesome! Glad it was helpful!

[@jeucedahn]

Hello! Very nice tutorial. The companion a on HA does not updates sensors on real time in order to save battery life I guess. How do you go around this for your door opening when you are near home?

[@kenjacques1743]

Great video. I just got my ratgdo but I can't figure out how to get the wires out of the garage door opener? I'm pressing on the orange tabs below but the wires aren't budging and I don't want to break it.

[@Rob_65]

Ratgdo seems perfect to control the gate at my office. Adding some automation to have the gate kept open during office hours so customers can enter is something I now do with a regular timer. Being able to automagically open the gate when (certain) employees enter outside office hours would be something I definitely like to add. But not all employees have the companion app installed (and I don't even want to know their location). So I prefer to use something like a Bluetooth scanner at the gate so the gate can open as soon as a certain Bluetooth devices comes in range. Guess I have to look at a Bluetooth scanner that can be used with HomeAssistant

[@FutureProofHomes]

Hey Rob! Glad to have you here. A few thoughts: 1) I think you'll want a more simple "dry-contact switch" like a Shelly for your gate automation. The Ratgdo is overkill because it is built specifically for Chamberlain devices using the Security 2.0+ garage door protocol. 2) Bluetooth sniffing could work, but it can be pretty finicky and you might need to get all your workers to "pair" their phone's bluetooth with your solution, which leads to user error and other challenges. I'd highly consider putting a WebRTC camera on the property and using frigate to read the license plate and open the gate for known plates. Hit up FutureProofHomes.net if you need design or install help. ;) Cheers man!

[@Rob_65]

@@FutureProofHomes After watching the video from @rogerstechtalk I understood that this indeed is specific for the Chamberlain devices. Bluetooth sniffing does work. I have a stand-alone BT sniffer that shows when a BT device enters or leaves the area. That works for any BT device that is dicoverable. This is actually how our local municipal keeps track of traffic congestions on roads going in and out of the city. These BT sniffers are placed on a number of places and a central computer system keeps track of how BT devices move (BT addresses are encrypted and of course no personal information is stored) Using license plate detection would be nice too but that will be a complete different project.

[@FutureProofHomes]

Wow. That’s a cool BT sniffing project. I’ll read more about this kinda stuff. Thanks for sharing!

[@GinoFerreri]

That's a nice piece of automation. What if there's another person in your house that wants to open or close the garage door from outside? Can they do that with the MyQ app or even the garage door opener?

[@particle6]

This video was super informative, I can't wait for my ratgdo to come in. Would you be willing to share more detail on your person presence setup in node red?

[@FutureProofHomes]

Noted! Yes, can go deeper on the node red presence detection flow.

[@simonjones5964]

Really enjoyed you video style and the content. Being quite new to HA I was wondering if you are able to export your NR flow (obfiscating any personal data).

[@FutureProofHomes]

Welcome to HA! Yes, soon. I will begin to to publish many NR flows on my new GitHub. I plan to start an advanced automations and presence detection series where I’ll share a lot of this.

[@Hillshire94]

I got everything installed without issues and now I can't access home assistant, I have spent two hours trying to troubleshoot (DNS PROBE FINISHED N DOMAIN)

[@Whatzitmatter]

Seemed to be going great until I made the initial wifi connection... once I took it to the garage it wouldn't connect and become available in Home on my iPhone. Plenty of signal in there, so I assume it must not have been connecting to the 2.4ghz band on my mesh network. I turned off 5ghz, no dice. It did randomly open my garage door after I erased and was halfway through reprogramming the ROM... so my wiring must be okay. I'll see if the vendor has any advice - Reddit users were talking about a similar problem that appears to possibly be a 2.53i problem.

[@ricardolozano7079]

Just in time for returning the hardware that I had just bought

[@jamiecox7135]

I just set up my ratgdo 2.5 (2.5i). This was helpful. I didn't have any trouble connecting to the ratgdo as a USB device. I didn't need to install any Chinese drivers. My device showed up as Product ID 0x7523, Vendor ID 0x1a86. In the connect dialog it showed up as "USB Serial (cu.usbserial-142xxx) - Paired"

[@FutureProofHomes]

Lucky you! I definitely had to beat mine into submission to have it connect.

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Great video, I just subscribed to

[@FutureProofHomes]

Thanks Simon. I’ll check out your channel too! Nice to meet!

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Awesome, it's great to meet fellow Home Assistant KZbinrs, let me know if you are keen to have a zoom catch up some time!@@FutureProofHomes

[@FutureProofHomes]

Definitely stay in touch. Let me get some more vids under my belt and perhaps we can then zoom to meet. Cheers man!

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Sounds good!@@FutureProofHomes

[@flypinoy7]

Can the presence detection automation be set up to be car specific if you have multiple cars? I'm not seeing anything that ties the presence detection to a specific car. Thanks for the great information!

[@FutureProofHomes]

Each car probably has a unique BT and/or WiFi signal. You can use that to determine which car the phone is connected to and therefore which person is in which car. Should work.

[@flypinoy7]

@@FutureProofHomes Thanks, I’ll look into it! Also, curious how your “garage parked” trigger is set up if you don’t mind.

[@yawo1166]

Hello. Great video. How to you get the MQTT credentials to add to ratgdo?

[@FutureProofHomes]

Find the IP address of your Ratgdo. Log in to it via the browser. Put your MQTT creds in that UI. I do show how to do this in the video.

[@jonnyf4280]

Great video but I suggest obscuring the map as it gives away your exact home location.

[@djankies]

I second this… at 18:16 you see a house number and street name too

[@FutureProofHomes]

Thanks guys. I’ll look into how to do this retroactively.

[@miles267]

Oddly I connected mine up exactly as you have (and also tried the pass thru method first), but I cannot get Homeassistant to activate the functions via ratgdo. I’ve confirmed my traditional wall button and obstruction sensors are working. Just left the ratgdo wired in anyway for now.

[@FutureProofHomes]

Can you elaborate on “cannot get HA to activate the functions”? Did HA recognize the MQTT device? Perhaps you installed the espHome version of the firmware on your device?

[@barrettheaton]

Same issue here. Obstruction sensor updating in real time on home assistant, but light and door statuses are wrong and light on/off door open/closed actions do nothing.

[@miles267]

@@barrettheatonin my case the issue turned out to be that my GDO is older and supports only Security protocol 1.0. This is not yet compatible with the ESP Home firmware (it only supports 2.0 right now). Security 1.0 is now under development.

[@MyNomis1]

thanks for your perfeckt videos ,is there any way you share your config , github or someware ?

[@FutureProofHomes]

Which configs are you looking for? I opened a FutureProofHomes GitHub yesterday and can share what you’re looking for there soon.

[@MyNomis1]

i know i did see ,but i don`t know how to in github i`m interrestet to see all :-) i`m no coder ,so . I will like you to show how you use espresence ,i will like you to share your node red floows @@FutureProofHomes

[@FutureProofHomes]

Got it. Okay, I know what you’re looking for. Stay tuned! Will share more and more.

[@benjamin3769]

You know if you twist the wire sheath it makes the wire twist super tight and it's easier on your fingers.

[@Brianlane2]

Thank you for the video! I connected mine up exactly as you have , but I can't get Homeassistant to activate the functions via ratgdo. I’ve confirmed my traditional wall button and obstruction sensors are working. I receive the logs and updates thru mqtt just cannot execute functionality of cover/light

[@FutureProofHomes]

When you say that you “cannot execute functionality of cover/light” do you mean you can’t click the button in Home Assistant that will open the garage? If you manually open the garage door, does Home Assistant state update to indicate that the doors open?

[@Brianlane2]

Correct

[@Brianlane2]

I can click the button but it does nothing. Manually use does update the state

[@FutureProofHomes]

It’s very odd that you can see one-way communication. It really sounds to me like the wiring is slightly off. Double-triple check all the cables are inserted correctly is my recommendation.

[@Brianlane2]

Triple checked everything and I know it’s good because I actually had a garage service company come out to my house. For this integration, I set up the HA mqtt add on. Are you familiar with that? I think it’s a HA issue

[@derekwit]

Really enjoyed your video on Ratgdo and Node red integration. Can you send your Node red files so I can use to get me started with Automations?

[@FutureProofHomes]

Dig through the comments in that video. I shared all the code with another viewer. Let me know if you can't find it!

[@derekwit]

@@FutureProofHomes I was able to find the .yaml files but I am trying to get my automations running with Node red. Can you or have you done any videos on using Node red. If not, can you send out any of your node files for the automation with your acura rdx to and from house arrival.

[@AnthonyPhung858]

Just starting to get into the smart home stuff. If I wanted a similar setup to yours would I need to purchase anything else besides the ratgdo in order to automate the door to open and close using geofence. Thanks!

[@FutureProofHomes]

You’d need ratgdo + WiFi + a Home Assistant server. I recommend googling the “Home Assistant Yellow” or “Home Assistant Green”. They’re easy to plug in and connect the Ratgdo to.

[@yourneighborhood]

Good video. Also you can just buy. $2 esp32 and solder wires to it. Little more finicky but it works.

[@FutureProofHomes]

Absolutely. Can go the super DIY route and build your own Ratgdo. All the code is open source. Maybe I’ll make a video for that someday!

[@chriscollins4375]

Pretty annoyed with chamberlain. Thanks for the vid

[@FutureProofHomes]

Glad it was helpful!

[@glenroutley781]

your automation is very complex, is there any chance you can post the yaml of the automation, the vid just doesn't quite give enough detail.s i.e. Option 1, option 2, 3 etc.. What type of "condition" etc. The Yaml would be very helpful to recreate a similar automation for my purpose. Thanks for a great Video.

[@FutureProofHomes]

YAML for you. Sorry for delayed response! This automation depends on my car's presence sensor though. alias: Magically Open/Close Garage Door description: "When car departs or arrives at the home then open or close the garage door" trigger: - platform: state entity_id: - input_select.acura_rdx to: Garage Departure id: Garage Departure - platform: state entity_id: - input_select.acura_rdx to: Garage Arrival id: Garage Arrival condition: [] action: - choose: - conditions: - condition: trigger id: - Garage Departure sequence: - service: cover.close_cover data: {} target: entity_id: cover.ratgdo_door - device_id: c9aca9f9973292dd470d6266f7f2107e domain: mobile_app type: notify message: Closing Garage Door title: Closing Garage Door - device_id: 49e732a8e5ee8e1d542c765dcb688b40 domain: mobile_app type: notify message: Closing Garage Door title: Closing Garage Door - conditions: - condition: trigger id: - Garage Arrival sequence: - service: cover.open_cover data: {} target: entity_id: cover.ratgdo_door - device_id: c9aca9f9973292dd470d6266f7f2107e domain: mobile_app type: notify message: Opening Garage Door title: Opening Garage Door - device_id: 49e732a8e5ee8e1d542c765dcb688b40 domain: mobile_app type: notify message: Opening Garage Door title: Opening Garage Door mode: single

[@glenroutley781]

@@FutureProofHomes awesome, thank you for that, hopefully I can get a presence sensor sorted for my car.

[@FutureProofHomes]

If you use Apple CarPlay then you have a presence sensor for your car. Watch my first video closely to see (kinda) how to build it.

[@quadcom]

an even easier approach is the Shelly 1Plus relay. Fully supported in HA, dry contacts support and a switch input for a reed switch to track open/close status. Have one on each of my 3 garages and can track and control all three from my android notifications/controls bar and from the HA app dashboard. I even pulled in a camera feed from my Unifi garage cameras embedded in the dashboard page.

[@FutureProofHomes]

Unfortunately, simple dry contact switches can’t control these Chaimberlain Security 2.0 garage door openers (unless you wanted to crack open the wall remove and do some soldering). For most garage door openers Shelly will work great though!

[@richardglazer7813]

It would be easier if software was pre installed...

[@FutureProofHomes]

Agree. However it should be noted that there are many different versions of the Ratgdo firmware depending on your garage opener model and if you want the ESP32 variant or not. I suspect this is why we must all manually flash the firmware we want.