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Is yours running firmware 1.0.6? We did add reconnect functionality in firmware 1.0.6 so that if it disconnects from the router it will detect this and attempt to reconnect.
Here is the quick tutorial:
1. Install Blynk app on your phone (find Blynk in your app store and install it).
2. Run Blynk app, in Blynk can find a QR code scan button, click it and then scan the QR code that’s in the user manual:
https://openthings.freshdesk.com/solution/articles/5000717107-user-manual
3. Once the project is scanned, go to the Project Settings, copy or email the Blynk token to yourself. This is the token you need to put into the webpage Settings.
4. Restart OpenGarage and it should now communicate with Blynk. Make sure the Blynk project is running (in the project there is a triangle-shaped Run button).Do you use the Blynk app? If so, check if the yellow button in the Blynk app is solid on. If so that means the button is in ‘Switch mode’. You can follow my previous messages above to change it back to ‘Push’ mode.
If you use a different sensor you will have to change the firmware to support that sensor. The ultrasonic distance sensor has a very particular way to read distance value, this is generally different from other sensors.
You can certainly drill a hole on the enclosure to expose the ultrasonic sensor. But I am worried that you mentioned you want to use it outdoors, so that probably won’t work as it’s not waterproof.
Yes, you can send a support ticket with the request, or you can directly go to:
add 20 of the one dollar custom pricing item, then proceed to checkout. During checkout you can leave a message saying this is for a Security 2.0 adapter.The reason we don’t sell it separately is that similar adapter sold elsewhere is significantly more expensive (almost twice our price). We sell these as an accessory to customers who buy OpenGarage, and want to avoid customers buying it alone without OG.
@CuriousG: does your OG come with a black-colored enclosure, or a brown acrylic enclosure? The black-colored ones used a different ESP8266 chip (WROOM-02) and I don’t quite remember whether OTA update has been tested for that chip — it should work, but perhaps some compilation settings need to be changed to fit that chip.
If you use Windows or Linux chances are that you don’t need to install driver (unless if you use Windows XP). Driver is generally only needed for Mac OSX.
If in the Blynk app the button shows as solid orange when you click it and does not turn back to hollow, then it has to do with the Blynk button setting. This may have been due to a Blynk import bug. To fix it, stop the Blynk project first (by clicking on the square stop button on the top right). Then click on the button to see its settings. The button should be set as ‘Push’ and NOT ‘switch’. That should fix this issue.
The ESP8266 API we use in the firmware only depends on the SSID name and password. If all three routers have the same SSID name, it’s not entirely clear to me how it decides which one to connect to. What kind of network arrangement do you have with the three routers? Are two of them repeaters or something like that? There has to be some way that they are aware of each other, right? Otherwise how does routing working, when a device from one router tries to reach another device connect to another router?
@CuriousG: if you unplug the microUSB cable, then press and hold the pushbutton onboard, then plug in the microUSB cable while holding the button, and then release the button, that will get ESP8266 into programming mode waiting for a new firmware to be uploaded. This is fairly common procedure to program ESP8266.
Note that when auto-closing the door (i.e. due to automation setting), there is a mandatory buzzer beep — this is just to conform with regulations. In case someone is working nearby the garage door, this will notify the person to avoid any potential danger (this is mandatory even though all garage door systems already have sensors to sense blockers).
@lawrence_jeff: I was just responding in another thread that the changes you made are great and will definitely take a look and integrate them into the master branch asap.@lawrence_jeff: thanks for creating the fork and adding additional support like MQTT and graphics — will try these out and integrate them into the master branch. One quick question: do you know if there is a way to flash in the graphics.bin using OTA update? At the moment the firmware only supports OTA update of one single bin, I haven’t quite figured out how to do this for multiple files.
@elikahuna: generally OTA update is safe: it will verify that the new firmware is downloaded correctly before making the switch. So even if the download crashes it won’t actually switch to the corrupted firmware (ESP has a double buffer in the flash memory space to allow this). In any case, you can always flash in firmware using esp8266flasher, or esptool (this is what Arduino uses internally).Have you tried the Blynk app? Does that work? Note that when you are outside of your home network (i.e. remotely access OG), you have to either use the Blynk app, or at least use it once in order to get a Blynk token, otherwise the Android app will not be able to communicate with OG.
IFTTT has been integrated into the firmware since 1.0.5.
If over the air update doesn’t work, you can still update by using a microUSB cable.
The firmware assumes there is a distance sensor (HC-SR04 or compatible) connected to the designated pins. Without the sensor, it will cause a watchdog timeout and reboot.
Two quick suggestions:
1. try to manually trigger relay action by clicking the button (depending on when you bought OpenGarage, the button may be on the side exposed; or it may be the inside the circuit and you can click it by using a small screw driver or something long and skinny). If the relay triggers correctly manually, that means the relay and the microcontroller is working fine.
2. Perform a factory reset: press and hold the button for more than 10 seconds, then release the button.Also, if your firmware is not the latest, I suggest that you upgrade your firmware to the latest 1.0.6.
If this is a support question, please submit a support ticket. Go to opengarage.io, click on ‘Support’ right at the top.
When the ‘automation’ feature is implemented, I did consider adding a time condition — i.e. only perform automation during specific time range of a day, but eventually decided to drop that: for one, I don’t know if this is a common feature people need; also, adding these tends to clutter the UI and make it less intuitive to user; also, implementing this requires knowing your time zone (since the time will have to be specified w.r.t. to your local time). So it just takes some time to implement but it can definitely be added.
@Chad: there are plenty of LM2596-based stepdown regulators you can buy on Amazon or eBay for just a few bucks, for example:
https://www.amazon.com/DZS-Elec-Voltage-Converter-Charger/dp/B0728KXFZV/
While most of these require DC input voltage, you can add a rectifier diode (like 1N4002, 1N4004 etc, anything with at least 100V reverse voltage and 1amp forward current), and the diode will form a half-wave rectifier to convert 24VAC to DC input voltage. These boards also generally have a big input capacitor to smooth out the half-wave voltage.OpenSprinkler uses the same type of regulator except it has the circuity built-in.
Just noticed that vrbt150 already pointed out some convenient 24VAC to 5VDC adapters you can buy, such as this:
https://www.amazon.com/SMAKN-Converter-Voltage-Supply-Waterproof/dp/B00RE6QN4U
(though as vrbt150 said you will need to solder a USB connector yourself).I’ve done a blog post a while back about how to set up IFTTT to work with OpenGarage:
“Alexa, Open Sprinkler Zone 1” — How to Use IFTTT with OpenSprinkler (and OpenGarage)
admittedly since IFTTT has changed quite a bit some of the snapshots are not the same any more. I will try to update it soon. I believe the setup is still similar.Yes we do plan to very soon add a new API to the firmware that allows you to trigger ‘open’ or ‘close’ in addition to just be able to ‘toggle’ (or click). Specifically, open will check if the door is already open and only triggers relay if the door is currently closed, and similarly for the close command.
Yes, I think an Alexa Skil would be needed to answer questions like ‘Alexa is my garage door open’?
You can obviously set up IFTTT to send notifications to you when the door is open, but that doesn’t provide a way for you to query the status at any given time.
I agree that it’s unclear whether this needs Security+ 2.0 adapter or not. I would say not, because usually if it was Security+ 2.0 you will see signs of it on the product and user manual. A simple test you can do is to simple find the terminal ports that correspond to wall button wires, and insert a wire to short those two terminal ports (thus simulating pressing the wall button). If that triggers door action, then you do NOT need 2.0 adapter.
Auto-closing is already supported in current OG firmware. Go to Options -> Automation and you can find where to configure the auto-closing.
Blynk API uses the authorization token, which is the secret key only you know about. So that’s your ‘authorization’.
You can post pictures here on the forum (there is a size limit so if your picture turns out to be too large just scale it down).
IFTTT has changed quite rapidly over the past several months and it’s difficult to update all our old posts and tutorials to match their current web interface. I apologize for the issue but hopefully in most cases it’s not too hard to figure out how our tutorial matches their current interface.
