Garage Door Randomly Opens

[Kentinada]

My garage door will randomly open.  Doesn't happen often.  I get a text alert when my door goes up or down.  See the attached screen shot for the code I got here to provide this alert. 

 

What I'd like to do is have a program running from say 11pm to 6am that shuts the door if it opens.  I think I could use this same style code to do that.  But it has been a while since I looked at this and I don't recall why the If test checks for the Garage Door-Sensor being switched On and for it NOT being switched off.  This code does work but someone help me understand it a little better?  Wouldn't just checking to see if the sensor is switch on be enough?  

 

Thanks. 

[MikeD]

Without the statement 'And Control xxx is not switched Off' the Else clause will never run.

You need the 'And Control xxx is not switched Off' to run the Else clause.

[TrojanHorse]

How does a garage door randomly open?

It seems to me this is a band-aid over the symptom, not a solution to your problem.

Is your opener connected in some way to your insteon / ISY / etc system?

 

Putting aside the safety issues of automating a door for the moment, what if you want the door open someday at that time? Back to safety, what if someone is desperately trying to keep the door from hitting their car (again and again as the program triggers).

 

I know the safety issue has been debated and people are going to do what they want. That said, I would focus on curing the disease not fixing the symptom.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[stusviews]

A problem is that each time a signal is sent to the opener (e.g., I/O Linc Relay), the door operates, so if it's already closed, then it will open. Here's the garage close program I use which checks the state of the sensor first. You only need to add a time condition.

 

GG Garage 1 Close
If
        Status  'GG / Devices / GG Garage 1 Sensor' is On
 
Then
        Set 'GG / Devices / GG Garage 1 Sensor / GG Garage 1 Relay' On
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

[MWareman]

Yet another reason I don't think it's a good idea to use IOLincs to control a garage door.... In my case a random opening would set off my alarm, and cause a police response!

[Kentinada]

Thanks for the discussion on this.  So first, my random triggerings of the door are unexplained.  My father would have said, "Probably sun spots."  That was his favorite line many years ago when he had issues with his X10 system.   I don't know if there is some way to debug why these random events occur or not.  If you have any suggestions, please pass them on. 

 

The IOlinc on the door just allows me to know when the door goes up or down.  I originally thought I'd tie it to a geofence but decided that was more work than it was really worth.  The good news on the random events is I get notified and with Mobilinc I can shut it again regardless of where I am.  Now, I could eliminate the problem I suppose by just taking the IOLinc out.  The program I was thinking of would only be active from probably midnight to 6am just to make sure the door stays shut at night automatically. 

 

Maybe I should just take the IOLinc out.  

[oberkc]

Maybe I should just take the IOLinc out.

 

A little premature, in my estimation. If all you want is, as stated earlier, knowledge of when the door goes up or down, simply disconnect the iokinc relay connections from the opener.

[Kentinada]

Oberkc, good idea! That would eliminate the spurious door openings too I would think. 

[oberkc]

Oberkc, good idea! That would eliminate the spurious door openings too I would think.

 

Certainly it would eliminate spurious openings by the iolink. Those spurious openings caused by gremlins and ghosts and sunspots would likely persist.

[stusviews]

Use an Insteon outlet to power the I/O Linc and schedule the outlet. That way, you'd still have access if you needed to open the garage door during the off schedule.