ZWave Garage Door Controller solutions

[wmcneil]

I am looking for a ZWave garage door control solution other than the GoControl gd00z-8 (If interested, you can read about why the gd00z-8 will not work for me here.)

One solution I see is the Zooz ZEN16 Multirelay in combination with the Ecolink Z-Wave Plus Tilt Sensor. If anyone is happy with that solution, or a different ZWave solution, I'd be interested in your feedback. 

[peterathans]

I've done half of the solution you're talking about - basically I have the same Zooz ZEN16 with one input tied to a magnetic switch (Used this one from Amazon) to monitor whether the door is closed or not.

I don't feel comfortable yet giving control of the door to my home controller, just because I don't see it as 100% reliable.  So I'm not using a relay to "press the button".

[wmcneil]

18 hours ago, peterathans said:

I've done half of the solution you're talking about - basically I have the same Zooz ZEN16 with one input tied to a magnetic switch (Used this one from Amazon) to monitor whether the door is closed or not.

I don't feel comfortable yet giving control of the door to my home controller, just because I don't see it as 100% reliable.  So I'm not using a relay to "press the button".

An advantage to detecting door closed/not closed with a magnetic switch is that there is no battery that has to be replaced. The advantage of a tilt sensor is that it can detect movement, as well as closed, open. Practically speaking, you can write code that will work reliably to control the opener via a relay with either sensor. 

Just now, wmcneil said:

An advantage to detecting door closed/not closed with a magnetic switch is that there is no battery that has to be replaced. The advantage of a tilt sensor is that it can detect movement, as well as closed, open. Practically speaking, you can write code that will work reliably to control the opener via a relay with either sensor. 

I should add that I always have installed a video camera in the garage, so that I can double check for sure what the door status is, either while debugging code, or in the very rare event of hardware failure.

[brians]

Zen 17 is better than the older zen 16. I used to use a zen 17 and worked good. Just have to set it up correctly with the parameters - someone may have posted how before here.  

Of course this in works on a garage opener where can short the wires to open or close. Newer ones need something like a ratgdo or wire into a wireless remote instead. 

[wmcneil]

zen16 vs zen17 what's the difference

[brians]

Here is my old notes on Zen17 in case anyone is curious.

I used a magnetic sensor for garage door. My garage door opens/closes by shorting wires across the terminals.

 

Quote

Feb 19, 2023

Update for ZMatter working as of 5.5.5

Zen17 Firmware needs to be at 1.20 (did not work with previous firmware)
Include Zen17 to set parameters 2/3 (doesn't need S2 for this)
Include using S2 (S0 doesn't work properly with extra parameters)

For Garage Door
---------------
Connected the button and the sensor to separate sensor/relays just in case the isolation is not set correctly - if Zen17 is accidentally factory reset. Sensor is on S1, Button is on R2.
Note with this config, parameter 2/3 can be set to 3 since there is no isolation required.
However setting 2/3 to 11 isolates the relays and could use another input S2 for something in future.

Reset
Include in ISY (can be S0, don't need auth just to set parameter 2/3)
Set parameter 2 and 3 to 11 for garage door (momentary mode)
Set Parameter 2 to 11
Set Parameter 3 to 11
Exclude
Include (use S2 Auth and key when re-including)
This will add additional nodes Door-Window Sensors in addition to Binary Switches.

Set Parameter 10 to 0
Set Parameter 11 to 0
This isolates the relays being triggered from the inputs
 

 

[wmcneil]

On 2/17/2025 at 4:16 PM, brians said:

Here is my old notes on Zen17 in case anyone is curious.

I used a magnetic sensor for garage door. My garage door opens/closes by shorting wires across the terminals.

Thanks!

The user manual does not state that a value of 11 (garage door mode with wired sensor) for parameter 2 or 3 requires a subsequent exclude/include (although the "How to Use the ZEN17 Universal Relay as a Garage Door Opener" directions do), so having confirmation the exclude/include is required is helpful. 

Also, the fact that the default settings for the input trigger parameters (Parameter 10 and 11) is to have triggering enabled is important to know. (So that the triggering can be disabled for the garage door application)