Watching this thread with some interest as I currently have a solution that isn’t meeting my expectations. It’s something I threw together and due to something in the firmware it’s having an unintended fatal flaw.
Currently I have two garage door openers. I bought two of the older Foscam security cameras (I have 9 in total) that have a relay output for being able to connect to security systems. There are four pins and across two of the pins it sends 3v so it was easy to simply back feed each camera into the manual button location (+ & -) on the overhead opener. This way I can use a phone app to easily trigger this as a toggle to open and close each garage door individually. I can also use the cameras in the same app to check status of the doors quickly since all of my cameras are on the same screen.
Now, the bad: It sends a 3v pulse as an ‘all clear’ should power be lost. This means that if power is ever lost to the cameras once it’s returned and they boot back up my garage door will open on it’s own. To circumvent this I’ve added a UPS to power these to prevent a potential power loss from opening my garage doors. I thought I had it all figured out even though we RARELY lose power in this area (maybe once in the last ten years or more) but there’s a glitch I wasn’t planning for. In the summer it gets hot enough that the cameras lose connection with the network for some reason. Then I have to climb up on a ladder to physically unplug the power input from each camera and plug it back in to reset (since the actual power is on UPS which is above the ceiling in the garage) the connection so they open. I’m going to set up a PoE on the network to have a central place to control power on all of my cameras (not to mention put on UPS easily) but am feeling that this solution is still less than ideal as I’m a stickler for security and while it adds convenience (I use it ALL the time from all over the country) it’s introducing a security breach that I’m just not comfortable with. I also am suspecting that it’s the cheap power sources that are dying under high heat but if it’s the camera itself than my PoE solution won’t correct this. It will just make it easier to reboot them when they crap out.
Fast forward to a while back and I have an OpenSprinkler system. I’m wondering if one could use my system (the cameras) to monitor and then use a couple of outputs on the OpenSprinkler to trigger the doors. Sort of combine both solutions to make it easier. Granted you would need a smart phone to view the camera and they’re not cheap at about $70ish but it’s also nice to be able to physically see your garage area versus just knowing the doors are open/closed. Obviously the $70 would net you some more benefits but I realize this may not be something everyone wants.
I would need a 3v output and a way to make it a short pulse. I’m thinking I could use the screen on the web UI to trigger one of those two zones for a second and that would probably be enough. Granted it wouldn’t be as streamlined as my current setup but it would also eliminate the problem of random door triggers.
Thoughts?