I love your videos. They are not only informative and useful, but the filming is done so that the viewer is not bored listening to rambling. Thank you! I'm in the process of automating my home for my senior project at the university, and your videos have been helpful indeed.
1) I am planning on making that more advanced system. The puzzle I have at the minute is figuring out where to install the magnet switches so as not to interfere with the movement of the door. More on that soon. 2) Raspbian. 3) That's great! Let me know how you go.
Pete, OK yes. I just hooked up a LED light with 2 D batteries as its power source just to test out the relay. Now of course the LED stays on connected to the battery and then from the LED wire I go to the relay. This might sound dumb but at first i wasn't getting anything since I connected both the relay and the LED to the BATTERY itself then I realized I need to splice the LED wire somewhere before the battery and that worked. The light stays on and when I activate the relay for 1 (read on..)
Hey, Thanks for the message. It's just speaker wire I had lying around. I spoke to the Garage door technician who suggested anything would do for my model. Now that you ask, I haven't actually checked how much power is crossing the relay, but it seems to be working fine.
Hi Tony, I've had a couple of questions about how to attach this setup to door and gate configurations and... the honest answer is: I have no idea. Unfortunately, I'm not a garage door technician. What I did was contact my garage door reseller and explained exactly what I intended to and he was kind enough to provide me the details I needed to connect the relay to my door. He was the one who suggested the delay and I followed his instruction exactly. I hope you will do the same. Best, P
Thanks Pete! I was inspired by your project. I adapted your work and made a garage opener for my smartphones (with an additional API + changes to the backend code). Operate Garage door with Smartphone
Hi Pete, Your video did a good job on hooking up the Pi to the relays. I was wondering if you can show how you have it hooked up to the garage door motor. I have a simple button by the door that when pressed, opens and closes the door, can the relay be connected to this circuit to do the same thing instead of directly to the motor as you done? Thanks, Pete
Thanks Pete! Works great (after some fiddling with permissions when running from the index.php). Looking forward to actually wiring this up when I get home!
The way my setup works is to connect to the same two wires as a keybox connection would - at least that's what the technician told me to do in my case with my garage door opener. However, I still recommend you contact your reseller, manufacturer or technician and explain what you're up to and hopefully they'll help. Best of luck, P
Hey Pete. I used your tutorial and have everything ready to go. At least I think I do. So far I have not installed it but I am able to hear the relay open/close. The way the script is working is its setting write 1 then write 0 a second later. Now, I am planning to install this on my Liftmaster Storefront rolling gate. Do I connect the relay DIRECTLY to the board? Does it matter which wires I connect from the relay? Could I burn the board out if I cross the wires?
Fantastic idea. Yes there are cheap remotes, but how can I undo the garage for my granddad who struggles to bend down to open it himself (handles at the bottom) when i live 110 miles from his house! Hence why this is a fantastic idea!!
Thanks for sharing this! I took my time learning and was able to create a simple webpage interface to use for my relay board. Very helpful with your webpage tutorial along with the source code you've given. It's been only 4 days since I got my raspberry pi 3 model B and I already learned a lot! :)
The relay has optoisolated switches, so connecting directly to the relay board is not the same as connecting directly to the relay. This, therefore, is not an issue. I connected it directly to the head unit, and yes, it turns on the light in head unit, but I have not connected it to turn on the main garage lights, as I wanted those to be on an independent switch.
Also, currently we use a key which we insert and turn for the gate to open. It does have an emergency STOP buttoon... could I following the wiring from the keybox and just simply connect the two wires to whereever thats connected? Sorry for all the questions and tanks in advance!
This is great stuff. I was wondering if you ever added and documented the 'state' for knowing when it was opened and/or closed? Nice work on all of the projects.
Thanks Pete. Really appreciate you helping all of us out. As far as the magenetic switches... have you got them to work yet? I plan on installing my setup tomorrow. Could you reply back with the exact magnetic switch you purchased? Also, when the RaspBerry PI loses power does this affect the status of the door out all? Does it close/open if the relay loses power at all and did you not use a breadboard at all? Do you find a need for a breadboard?" Im new so I am not sure what the BB is for? TY!
Thanks man, appreciate the info. Glad you put this beauty together while waiting on your pizza to arrive. Can't wait to see the particle accelerator you tinker up while waiting for the paint on your house to dry! :D
Thanks for the quick reply Pete, I've read on teh pi forums, hooking directly into the relays from the pi is hazardous so that was my main question, I wish i could post links heh, They say to use a 7407 ULN2003 in between. Now the other question, how are the relays wired into your garage door opener, did you connect it directly into the head unit or the wall remote, I was curious if this turns on the light on the unit as well? :) Thanks!
I am setting up something similar however I want to install magnetic sensors on the garage door to sense open or closed (and if possible opening and closing). Not sure how to inform the RP of the active state (open or closed/opening or closing) when checking on the phones web page. Any thoughts on how to program that?
Thanks for the post. It's not an app - it's a webpage. The webpage lives on the Pi and my phone connects to it over the wifi. So, it's not an app, it's my phone's browser looking at a PHP page on the Pi. The code is in the about section. Best, P
skiwithpete Do you have to be connected to your internal network or did you set your router with a DDNS or something like that? When i come home it takes a while for my phone to connect to the local network, i'd prefer to have it connected trough mobile internet. But you need DDNS and port forwarding i suppose . Cool project !
bartdereu that's exactly right, I have DDNS and use port forwarding. I use a PHP password on my page now (I'll update the source code in the about section soon) - that way I can have the page be "public" but keep the garage door private... and I can open the garage door on my _way_ home.
I'm just getting started with my desire to learn electronics and scripting, thanks to channels like this. Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for the best resources / and books to start with to get my feet wet? Love your Pi projects! Do you have this one scripted to toggle a variable showing the garage door state (open or closed) , perhaps starting with default "closed" which would switch each time you activate the door? I'm guessing it would be pretty easy to implement until you get the sensor connections in place. (Then again, I don't know anything about Python or it's capabilities)
hah, dont worry about correcting yourself, its great you're helping me out :) I got all the parts working on it now, following your guide as the rest out there are a bit convoluted. trying to figure out how to get a magnetic reed switch to work too to sense open/close.. i got a camera set up but ya would rather a simple open/close ar
matrixfire Actually, I sold the house, and moved from NZ to NYC. So, no I never finished it. Sorry. I'll pick this project back up as soon as I move back into a house...
Hey Greg, The Raspberry Pi is running the Python and PHP scripts. The mobile phone: it's just the web browser (in my case Chrome on Android)... When I point the mobile phone browser to the RaspberryPi, I see the webpage (PHP) which controls the (Python script) relays. Hope that helps, P
congratulations for the video, I'd like that more program information. for people who do not have much knowledge of Python and PHP, with its video was enough to generate home automation in my own car. thank you this was very good beginning.
Why aren't you using an atmega328 with a 433mhz reciever with the relay? You just need an arduino to code the atmega for it and it just works with domoticz. This way you can keep your Pi to run the server and control every switches that way. It will be a much cheaper solution.
Hi skiwithpete, I believe I understand how the hardware works but I'm confused as to how the cell phone communicates via wifi with the Raspberry Pi. I'm assuming the Python and/or PHP program is running on the cell phone and via wifi communicates with similar programs running on the Raspberry Pi. Is this correct? Any further insights into the software end of things would be appreciated. I am not very familiar with either Python or PHP. Thanks.
I've set up a similar system with my roller garage door - currently thinking about where to mount it. Can you tell me a bit more about how you mounted yours? (The wood, standoffs? etc) Thanks.
leonp2001 I mounted it to a plywood board, using m2.5 nuts and bolts like this screw top Pi Nut plywood nut Then I mounted the plywood board to the garage (I wanted to be able to take the whole thing down as one).
second the light shuts off and turns back on. Is this exactly how the garage door will operate? Also did you have a splice at any specific area as far as the wire goes where the relay will be connected or can I connect the relay directly to the board itself? Also with the magnetic switches is it just the fact of finding where to place them? Is that the only issue? Sorry for all the dumb questions. I'm learning so I promise things will get better ;) Learned a lot from your tutorial as well.
If this was to trigger a buttom press of the normal button. Wouldnt it be sufficient to wire the gpio ports direct to the button? Or arr they to weak hence the need pf relay?
Brian, stupid question, could you please put your wiring schematics up? I know you explain it in the video, but it'd help me if I could see it on paper/schematic.
Great video Skiwithpete! How would I use/apply this same concept if I wanted to have it on the gated entrance of my business? Is there a way I can remotely open the sliding gate from my phone if I wasn't on-site? Thanks!
Yes. You should look into DDNS and port forwarding. I'd love to make a video about that, but the truth is, it depends so much on the hardware you've got (as a router) and which DDNS service you're using. So, you kinda need to travel this road alone...
@skiwithpete: nice. Did you eventually connect a sensor to determine if it is open or close? Wondering if a commercially available garage door sensor, such as the Chamberlain MyQ-G0202, can be integrated to this system.
unfortunately I moved away and no longer have a garage. so, never finished the project. as far as your specific model of garage door opener I can't help. p
Thank you for you videos as they have helped this new to RPi stuff here is a question can i add a sound effect to the web page so when the button is clicked it makes a sound thanks again
I love playing around with IoT Devices like this. And most appreciative of this very complex and impressive you created in 2013 👍 of course fast forward to 2021 and it can be done with a standard Smart device that costs about $15. And you just tell Alexa to open the garage. 🤗
The GPIO has a 5V output but the GPIO connectors work at 3.3V. It sounds a little confusing, but check out my other vids for a step by step relay connection. With Optocoupler relays it works fine. Cheers, P
Thank you so much for the info. I only have one garage opener, so I assume I would need to purchase a 1 channel Relay Module, or should you recommend me to purchase the 2 channels, in case I need to setup the Camera in the future? Do you have a document for all of the steps to complete this project? Thank you for your response
Hey Brian, A one channel relay will work fine. The Pi Camera doesn't need a relay :) The document with all of the instructions is under the video in the about section. Just press "show more" to see it all. Let me know how you get on. Cheers, P
Awesome stuff! I'm about to repeat what you've done... (I have the same Dominator Garage) What kind of wiring did you use? Also, the relay link is down. Thanks!
this is some really good work and i like how clean you have everything wired up. i'm almost done with my set up, but am stuck on wiring to the garage door. If i remove the wall panel connections, everything works great. when i connect the panel, it must interfere because it stops working. are you using a wall panel as well to open your door? if so, you can expand on how you wired this to your garage door?
Juan Ramirez Every garage door unit is different, you should contact your manufacturer, I did. But, my setup didn't have a wall panel - so I just connected in place of a wall panel and when the relay fires, it makes the same connection a wall panel would.
Great stuff - really enjoy your videos. For 'noobs' like me, could you perhaps step us through the program(s). Do I assume that if either gate is already open, then running 'gate open' will close it ? Do we assume also that the gate has its own logic to sense the gate being fully open and stop the motor.
The program operates to mimic a garage door opener. The garage door opener does not know the state of the door, it simply activates the garage door motor. I will do a walk through of this program for you in future, but refer to my 4-channel relay video for easy to follow instructions.
just got the OK for the other half, so I'm gonna try to follow suite. I think I'll use a Pi Zero. what have you done since this video in regards to the garage door? sensors, external use?
Hi @SkiWithPete. Wondering if you had a diagram showing what pins go with what wires. I purchased to wires and relay through your link, by-the-way. Thanks for your response!
Hi, I don't have a pinout diagram - but check out my other raspberry pi videos where I explain through the code and show pinouts. They've modified the pinouts a couple of times across the different models. So I'd rely on the code and the pinout for your model - more than any diagram you can find. But yeah, take a look at my one channel relay video for more help.
+Captain Jak As this was on my home network (intranet), an attacker would need to break my WiFi code. Locate the Pi on my network. Open the PHP page, break the password on that. And then open the garage door. Not the easiest thing to do - but doable. Is that easier than a code scanner? I don't know.
You could use a USB webcam if you had a model B (I'm using a model A with only 1 usb port) OR you could use the RaspberryPi camera. Either would work fine. Good luck, P
Hey There. I really enjoy this video and I have a question: Do you know the max cable lenght I can use between the relay board and the other peer, a garage door or a lamp, for example? cheers!!
Peter Goldstein Each garage door is different - so I wouldn't know on a general level - but I assume that they would be able to reach a reasonable distance - because they typically assume you'll use a door panel.
:) Yes, the connection that turns the LED on will be the same as the one that opens the garage... I have two issues with the magnetic switches. I still need to connect them to a RaspberryPi and write some code (we'll call that problem 1). And, I need to find a place to connect them to the garage door (but I only need to worry about problem 2 after I solve problem 1). Problem 3? My work bench is taken up with my Automated Light project... and that has its own set of problems... Best, P
Great guides I was able to get this working using all your guides and now i can use my iphone to open my garage door. But i have been looking for a way to make the buttons larger as they are very small on my iphone web browser any suggestions. Thanks
+William Jones It took a lot of digging (maybe it shouldn't have but I am very new to wed design) but I added a line to the head area This limited the page size on the mobile browser to it made the button display much larger on my ios screen so my big fingers can click it without having to zoom in every time.. Thanks again for all the great instructions this was a very fun project.
I did this few days ago and now what I realized is that the PI when connected to the garage door it interfere with the garage door remotes that are in the cars. Thought it is due to the wifi dongle but its not, as soon as I unplug the wires from the relay going to the garage door the remotes work fine. Any suggestion?
The best thing about it is you can open your garage door anywhere there is wifi. The bad thing about it is you can open your garage door anywhere there is wifi
You can send some data to a google drive spreadsheet to log the actions (when opened and when closed) and put a link to the document , or even incorporate, on your php script, so you can see the actual state of the doors. A safer solution would be using mysql, or even sqlite (because it is lightweight), and save the logs into a database.
Thanks for taking the time to make the video... and keeping up with the comment going on 2 years later.. takes a lot of work to just do that alone.. I read thru all the post and watched the video a few times.. unless I am just missing it I don't see how you serve the webpage.. are you using apache?
nice job, does that only connect while the phones in wifi range? or can you put it online? (open the door down the road style of thinking... as mine are really slow.... and im inpatient, lol
Hello. In your case how has connected the wires to the motor? Was directly connected to the motor's power cord or connected to an engine control port. Thank U
Hi Pete, first of all thank you for all this Raspberry Pi videos. I have a question. How the motor of the garage door is powered? DC or AC? Is the same schema/connection as in your Raspberry Pi: 1 Channel Relay control with a Mobile Phone step by step video?
Pablo Rodríguez the schema is the same. I don't know anything about how my garage door is powered except that by closing a switch, it triggers the motor.
ThatCoder my garage door only needed a momentary trigger in order to activate and completely open or close the door. My half-second trigger was sufficient to cause the garage door to run its sequence. I did not need to leave the trigger open longer - though I could have.
ThatCoder I looked at my instruction book online and it seemed too straightforward. I didn't believe it, so I called up the installer and asked if it was that easy. He said it was. "Just connect the two outputs where you'd attach the keypad" he said. That's all I'm doing is simulating a touchpad with that relay.
Hi, a great video thanks! I have one question. How do I make the mobile application that controls my relay? or that has switches to open the door. Thanks, Trijeeta
+Trijeeta Acharjee make a python script to control the relay and than make a php script with the folowing: switch relay 1. turn Off and ofcourse you can make more buttons and functions to control more relays ;)
Slight warning about the GPIO2 you are suggesting to use. Atleast on rpi2 it's put to HIGH on boot which means depending on your relay-setup the garage doors will open automatically when you start/restart the device. This could be especially bad if you have it online for the public, but also if some skilled person feels determined to get into your house they could hack your wifi and then access the server. With some minor effort crashing your server and voila, doors are opened. So people have to make sure to think twice which gpio's to use, what happens on boot/reboot and how the relays will behave towards the controlled gear (and how the gear behaves on certain signals). :)
Tim Lind If you look at the code you'll notice that setting the GPIO to LOW triggers the relay and, thus, the door. But, if the Raspberry Pi is off - since it powers the relay - then the relay will not change states. So reboots and restarts will not cause unwanted behavior. And, as a side note, if someone skilled enough to hack your wifi is inside your network, your garage door is the least of your worries.
skiwithpete Euhm, using your setup the relays instantly got power and clicked on boot, I assumed this would cause a state change and trigger the garage doors, but alright then. Also, it made the relays take over the power from the pi, being on constantly. I simply switched to standard default LOW's instead.
I have been watching a-lot of videos on the raspberry today and by far this is the simplest and best output, so i wanted to ask you if i wanted to lets say control a door lock using this what would the steps be because I'm doing this as a project at my college and I'm a total noob i cant get my head around this stuff
I'd use a stepper motor and Pi. But that's the only hint I'll give you. Think about the whole process as a puzzle for your college mind to solve. ;) Best, P
Hi Im doing a project with door lock i have the raspberry pi and breadboard and a relay i have made them both work with the raspberry pi, my question how do i connect the solenoid lock with the relay or can it be just with the board what the best way and how do you connect them any ideas please. Great job by the way
+Mat matluma NCRelay COM ------- + From power NO ------- + to Door LockThe relay will connect power to the lock for 0.5 seconds or however long you have set in the scriptFrom Pete's script belowdef trigger() : for i in pinList: GPIO.output(i, GPIO.LOW) time.sleep(0.5)
@skiwithpete is there an app for android or web interface only? I want to be able to operate from my smartphone from work mostly. Awesome project. Used links in your description to buy the relay board.
hi ski, i am new to this have some doubts 1. python script has 4 section with same program why ? 2. for php code you said to place the file in /var/www. with me in have to place in /var/www/html . but then also its not working . where i am wrong i am using pi2 php verson 5.6
So did you ever get your sensors set up so that the pi knows if the garage door is open or closed? If so have you given any thought to taking it one or two steps further? Like when it senses that the garage door is in the open position it starts a timer for like a half hour and then automatically sends the signal to close the garage door? And then also setting up a motion sensor at the garage door so if anything passes buy it while the garage door is in the open position it will reset the timer for another half hour? I would love to set something like this up but I have absolutely no coding experience and don't know anyone who does.
Steve O'Brien the answer is no, because I moved to a place without a garage door. But the code is there, in the about section, for you to take and change to your needs. I had no coding experience before this either.
This may have already been asked, but wouldn't it be simpler and more universal to have the relay just open and close the low voltage circuit that most people have on the wall of their garage for operating the opener manually?
I'm not sure what you mean... but I think you're saying "why not have the relay "simulate" the button press of the wired device on the wall?" 1) Yes, that's actually what this does. 2) My "on the wall" switch wasn't wired (which I know is unusual) but the setup I use just connects to the terminals that would be used for a wall panel and closes that circuit.
Hi this video really help me much. But now i need to use the push button as input and will not use php and i don't have any idea on how to do it? Can u help me on that ?
hey pete, i got the scripts to run manually, but the php code doesn't seem to be working. After login, i click the left (or right) and nothing happens, i copied all binaries from www folder into /var/www/html. Any suggestions on where I could be going wrong?
Hi There... so this might be a silly question, but can I run my Raspberry Pi to do your garage door project and run it as a NAS drive server at the same time?
Yes. And no. Yes, you can. And, no, using up too much bandwidth for the NAS drive or for the Webpage will make a pretty horrible experience. But, realistically, yes, you can do both on the same machine, especially if you only use the garage door when you aren't streaming a movie. Hope that helps, P
does the rasberry pi have to be connected to the same wifi for this to work, and do you think that if i had a portable modem I could do this and would I still need internet or just the connection on the modem.
You can connect to a modem with no internet but do you need internet for this project or could a wireless modem with no internet work just for a wireless connection.
@@yuwmcanadian4444 it would work. But because you keep asking I worry you couldn't make it work. Once your phone connects to the modem with the pi on it, and it calls the pi. It would work. So, no internet required.
The web server works fine, except when I click the button to open a door it goes back to the logon page :( any ideas? (mind you i haven't actually connected the relays yet) just testing before i wire them up
To check if door is open why not put the camera module on the raspberry pi? You could mount it on the board facing your doors. Since you are using php/web you could easily watch your doors open and close with an embedded web image that updates/refreshes every second for 45 seconds after a button is pressed. Good luck! :)
HI, i have been watching videos all day and your variant seems to be the simplest, but i get problems getting it working.. first of all i cant access the python script through the html file, if i open it with terminal the led from the relais just lights a little brighter but doesnt open the relais.. another question, is there a difference betwene (root) and (ALL) ? please let me know best felix
ok, if the relay isn't working properly in terminal start there. Check this video to make sure you've got it correctly wired. Raspberry Pi: 8 Channel Relay step-by-step with software examples
Where in the python script do you change the GPIO pin number? Is it: pinList = [2] So if i change that 2 to a 3 that'd be GPIO pin 3, or physical pin 5?
A huge like for the info in the description box!
+Pianistos where I can find the description box and the code please?
I love your videos. They are not only informative and useful, but the filming is done so that the viewer is not bored listening to rambling. Thank you! I'm in the process of automating my home for my senior project at the university, and your videos have been helpful indeed.
Thanks! Let me know how you get on.
I would just lie to add a BIG THAN YOU for this, I worked it out, was my bad I got my pins mixed up on the raspberry pi, bloody works a treat
this is really simple but you Sir have given all the idea I needed, I asked many people but no one could help me, this exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks.
P
1) I am planning on making that more advanced system. The puzzle I have at the minute is figuring out where to install the magnet switches so as not to interfere with the movement of the door. More on that soon.
2) Raspbian.
3) That's great! Let me know how you go.
Pete, OK yes. I just hooked up a LED light with 2 D batteries as its power source just to test out the relay. Now of course the LED stays on connected to the battery and then from the LED wire I go to the relay. This might sound dumb but at first i wasn't getting anything since I connected both the relay and the LED to the BATTERY itself then I realized I need to splice the LED wire somewhere before the battery and that worked. The light stays on and when I activate the relay for 1 (read on..)
Hey, Thanks for the message. It's just speaker wire I had lying around. I spoke to the Garage door technician who suggested anything would do for my model. Now that you ask, I haven't actually checked how much power is crossing the relay, but it seems to be working fine.
Hi Tony,
I've had a couple of questions about how to attach this setup to door and gate configurations and... the honest answer is: I have no idea. Unfortunately, I'm not a garage door technician. What I did was contact my garage door reseller and explained exactly what I intended to and he was kind enough to provide me the details I needed to connect the relay to my door. He was the one who suggested the delay and I followed his instruction exactly. I hope you will do the same.
Best,
P
Thanks Pete! I was inspired by your project. I adapted your work and made a garage opener for my smartphones (with an additional API + changes to the backend code).
Operate Garage door with Smartphone
Hi Pete,
Your video did a good job on hooking up the Pi to the relays. I was wondering if you can show how you have it hooked up to the garage door motor.
I have a simple button by the door that when pressed, opens and closes the door, can the relay be connected to this circuit to do the same thing instead of directly to the motor as you done?
Thanks,
Pete
Thanks Pete! Works great (after some fiddling with permissions when running from the index.php). Looking forward to actually wiring this up when I get home!
Looking forward to you making the more advanced system that shows the status of the door!
The way my setup works is to connect to the same two wires as a keybox connection would - at least that's what the technician told me to do in my case with my garage door opener. However, I still recommend you contact your reseller, manufacturer or technician and explain what you're up to and hopefully they'll help.
Best of luck,
P
Hey Pete. I used your tutorial and have everything ready to go. At least I think I do. So far I have not installed it but I am able to hear the relay open/close. The way the script is working is its setting write 1 then write 0 a second later. Now, I am planning to install this on my Liftmaster Storefront rolling gate. Do I connect the relay DIRECTLY to the board? Does it matter which wires I connect from the relay? Could I burn the board out if I cross the wires?
Fantastic idea. Yes there are cheap remotes, but how can I undo the garage for my granddad who struggles to bend down to open it himself (handles at the bottom) when i live 110 miles from his house! Hence why this is a fantastic idea!!
Thanks for sharing this! I took my time learning and was able to create a simple webpage interface to use for my relay board. Very helpful with your webpage tutorial along with the source code you've given. It's been only 4 days since I got my raspberry pi 3 model B and I already learned a lot! :)
The relay has optoisolated switches, so connecting directly to the relay board is not the same as connecting directly to the relay. This, therefore, is not an issue.
I connected it directly to the head unit, and yes, it turns on the light in head unit, but I have not connected it to turn on the main garage lights, as I wanted those to be on an independent switch.
nice.., do we need resistor or transistor to bridging our pi with relay? because i thought raspberry only support 3.3v
Also, currently we use a key which we insert and turn for the gate to open. It does have an emergency STOP buttoon... could I following the wiring from the keybox and just simply connect the two wires to whereever thats connected? Sorry for all the questions and tanks in advance!
This is great stuff. I was wondering if you ever added and documented the 'state' for knowing when it was opened and/or closed? Nice work on all of the projects.
Thanks Pete. Really appreciate you helping all of us out. As far as the magenetic switches... have you got them to work yet? I plan on installing my setup tomorrow. Could you reply back with the exact magnetic switch you purchased?
Also, when the RaspBerry PI loses power does this affect the status of the door out all? Does it close/open if the relay loses power at all and did you not use a breadboard at all? Do you find a need for a breadboard?" Im new so I am not sure what the BB is for? TY!
Thanks man, appreciate the info. Glad you put this beauty together while waiting on your pizza to arrive. Can't wait to see the particle accelerator you tinker up while waiting for the paint on your house to dry! :D
Thanks for the quick reply Pete,
I've read on teh pi forums, hooking directly into the relays from the pi is hazardous so that was my main question, I wish i could post links heh, They say to use a 7407 ULN2003 in between.
Now the other question, how are the relays wired into your garage door opener, did you connect it directly into the head unit or the wall remote, I was curious if this turns on the light on the unit as well? :)
Thanks!
I am setting up something similar however I want to install magnetic sensors on the garage door to sense open or closed (and if possible opening and closing). Not sure how to inform the RP of the active state (open or closed/opening or closing) when checking on the phones web page. Any thoughts on how to program that?
Wow that's utterly superb. I understand how most of that worked but I don't get how your phone app connected to the PI. Where does the app live?
Thanks for the post.
It's not an app - it's a webpage. The webpage lives on the Pi and my phone connects to it over the wifi. So, it's not an app, it's my phone's browser looking at a PHP page on the Pi.
The code is in the about section.
Best,
P
skiwithpete Ahh, gotchya. Thanks. Your garage door has it's own web page.
skiwithpete
Do you have to be connected to your internal network or did you set your router with a DDNS or something like that? When i come home it takes a while for my phone to connect to the local network, i'd prefer to have it connected trough mobile internet. But you need DDNS and port forwarding i suppose . Cool project !
bartdereu
that's exactly right, I have DDNS and use port forwarding. I use a PHP password on my page now (I'll update the source code in the about section soon) - that way I can have the page be "public" but keep the garage door private... and I can open the garage door on my _way_ home.
I'm just getting started with my desire to learn electronics and scripting, thanks to channels like this. Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for the best resources / and books to start with to get my feet wet?
Love your Pi projects! Do you have this one scripted to toggle a variable showing the garage door state (open or closed) , perhaps starting with default "closed" which would switch each time you activate the door? I'm guessing it would be pretty easy to implement until you get the sensor connections in place. (Then again, I don't know anything about Python or it's capabilities)
hah, dont worry about correcting yourself, its great you're helping me out :) I got all the parts working on it now, following your guide as the rest out there are a bit convoluted.
trying to figure out how to get a magnetic reed switch to work too to sense open/close.. i got a camera set up but ya would rather a simple open/close
ar
Dude, that's awesome!! Good job and thank you for taking the time to make these videos, they are very inspiring!
Hi Pete
Just wondering if you have finished the project off by adding the door status?
Great project
Thanks
matrixfire Actually, I sold the house, and moved from NZ to NYC. So, no I never finished it. Sorry. I'll pick this project back up as soon as I move back into a house...
Hey Greg,
The Raspberry Pi is running the Python and PHP scripts. The mobile phone: it's just the web browser (in my case Chrome on Android)... When I point the mobile phone browser to the RaspberryPi, I see the webpage (PHP) which controls the (Python script) relays.
Hope that helps,
P
congratulations for the video, I'd like that more program information. for people who do not have much knowledge of Python and PHP, with its video was enough to generate home automation in my own car. thank you this was very good beginning.
Why aren't you using an atmega328 with a 433mhz reciever with the relay? You just need an arduino to code the atmega for it and it just works with domoticz. This way you can keep your Pi to run the server and control every switches that way. It will be a much cheaper solution.
Hi skiwithpete, I believe I understand how the hardware works but I'm confused as to how the cell phone communicates via wifi with the Raspberry Pi. I'm assuming the Python and/or PHP program is running on the cell phone and via wifi communicates with similar programs running on the Raspberry Pi. Is this correct? Any further insights into the software end of things would be appreciated. I am not very familiar with either Python or PHP. Thanks.
I've set up a similar system with my roller garage door - currently thinking about where to mount it. Can you tell me a bit more about how you mounted yours? (The wood, standoffs? etc) Thanks.
leonp2001 I mounted it to a plywood board, using m2.5 nuts and bolts like this
screw top
Pi
Nut
plywood
nut
Then I mounted the plywood board to the garage (I wanted to be able to take the whole thing down as one).
second the light shuts off and turns back on. Is this exactly how the garage door will operate? Also did you have a splice at any specific area as far as the wire goes where the relay will be connected or can I connect the relay directly to the board itself? Also with the magnetic switches is it just the fact of finding where to place them? Is that the only issue? Sorry for all the dumb questions. I'm learning so I promise things will get better ;) Learned a lot from your tutorial as well.
If this was to trigger a buttom press of the normal button. Wouldnt it be sufficient to wire the gpio ports direct to the button? Or arr they to weak hence the need pf relay?
Hi Pete, any ideas on a setup similar to this but the relays turn on & off at a set time with web interface for setting the days & time
Hi skiwithpete, can you connect a Video Cameras with your hardware and set up, or do you need to buy something else to add on ?
Brian, stupid question, could you please put your wiring schematics up? I know you explain it in the video, but it'd help me if I could see it on paper/schematic.
Your videos are great. Thank you for sharing them with us. Can yo explain about this step: Paste the PHP code into index.php in the folder /var/www?
Great video Skiwithpete! How would I use/apply this same concept if I wanted to have it on the gated entrance of my business? Is there a way I can remotely open the sliding gate from my phone if I wasn't on-site? Thanks!
Yes. You should look into DDNS and port forwarding. I'd love to make a video about that, but the truth is, it depends so much on the hardware you've got (as a router) and which DDNS service you're using. So, you kinda need to travel this road alone...
@skiwithpete: nice. Did you eventually connect a sensor to determine if it is open or close? Wondering if a commercially available garage door sensor, such as the Chamberlain MyQ-G0202, can be integrated to this system.
unfortunately I moved away and no longer have a garage. so, never finished the project. as far as your specific model of garage door opener I can't help. p
Thank you for you videos as they have helped this new to RPi stuff
here is a question can i add a sound effect to the web page so when the button is clicked it makes a sound thanks again
+Al Roberts try this:
Just Copy and Paste this Code in Body section of your HTML Code.
and make sure that your audio file should be in same folder.
+skiwithpete I will try it out out. I add it to the index.php files and not the python code right ?
+Al Roberts correct. Php.
I love playing around with IoT Devices like this. And most appreciative of this very complex and impressive you created in 2013 👍 of course fast forward to 2021 and it can be done with a standard Smart device that costs about $15.
And you just tell Alexa to open the garage. 🤗
Great work! Doesn't the relay board pull-up its inputs to 5v? If so how did you get around the GPIO's intolerance of 5v?
The GPIO has a 5V output but the GPIO connectors work at 3.3V. It sounds a little confusing, but check out my other vids for a step by step relay connection. With Optocoupler relays it works fine.
Cheers,
P
Thank you so much for the info. I only have one garage opener, so I assume I would need to purchase a 1 channel Relay Module, or should you recommend me to purchase the 2 channels, in case I need to setup the Camera in the future? Do you have a document for all of the steps to complete this project? Thank you for your response
Hey Brian,
A one channel relay will work fine. The Pi Camera doesn't need a relay :)
The document with all of the instructions is under the video in the about section. Just press "show more" to see it all.
Let me know how you get on.
Cheers,
P
Awesome stuff! I'm about to repeat what you've done... (I have the same Dominator Garage)
What kind of wiring did you use? Also, the relay link is down.
Thanks!
Hey there! Neat project :) I was just wondering what type of what wire were you using to connect the garage door motor to the relay? Thanks!
this is some really good work and i like how clean you have everything wired up. i'm almost done with my set up, but am stuck on wiring to the garage door. If i remove the wall panel connections, everything works great. when i connect the panel, it must interfere because it stops working. are you using a wall panel as well to open your door? if so, you can expand on how you wired this to your garage door?
Juan Ramirez Every garage door unit is different, you should contact your manufacturer, I did. But, my setup didn't have a wall panel - so I just connected in place of a wall panel and when the relay fires, it makes the same connection a wall panel would.
Great stuff - really enjoy your videos. For 'noobs' like me, could you perhaps step us through the program(s). Do I assume that if either gate is already open, then running 'gate open' will close it ? Do we assume also that the gate has its own logic to sense the gate being fully open and stop the motor.
The program operates to mimic a garage door opener. The garage door opener does not know the state of the door, it simply activates the garage door motor. I will do a walk through of this program for you in future, but refer to my 4-channel relay video for easy to follow instructions.
just got the OK for the other half, so I'm gonna try to follow suite. I think I'll use a Pi Zero. what have you done since this video in regards to the garage door? sensors, external use?
I moved to Manhattan. And don't own a car - let alone a garage... :)
Hi Skiwithpete, i have a model B the softwar you are using can support Raspberry pi Camera ?
Hi @SkiWithPete. Wondering if you had a diagram showing what pins go with what wires. I purchased to wires and relay through your link, by-the-way.
Thanks for your response!
Hi, I don't have a pinout diagram - but check out my other raspberry pi videos where I explain through the code and show pinouts. They've modified the pinouts a couple of times across the different models. So I'd rely on the code and the pinout for your model - more than any diagram you can find. But yeah, take a look at my one channel relay video for more help.
Great video! Would this take away an attackers ability to use scanners to steal codes? I assume this would but just wanted to ask.
+Captain Jak As this was on my home network (intranet), an attacker would need to break my WiFi code. Locate the Pi on my network. Open the PHP page, break the password on that. And then open the garage door. Not the easiest thing to do - but doable. Is that easier than a code scanner? I don't know.
You could use a USB webcam if you had a model B (I'm using a model A with only 1 usb port) OR you could use the RaspberryPi camera.
Either would work fine.
Good luck,
P
Hey There. I really enjoy this video and I have a question: Do you know the max cable lenght I can use between the relay board and the other peer, a garage door or a lamp, for example? cheers!!
Peter Goldstein Each garage door is different - so I wouldn't know on a general level - but I assume that they would be able to reach a reasonable distance - because they typically assume you'll use a door panel.
Thanks for the video! Did you ever hook up the breadboard? Was the plan to use magnetic reed switches?
Colin Hart no I moved to NYC. Don't have a car or a garage anymore.
:)
Yes, the connection that turns the LED on will be the same as the one that opens the garage...
I have two issues with the magnetic switches. I still need to connect them to a RaspberryPi and write some code (we'll call that problem 1). And, I need to find a place to connect them to the garage door (but I only need to worry about problem 2 after I solve problem 1).
Problem 3? My work bench is taken up with my Automated Light project... and that has its own set of problems...
Best,
P
Great guides I was able to get this working using all your guides and now i can use my iphone to open my garage door. But i have been looking for a way to make the buttons larger as they are very small on my iphone web browser any suggestions. Thanks
+William Jones It took a lot of digging (maybe it shouldn't have but I am very new to wed design) but I added a line to the head area This limited the page size on the mobile browser to it made the button display much larger on my ios screen so my big fingers can click it without having to zoom in every time.. Thanks again for all the great instructions this was a very fun project.
+William Jones Cool, that's great, thanks for adding!
I did this few days ago and now what I realized is that the PI when connected to the garage door it interfere with the garage door remotes that are in the cars. Thought it is due to the wifi dongle but its not, as soon as I unplug the wires from the relay going to the garage door the remotes work fine. Any suggestion?
Hey there. Your hyperlink to the PHP code seems to have moved or something. Just wanted to let you know.
I really love this project.
updated to use my github links: github.com/skiwithpete/sesamepi
The best thing about it is you can open your garage door anywhere there is wifi. The bad thing about it is you can open your garage door anywhere there is wifi
You can send some data to a google drive spreadsheet to log the actions (when opened and when closed) and put a link to the document , or even incorporate, on your php script, so you can see the actual state of the doors.
A safer solution would be using mysql, or even sqlite (because it is lightweight), and save the logs into a database.
Heyde Adilles Moura Cavalcante everything is in the description.
Thanks for taking the time to make the video... and keeping up with the comment going on 2 years later.. takes a lot of work to just do that alone.. I read thru all the post and watched the video a few times.. unless I am just missing it I don't see how you serve the webpage.. are you using apache?
jps birdzbeez Yes it is. Instructions are in the About Section for the video - here's the Raspberry Pi packages: lpaste.net/raw/92403
skiwithpete Ok.. so you are using apache.. thanks
nice job, does that only connect while the phones in wifi range? or can you put it online? (open the door down the road style of thinking... as mine are really slow.... and im inpatient, lol
I had mine online with a PHP password on it. I've recently moved and taken it down - once it arrives at my new place I'll post the code.
Cheers,
P
Hello. In your case how has connected the wires to the motor? Was directly connected to the motor's power cord or connected to an engine control port. Thank U
Pedro Teixeira Eng. no, mine was connected to the switch that allows for a remote keypad.
Hi Brain do you know how to turn on the SHOW MORE OPTION in youtube ? I don't see i on my youtube window...Thank U
Hi skiwithpete, thanks for the explanation, it did clear up the confusion on my part.
Hi Pete, first of all thank you for all this Raspberry Pi videos.
I have a question.
How the motor of the garage door is powered? DC or AC?
Is the same schema/connection as in your Raspberry Pi: 1 Channel Relay control with a Mobile Phone step by step video?
Pablo Rodríguez the schema is the same. I don't know anything about how my garage door is powered except that by closing a switch, it triggers the motor.
skiwithpete So you trigger it for half a sec and it continues on it's own 'till it's opened/closed? or do you power it until it's up/down ?
ThatCoder my garage door only needed a momentary trigger in order to activate and completely open or close the door. My half-second trigger was sufficient to cause the garage door to run its sequence. I did not need to leave the trigger open longer - though I could have.
Ok, thank you for your reply.
Was it easy to find where to trigger the motor? Mine works with a RF-controller and I have not yet dared to open it up
ThatCoder I looked at my instruction book online and it seemed too straightforward. I didn't believe it, so I called up the installer and asked if it was that easy. He said it was. "Just connect the two outputs where you'd attach the keypad" he said. That's all I'm doing is simulating a touchpad with that relay.
Great videos Pete! I wish I had a garage like your though :)
Hi, a great video thanks! I have one question. How do I make the mobile application that controls my relay? or that has switches to open the door.
Thanks,
Trijeeta
+Trijeeta Acharjee
make a python script to control the relay and than make a php script with the folowing:
switch relay 1.
turn Off
and ofcourse you can make more buttons and functions to control more relays ;)
Thanks a lot!
Slight warning about the GPIO2 you are suggesting to use. Atleast on rpi2 it's put to HIGH on boot which means depending on your relay-setup the garage doors will open automatically when you start/restart the device. This could be especially bad if you have it online for the public, but also if some skilled person feels determined to get into your house they could hack your wifi and then access the server. With some minor effort crashing your server and voila, doors are opened. So people have to make sure to think twice which gpio's to use, what happens on boot/reboot and how the relays will behave towards the controlled gear (and how the gear behaves on certain signals). :)
Tim Lind If you look at the code you'll notice that setting the GPIO to LOW triggers the relay and, thus, the door. But, if the Raspberry Pi is off - since it powers the relay - then the relay will not change states. So reboots and restarts will not cause unwanted behavior.
And, as a side note, if someone skilled enough to hack your wifi is inside your network, your garage door is the least of your worries.
skiwithpete Euhm, using your setup the relays instantly got power and clicked on boot, I assumed this would cause a state change and trigger the garage doors, but alright then. Also, it made the relays take over the power from the pi, being on constantly. I simply switched to standard default LOW's instead.
I have been watching a-lot of videos on the raspberry today and by far this is the simplest and best output, so i wanted to ask you if i wanted to lets say control a door lock using this what would the steps be because I'm doing this as a project at my college and I'm a total noob i cant get my head around this stuff
I'd use a stepper motor and Pi.
But that's the only hint I'll give you.
Think about the whole process as a puzzle for your college mind to solve.
;)
Best,
P
Wait but isn't it better to use a relay and then connect that to a electromagnetic door lock and then I can activate it like you are doing it here???
redsub93
Electromagnetic door lock. Cool.
Yeah, you would use a relay for that.
P
Any final tips for that?
redsub93
No, but keep me posted on your progress. Would love to see how it turns out.
P
Hi
Im doing a project with door lock i have the raspberry pi and breadboard and a relay i have made them both work with the raspberry pi, my question how do i connect the solenoid lock with the relay or can it be just with the board what the best way and how do you connect them any ideas please. Great job by the way
+Mat matluma NCRelay COM ------- + From power
NO ------- + to Door LockThe relay will connect power to the lock for 0.5 seconds or however long you have set in the scriptFrom Pete's script belowdef trigger() :
for i in pinList:
GPIO.output(i, GPIO.LOW)
time.sleep(0.5)
I'm going to try and build this. Thx for the great instructions.
@skiwithpete is there an app for android or web interface only? I want to be able to operate from my smartphone from work mostly. Awesome project. Used links in your description to buy the relay board.
It's all web. So if you expose a port on your router, you can access it from work...
Thanks @skiwithpete. Trying to install atop raspbian. Can this be done? If so, what are the commands? Sudo apt install sesame?
@@richteritwan instructions in the About Section
@@skiwithpete I'm not a coder by-the-way. I'm relying on copy/paste in the terminal cli so even the pin numbers are foreign to me.
@@richteritwan Never too late to learn.
Hey - can I ask where you got your relay board? Thanks
Hi, I'd like to try this at home, but I just wonder if you got detailed info about wiring, from rpi to that relay switch? Which goes where :)
Check out my other Raspberry Pi relay videos. Search raspberry pi relay skiwithpete - I do a lot of complete wiring demos with 2 and 4 channel relays.
Hi, I look through your videos now :) I've got raspberry pi b rev 2, can I use that? I also have network cabel in my garage
hi ski, i am new to this have some doubts 1. python script has 4 section with same program why ? 2. for php code you said to place the file in /var/www. with me in have to place in /var/www/html . but then also its not working . where i am wrong i am using pi2 php verson 5.6
I wonder if it Is any max distance of the white cables ?
So did you ever get your sensors set up so that the pi knows if the garage door is open or closed? If so have you given any thought to taking it one or two steps further? Like when it senses that the garage door is in the open position it starts a timer for like a half hour and then automatically sends the signal to close the garage door? And then also setting up a motion sensor at the garage door so if anything passes buy it while the garage door is in the open position it will reset the timer for another half hour? I would love to set something like this up but I have absolutely no coding experience and don't know anyone who does.
Steve O'Brien the answer is no, because I moved to a place without a garage door. But the code is there, in the about section, for you to take and change to your needs. I had no coding experience before this either.
Hi,
I found some garage door contacts at smarthome doot com. I think these might be good sensors for sensing if the doors are closed or open.
can you do this with everything? like radio, lights, or just switch a wallswitch to a relay
+Koen Van Looveren I haven't tried. But no reason it couldn't.
It is possible to also open the door to do with a key pad
This may have already been asked, but wouldn't it be simpler and more universal to have the relay just open and close the low voltage circuit that most people have on the wall of their garage for operating the opener manually?
I'm not sure what you mean... but I think you're saying "why not have the relay "simulate" the button press of the wired device on the wall?" 1) Yes, that's actually what this does. 2) My "on the wall" switch wasn't wired (which I know is unusual) but the setup I use just connects to the terminals that would be used for a wall panel and closes that circuit.
Are you standoffs just standard nuts/bolts through that particle board?
Yeah they're the correct size I found from the raspberrypi site. Bought on Ebay.
Hi this video really help me much.
But now i need to use the push button as input and will not use php and i don't have any idea on how to do it?
Can u help me on that ?
hey pete, i got the scripts to run manually, but the php code doesn't seem to be working. After login, i click the left (or right) and nothing happens, i copied all binaries from www folder into /var/www/html. Any suggestions on where I could be going wrong?
sir do you have to use the root of the pi.. currently its not working for me. do i have to change some setting to be able to turn on the relay?
Sorry, I think we'll need more information than that to help...
will this work on a old garage door opener I have a vemco. pre at least 1997 when I moved it
+jay walker I don't know. But, if you can wire up a wall switch for it, it will work.
Good project. Can you show your code and how are you wiring it ? thank you
柜峰 洪 code is in the about section
thank you for your promptly reply
Hi There... so this might be a silly question, but can I run my Raspberry Pi to do your garage door project and run it as a NAS drive server at the same time?
Yes. And no.
Yes, you can.
And, no, using up too much bandwidth for the NAS drive or for the Webpage will make a pretty horrible experience.
But, realistically, yes, you can do both on the same machine, especially if you only use the garage door when you aren't streaming a movie.
Hope that helps,
P
does the rasberry pi have to be connected to the same wifi for this to work, and do you think that if i had a portable modem I could do this and would I still need internet or just the connection on the modem.
Just connect to modem. It's an intranet
You can connect to a modem with no internet but do you need internet for this project or could a wireless modem with no internet work just for a wireless connection.
@@yuwmcanadian4444 it would work. But because you keep asking I worry you couldn't make it work. Once your phone connects to the modem with the pi on it, and it calls the pi. It would work. So, no internet required.
hi, as you do to access by ip from your phone to the server? The server is mounted on raspberry pi? as you know the ip is that you must access?
heriberto alaniz I set the ip of the Raspberry at the Modem to be static. Yes, the server is the Raspberry Pi.
Hey there,
Great work, i was planning on doing the exact same thing and ran across your video (+ scripts), Thanks heaps.
Which web server do you run?
Apache. Instructions are in the Description. Cheers, P
They are too! -1 skill points in reading for me. Thanks
The web server works fine, except when I click the button to open a door it goes back to the logon page :( any ideas? (mind you i haven't actually connected the relays yet) just testing before i wire them up
yeah, it reloads after execution (just remember to rename it .php)
Dear Santa, please bring me a neighbor and friend as clever as this man. He's awesome.....come on 🎅 I said please....BRO!!!
To check if door is open why not put the camera module on the raspberry pi? You could mount it on the board facing your doors. Since you are using php/web you could easily watch your doors open and close with an embedded web image that updates/refreshes every second for 45 seconds after a button is pressed.
Good luck! :)
Great idea!
P
HI, i have been watching videos all day and your variant seems to be the simplest, but i get problems getting it working..
first of all i cant access the python script through the html file, if i open it with terminal the led from the relais just lights a little brighter but doesnt open the relais..
another question, is there a difference betwene (root) and (ALL) ? please let me know
best
felix
ok, if the relay isn't working properly in terminal start there.
Check this video to make sure you've got it correctly wired.
Raspberry Pi: 8 Channel Relay step-by-step with software examples
Where in the python script do you change the GPIO pin number? Is it:
pinList = [2]
So if i change that 2 to a 3 that'd be GPIO pin 3, or physical pin 5?
They are BCM GPIO numbers so pinList = [2] 2 is GPIO2. I do not use Pin numbers. if you change it to a 3 then it will be GPIO3.
awesome videos man keep doing great stuff