Wifi or Ethernet garage door controller for multiple doors

[jmillican1983]

I'm looking for the best option to control 3 shop doors, one house door, and one driveway gate via one app on my phone. There's tons of wifi enabled smart garage door opener systems, but it's unclear to me what the best option is for systems with more than 3 devices. Have any of you looked into this before?

 

[gte718p]

Best is a loaded question.

To me, the best is to build yourself a system. You can build one for about $50 and automate as many things as you want. Unfortunately that requires programming and electronics experience.

All of the major garage door manufactures now have remote systems. They range in price and effectiveness. They pretty much all require a monthly subscription and will be outdated and unsupported in a few years forcing you to buy new equipment. They are all more or less the same. Pick the one from the brand you happen to like.

Then there are the luxury home automation systems. Expensive and over kill, but come with their own servers so you are not dependent on the whims of a third party. However functionality, security, and reliability they are hard to beat.

 

[jmillican1983]

The popular name brand devices I have found seem to operate up to 3 doors at best. The limitation seems to be based on the respective app. I would be happy to buy 5 different modules/smart openers if they could all be controlled from one app. I did find a generic board on amazon that would control 4 doors, but the app looked terrible. My hope was to get something compatible with Apple Home Kit, which should have support for more than a few years.

 

[gte718p]

Looks like plenty of them available
https://www.apple.com/ios/home/accessories/

Don't plan on them lasting long. Apple is horrible with planned obsolescence. They will upgrade the app and the old will not be supported. Then they will claim the old is unsecure and then stop passing the data through their servers.

As a consumer it is a no win game. Amazon is just as bad. They are already bricking the first generation of Alexa connected appliances.

I'm running https://www.home-assistant.io/ and looking at moving to https://www.openhab.org/ . I run both locally on my computer. No subscriptions and no one else can brick my appliances. Unfortunately neither is particularly user friendly.

 

[ard]

no one else can brick my appliances.

“Only **I** can brick my appliances...

 

[gte718p]

“Only **I** can brick my appliances...

Not if you go for smart appliances. I have a really cool internet connected crock pot (why I have no idea, wife wanted it). No way to use it without the app. It is a first generation that is no longer supported by the app. Of course I can upgrade to a new one for $45.

Now it is on the bench to be hacked to an open system.

I’m going to put a $2 chip into it, but I’m going to spend an hour or two poking around in it and programming it that I could bill at 5x the value of the darn thing. However I win on principle.

I love technology, but I hate “smart” is disposable appliances.