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Apps Sonoff App? CarPlay Apple Watch?

cmbauer

cmbauer

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2016
193
74
Fellas,

So I am starting to get into Home Automation. I have been trying to find a way to open my garage doors from my phone or my apple watch.

Backstory - When riding my motorcycle I have my phone in my saddlebag and it connects to my headunit for Carplay. I would love to pull up to my garage door and have it open. SO I purchased a couple Sonoff basic Wifi Switch. Hooked up power and wired in my openers. Works great except I have to use the EweLink app to open or close the circuit. I would love to get this app on my CarPlay or onto my Apple watch.

I started looking at IFFTT to accomplish a widget on my apple watch. Not sure how it works.

Does anyone know anything about app development or a way to make this process easier?

Any suggestions or help would be great
 
Itinj24

Itinj24

Contributor
Nov 8, 2017
4,467
2,560
New York
+1 (+2 actually) for the Insignia Garage Door Opener linked above. I believe it’s a brand exclusive to Best Buy. Got one for each of my two garage doors and they work great and integrate directly with Homekit and Siri Commands. Installation was a snap and the they are reasonably priced considering others on the market. Some requirements include a very strong WiFi signal to the garage and a sectional garage door.

You can even have the garage door open automatically when you pull up using a geofence location automation in HomeKit. HomeKit does ask/confirm that you want to run the automation since it opens to your home but I bypassed the confirmation by adding a smart plug (Wemo mini) to a corner outlet in a room less used and use that to trigger the automation since HomeKit doesn’t care if you turn on a smart plug when you arrive home. Turning on the smart plug then opens the garage door. A lot simpler than it sounds.

I ride too... for work and for leisure
 
W

w00master

macrumors 65816
Jul 18, 2002
1,126
345
Bringing this up from the depths of the forums.

I honestly wish that more folks in Homekit would go DIY and utilize Sonoff (or Shellby). They are super cheap, extremely reliable, work entirely locally, and no need for a cloud.

Sonoffs can now be flashed with a Homekit version of something similar to Tasmota (which is what most on the open source side of things in Home Automation use):

Right now on Amazon, you can buy a pack of 4 Sonoffs for around $24. That's (for example) 4 light switches in your house that can become "smart." How many Lutrons can you buy at $24?

Zero.
 
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