Open Garage Doors with Apple Watch (Home Assistant)

[CursedDog19]

After watching today's LTT upload, I was thrilled to see the use of Home Assistant in a video. I happen to be a home assistant user, so I will be making a series of Forum posts on home automation. 

 

Home Assistant offers a free application for both iPhone and Apple Watch. Before installing those apps, we need to get some baseline configuration done in home assistant.

 

1. Navigate to your configuration.yaml file

 

2. Add a new line that reads 

 

ios: !include ios.yaml

 

3. Create ios.yaml in the same directory as configuration.yaml. This is to abstract the ios configuration from the rest of home assistant's config.

 

4. In ios.yaml, paste the following sample code:

 

actions:

  # garages

  - name: garage1  #id of garage 1 button. You will need this later

    background_color: "#7F7F7F"

    label:

      text: "Garage 1"  #Display text of garage 1

      color: "#FFFFFF"  

    icon:

      icon: mdi:garage  #Icon of garage 1

      color: "#1E90FF" 

  - name: garage2  #id of garage 2

    background_color: "#7F7F7F"

    label:

      text: "Garage 2"

      color: "#FFFFFF"

    icon:

      icon: mdi:garage-variant

      color: "#1E90FF"

 

Each action will be a button in the home assistant app.

Add a button for each garage door that needs to be controlled.

The colors, names, and icons can be customized.

 

5.  Create the automation that opens/closes the door. This goes in automations.yaml. If you do not have this file, create it in the same directory as configuration.yaml

- id:  #enter a unique id for the automation

 

  alias: # Friendly name for automation

  trigger:

  - platform: event

    event_type: ios.action_fired

    event_data:

      actionName: #This is the id of your garage button.

  condition: []

  action:

  - service: mqtt.publish... #This is the service that opens/closes your garage door.

 

iOS actions can be used for more than garage door control. I use actions to trigger scenes, toggle lights, and to play music on speakers around the house.

 

6. Install the home assistant app on your iPhone and sign in. The apple watch app should be installed automatically.

 

7. Open the Home Assistant app on the Watch. Actions should be populated automatically. For quick access, the home assistant app can be pinned to the watch face.

 

8. Open your garage door! You must be connected to the home assistant server for this to work. VPN or Nabu Casa can be used to access this automation while away from the home network.

[h45e]

Why does he make it so difficult for himself. 

I recently got https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07QCTN71J/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glc_fabc_VA1DB0PQ0ZQDXYNSDQVS?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

It is a non subscription device, connects to your WiFi. Works with Google home, has a timer to automatically close the door after x time. Allows you to close/open from anywhere in the world. I got it because my garage kept opening at random times. 

 

Best purchase I ever made. 

[Zusafek]

40 minutes ago, h45e said:

Why does he make it so difficult for himself. 

I recently got https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07QCTN71J/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glc_fabc_VA1DB0PQ0ZQDXYNSDQVS?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

It is a non subscription device, connects to your WiFi. Works with Google home, has a timer to automatically close the door after x time. Allows you to close/open from anywhere in the world. I got it because my garage kept opening at random times. 

 

Best purchase I ever made. 

I agree. I have a chamberlain garage door opener and a genie attached to it.  No issues. No subscription. 

[colonel_mortis]

Moved to Guides and Tutorials. In future, it might be a bit more readable if you use code tags (the <> button in the editor) for your code snippets.

[CursedDog19]

21 hours ago, h45e said:

Why does he make it so difficult for himself. 

I recently got https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07QCTN71J/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glc_fabc_VA1DB0PQ0ZQDXYNSDQVS?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

It is a non subscription device, connects to your WiFi. Works with Google home, has a timer to automatically close the door after x time. Allows you to close/open from anywhere in the world. I got it because my garage kept opening at random times. 

 

Best purchase I ever made. 

The problem with that solution is it costs $75 when I can fully automate BOTH of my garage doors for under $25. Of course, that doesn't include the cost of a server to run Home Assistant, a 3d printer, soldering equipment, and an already functioning garage door opener. I'll be making a full tutorial on how to do this for cheap in the coming days.