Shopping for opener - please enlighten me on MyQ
Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2018 12:48 am
I'm in the market for new garage door opener. I've been using IOLinc to control my old openers and have generally been happy with that system.. I currently have "basic" control and monitoring from home and away with this system.
My IOLincs are functioning, so I would be content to just get a reliable opener and set it up the same way.
I could imagine some improvements in terms of control/monitoring. For example, an API with discrete commands to raise/lower/stop the door (right now I just have one momentary pushbutton control that simulates pushing the button on the remote. I could also imagine better monitoring that indicates door in motion vs. stopped and possibly door position (right now I just have a simple binary sensor that is ON when door is completely closed).
Some questions:
My IOLincs are functioning, so I would be content to just get a reliable opener and set it up the same way.
I could imagine some improvements in terms of control/monitoring. For example, an API with discrete commands to raise/lower/stop the door (right now I just have one momentary pushbutton control that simulates pushing the button on the remote. I could also imagine better monitoring that indicates door in motion vs. stopped and possibly door position (right now I just have a simple binary sensor that is ON when door is completely closed).
Some questions:
- Can someone explain to me basically what I can do with this plugin, assuming I get a new Chamberlain/Liftaster opener such as B970?
- I've seen some discussion online about MyQ requiring a paid subscription -- Is subscription required to experience the full benefits of this plugin?
- What is the monitoring-side like? Screens on the Chamberlain site make it look like you can actually see when door is moving - is that realistic?
- Do updates propagate quickly? Is monitoring done via the cloud service or is there direct communication between the opener and the Indigo plugin?
- What is control-side like? Do you get discrete open/close commands? Is there a stop command? Can I control the light separately?
- Do MyQ and this plugin work smoothly if I have two openers? Can I have two on same MyQ account?
- Is there any advantage to using a cloud service like MyQ? (I already control/monitor my old opener remotely just fine via Indigo w/o cloud service).
- Another unit I'm considering is the Ryobi unit - does anyone have experience with using that with Indigo?