setting up MyQ garage door to automatically open and close based on home location
I created routines to open my garage door when I enter my home location and close the door when I leave my home location but neither one is working. I can execute the routine manually on my phone and it works properly. I have the app set up to use location services on my phone. The "welcome home" routine is set to execute "garage door open" when the trigger "location-arrive home" happens. Has anyone tried to make this work and been successful?
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Hi Setwlt,
We are currently experiencing issues with our locations triggers. We are working on a solution. I will notify you once the issue has been resolved.
Best,
John
Hello,
I am also waiting for a solution.
Thank You
George
Same here, waiting for a solution.
Have you not resolved this issue yet? It looks like you focus on IOS applications more than Android. My original request was over 4 months ago and no action has been taken. As you can see from this thread there are other users that are looking for the same solution.
Hi Thomas,
We have just released an update that will resolve the geofencing issues on iOS. The new Shortcuts Shortcuts feature allows you to use the Shortcuts app to trigger SimpleCommands Routines based on your location. Let me know if you would like help setting this up!
I need a solution for Android operating system which is what I have been waiting for.
Thomas,
After this update to the iOS geofencing we will work on improving this feature for Android.
Is there any ETA on an Android fix?
I don't think they are focused on working on any issues involving Android. As you can see I have been waiting since June.
Hi Matt,
Unfortunately we still do not have an eta on geofencing for Android.
Best,
John
New to the group and app Brian Walker but let me tell you ... the built in location services is working flawlessly on my iOS device. Great job!! I also tried it with location services with an Alexa routine and she promptly triggers the close scene/routine and tells me "close the doors" as a voice message.
Thanks bottsjw! Glad it's working for you!
Thanks for all the information and troubleshooting. I am able to make it work on on my iPhone 7, however only when I leave simplecommands app running. I have given all the location permissions to allow for the app to work in the background but does not work unless the app is open.
Your assistance is appreciated.
I have found a somewhat detailed, but very effective solution to this problem. Once you have connected your MyQ to SimpleCommands (the generic connection worked best for me)....then you need to create a routine to open the door and one to close the door. When creating it, choose Garage Door (Generic Garage Opener) as the action and as the trigger you should choose Webhook and copy the link that is provided....finish creating each of the routines and save. Now, you need to integrate into IFTTT......for the IF portion, choose LOCATION and set your radius and choose either "when I enter and area" or "when I leave an area" depending on which command you are programming. Then for the THAT portion, choose WEBHOOKS and paste the URL you copied in SimpleCommands. Choose the Method as POST and Content type as "application/json". Leave the rest blank and save. Now when your device enters/leaves an area, the door should open/close automatically. Keep in mind that you must have location services set to ALWAYS ALLOW for the IFTTT application for this to work reliably. I have the location radius set to its narrowest as I live in a densely populated area, but feel free to experiment with the radius to find your ideal trigger spot.
It has now been almost a year since the last request for a timeframe for the Android implementation for Location. Is there an update on this? It would be so cool to be able to have the garage door open when we get close to the garage.
Greg Phelps
Can you give us step by step instructions?
It's actually much easier now than in the past thankfully. I no longer use IFTTT since they began charging for the service, so that eliminates an entire step. This process assumes that you have a wifi enabled MyQ controller and an active MyQ account. It also assumes that you are using an Alexa device, but I imagine that other voice assistants could be configured similarly...I am just not familiar with those platforms.
1. Within the All Items section of Simple Commands, choose Add/Remove Items. Select myQ Openers and enter your myQ credentials to connect the account. When finished, you should have a tile under All Items that is labeled Garage Door - myQ. You should be able to open this tile and open and close your garage door.
2. Do not toggle on any of the options listed below the Open and Close toggles even tho you might think you should!
3. Now go into the Routines section of Simple Commands and click on Add Routine. Name this routine Auto Open the Garage. On the next screen, choose Garage Door (myQ-Openers) and click Add. The click Open on the next screen and then click Add Command. This should then take you to the Routines page and display a tile with the label you just created.
4. Now basically repeat this process to create a second routine and label it Auto Close the Garage and choosing Close as the command.
5. You should now have 2 tiles under Routines. One labeled Auto Open the Garage and one labeled Auto Close the Garage. You are now finished with the Simple Commands portion of the set up.
6. Within Alexa, you must first enable the skill to connect to Simple Commands. Go to the skills section and search for "kloee for sc" Using your login and password from Simple Commands, enable this skill and connect the accounts.
7. Once you have connected the accounts, Alexa will usually prompt you to discover new devices. If she doesn't, then do a device discovery manually simply by saying "Alexa, discover devices" Once the discovery is complete, you should have 2 new entries under the Scenes section on the Devices page in the Alexa App. These will be the routines you created in Simple Commands.
8. Now you can simply create routines within Alexa and use these scenes to control your garage door.
9. To auto open your garage door when your cell phone gets close to home, go to the Routines page in the Alexa App and click '+' to add a routine. Give the routine a name (I used the same name as in Simple Commands). Click the '+' next to "when this happens" and choose location. Make sure that you have Arrives chosen at the top of the page and confirm your location and adjust the map as needed. Then under Add Action, choose Smart Home and then Control Scene and choose the Auto Open the Garage Scene that was imported from Simple Commands. Click Save in the upper right corner and you should be finished. You can then create an Auto Close Routine by repeating the above steps and changing your choices to Leaves and choosing the Auto Close the Garage routine.
I hope this is step by step enough. Once you have the scene imported into Alexa, it can be used in a routine to do many different things.....it can be an action or even a trigger for a different action. Just play with it and have fun!
I would warn you to be careful tho when creating voice routines to open/close your doors. If your voice assistant is somewhere that it could hear someone outside, don't use the phrase "open the garage" or "unlock the garage" as a trigger to run the command. A burglar could potentially scream "Alexa, open the garage" from the outside and then gain access. Best to create a "name" for your door and create a voice trigger that is unique and known only to the members of your household. "Alexa, tell Gladys we're leaving" or something silly like that just to be safe.
Hello Greg,
Thanks for the information for setting this up. I do have a question. There are two of us living here. Both of us have a phone (my Android, and her iPhone), and either of us or both of us can be coming home at any given time. I only see an option in the Alexa Routine to set my phone as the location device. How do I set her phone as a location device to get this to work when she is coming home?
You must create another set of routines with unique names (ie. Auto Open Garage Hugh, Auto Open Garage Mary, etc...) on each device that you wish to use as a location trigger. I assume that she has the Alexa app installed on her phone and you are both logged into the same account correct? If you have 2 separate Alexa accounts, then she would have to connect the Simple Commands skill to her account using your Simple Commands credentials....if as I suspect, you are using the same Alexa account, then it's just the simple process of creating new routines on HER phone just as you did on yours.
Hello Greg,
I have followed you instructions and it works almost perfectly. If I come down the driveway, the door does not open until I take out the phone and get past the lock screen. As soon as I am "in" the phone, the door goes up. This is with a new Galaxy S21+ phone. Any thoughts?
Thanks
Craig
I am not an Android phone user, but it sounds like the issue is with your location/privacy settings. In iPhone, you can grant apps permission to ALWAYS know your location or to only know it when the app is being used. All of your smart home apps should be set so that your location can be detected whether or not the app itself is actually open on your phone. I would imagine that there is a similar setting somewhere within the Android settings.....good luck!
Greg,
Thanks for the response. I do have the apps set to Always Use Location, but I will double check again and see is I missed something.
Thanks again!
Unfortunately the Alexa integration did not work either. Quite frustrating off to look for another option. 😔
Kelly - with the Alexa integration, mine was successful 1 out of 5 attempts. Frustrating is not the word for it. Please if you find a solution, post it here.
Thanks
Craig
I think the key here guys is to NOT enable Alexa/Google integration within the SimpleCommands app. What I did instead was create two routines in SimpleCommands called Auto Open (and Auto Close) The Garage. When you do this and then use the kloee for sc skill in Alexa to link the accounts, Alexa will recognize those SimpleCommands routines as scenes that you can then use to create an Alexa routine that will use the presence of your phone as the trigger to run each of the two scenes. Keep in mind that your phone's location services for Alexa MUST be set to "always allow" so that it can know when you're coming and going. This set up works for me almost 95% of the time. There are times when it takes a little while for Alexa to realize that the phone is present/not present, but for the most part, it does work. Try experimenting with the presence radius when you set up the trigger in the Alexa routine....you might have to make the radius bigger or smaller to suit your individual needs.
This is what I meant by Alexa integration (following your instructions above), I activated nothing in SC. Does not work on my android phone. Native SC triggers work fine on my daughters iPhone no need to use Alexa. All permissions are set to use location services for Alexa, SC and MyQ (just to be safe). Like many apps just doesn't seem to be well supported for Android.
Greg - I agree with Kelly - I created in SC and used kloee to link and have alexa set to always allow, and 9 time out of 10 nothing happens. And like Kelly all apps are set to use location services. Google reminder to bring re-usable bags into the supermarket when I arrive in the parking lot works, so maybe I will see if there is a possibility to integrate with Google Assistant.
Hi everyone. So I was able to get this set up working a couple of times. The issue is that it doesn't work all of the time. I have thoroughly tried a bunch of the options posted here which are helpful, however the there are still issues. Sometimes one garage will trigger. Sometimes I wont get a trigger at all when I get home. Sometimes I sit in front of my house for a couple minutes and suddenly get a trigger, etc. I was with a buddy who owns a Tesla and they offered him some sort of set up to where when his car arrives, it triggers his garage. It was smooth, fast, accurate, and works when he leaves and when he arrives every single time. Maybe it's a bluetooth option?
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