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Comment by meindnoch | Hacker News Reader

Is this "myQ ecosystem" the only way to interact with these garage doors? i.e. is there no way to communicate with them without involving the manufacturer's server?

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You can buy little ESPHome devices that will speak it’s local serial protocol and control it. (And then link to them how you want)

It’s incredibly annoying and dumb and I now have to get some. grumble

You can just use a relay to open and close the door if that’s all you want.

Edit: no you can't, if it's the fancy one. You gotta hack a switch like this: LiftMaster 883LM Security+ 2.0 MyQ Door Control Push Button

Sort-of: the newer ones require the physical button to speak the same rolling code protocol the remotes do. So, yes: but you have to modify a real door opener. ratgdo has the advantage that it pretends to be said door opener.

bummer! i had no idea it wasn't just a dumb switch! also super cool that they reverse engineered it. :)

There's often a pair of pins on the internal board that you can attach a relay to. Shorting the pins causes the door to close.

That sounds even dicier than modifying the wall switch, but sure :)

There is a part of me that wants to break the damn thing open to hunt for a 3.3V line so I can power the ratgdo without a USB PSU...

My garage doors (purchased within the last year) have "regular" buttons / car remotes to open them, myQ was 100% optional. I basically use it as a way to alert me when the garage door opens (someone just came home, amazon is doing that semi-weird in-garage delivery thing, etc)

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