Designing & Installing Devicebook Garage Doors

Introduction

This section is about designing Devicebook Garage Doors for a smart home, and subsequently installing devices. 

To learn about using Devicebook Garage Doors, see Using Devicebook Garage Doors

Designing Garage Doors

You have two configuration options for designing and installing the Devicebook Garage Doors solution. You can install Garage Door Controllers, which both monitor and control garage doors, or you can install Open/Close Sensors, which only monitor if a garage door is empty.

For each garage door, you only need to choose one of these two, not both.

These two options are presented as optional features in the Devicebook smart home designer.

When to use Garage Door Controllers

With Garage Door Controllers, users get the full suite of features from the Garage Doors smart home solution: remote control and monitoring.

Garage Door Controllers should be used in almost all cases. These devices allow automation and remote control of garage doors, and work with most pre-existing garage doors in homes in the United States.

When to use Open/Close Sensors

With Open/Close Sensors, Devicebook can monitor garage doors, but cannot control them. Users will be able to use the Devicebook App to see if their garage is open or closed, and be alerted if a door has been open for a long period of time, but cannot control the garage door.

Open/Close Sensors are a cheaper alternative to implementing some of the Devicebook Garage Door solution features. While they are less expensive than full Garage Door Controllers, they can only report if a door is open or closed, and cannot remotely control the garage door.

Device Choices

See the Device Selection Guide for more information about the different communication protocols and recommendations on specific device models. 

Installing Devicebook Garage Doors

Install smart Garage Door Controllers or Open/Close Sensors following the manufacturer's instructions. All such devices are generally wireless, so take care to reduce the number of obstacles between the devices and the Devicebook Hub (or the nearest repeater, in the case of Z-Wave). Metal enclosures and objects in particular can significantly reduce wireless communication quality.

Setting Up & Testing Garage Doors

Use House Check to set up all the devices in the home.

To verify that the garage door solution has been installed properly, use the Devicebook App to control each garage door in the home (if applicable), and verify that the garage door responds as expected. 

Then, control each garage door manually using a physical button or remote control, and verify that the state of the garage door in the Devicebook App is updated as expected.

To learn more about using the Garage Doors solution, see Using Devicebook Garage Doors