READING TIME: 9 MINUTES
While smart garage door openers are already “smart”, there’s always room for improvement. For example, wouldn’t it be nice to see if your garage was open from within the SmartThings app? Talk about the ultimate smartthings garage door opener!
Believe it or not, you can! I had to do some digging, but eventually I found a few different methods to open and close your garage door from within SmartThings.
You likely open the SmartThings app multiple times a day anyway, so this is a great way to keep tabs on your house without having to open up a separate app.
Before I start: In this guide, I’m going to show you how to connect a MyQ device to my Aeotec SmartThings hub. It was the cheapest way to make my “dumb” 12-year old garage door opener “smart” without replacing it entirely. This device is fantastic and works with just about any garage door manufacturer, allowing you to control your garage door over wifi.
Sidenote: I’ve been using it for the last 2 years without any issues at all and highly recommend it. Even though I’ve had the MyQ Chamberlain device setup for years, I recently added it to my SmartThings ecosystem and thought I’d document the process for anyone else interested.
Equipment List:
You will need the following items before you get started:
- Samsung SmartThings Hub
- SmartThings Multipurpose Sensor (if sold out, the Ecolink Tilt Sensor works great as well)
- MyQ Chamberlain Hub
Is MyQ Compatible with SmartThings?
A commonly asked question is whether or not MyQ works with SmartThings. The answer is yes and no.
MyQ doesn’t natively work with SmartThings, which basically means you can’t just add a MyQ garage door opener as a new device within the new SmartThings app.
However, there are some third-party ways to integrate it, which is what I’m going to show you how to do in this guide.
Advantages of a SmartThings Garage Door Opener
There’s several advantages of integrating SmartThings and MyQ together. After reading through this article, decide for yourself if it’s worth your time and money to integrate the two. It takes about 15 minutes to setup from start to finish.
Open and Close Garage Door from App
The first is obviously being able to open and control your garage door from within the SmartThings app.
No more opening up the MyQ app!
View Garage Door Status at a Glance
There’s a good change that you open the SmartThings app multiple times a day anyway. Setting this up allows you to quickly check your garage door status without needing to open a second app.
Automations
Have you every forgotten to close the garage door after crawling into bed? Do you leave for work in the morning through the garage?
Then you should definitely consider setting up some awesome SmartThings automations! Here’s a few automations I use. Hopefully it inspires you to create your own.
- Send notification or text if garage door sensor status is OPEN at 10pm
- Automatically close garage door at 9:30pm
- If I’m at home, then open garage door at 7am (Before I leave for work)
- If weather is rainy, then close garage door.
Getting Started
This guide assumes that your SmartThings hub is already setup, MyQ has been connected to your wifi, and that your multipurpose sensor has been added to your home. I highly recommend adding your multipurpose sensor to SmartThings, mounting it to the garage door, and ensuring the tilt sensor works correctly before continuing.
As of writing this in September 2020, I could only find two working ways to get SmartThings working with MyQ: MyQ Lite or using this SimpleCommands script.
I attempted the SimpleCommands setup first but was unsuccessful, so I attempted the MyQ Lite route which was a breeze in comparison.
For this guide I’m going to show you how to install MyLite via the community installer method. The Community Installer is a script that allows you to download the most popular smartapps by simply searching for them, rather than installing each of them manually.
Step 1: Add Multipurpose to SmartThings
Add your multipurpose sensor to your SmartThings hub just like you would any other SmartThings device. Name it “Garage Tilt Sensor” or something similar. (FYI – mine is called Multipurpose Sensor for the rest of this guide)
Click into the sensor to edit it. Then, click the 3 dots in the top right corner to get to Settings.
Change the “use on garage door” option to Yes. This enables the “tilt sensor” capabilities (instead of replying on the sensor magnet to determine if a door is opened or closed).
Optional: You can now move the sensor to your Garage “room” or hide it via SmartThings.
How To Mount SmartThings Sensor To Garage Door
Because this sensor acts as a tilt sensor, you don’t need the magnet portion at all anymore (if using the SmartThings Multipurpose Sensor). Store the smaller magnetic piece somewhere safe; you may repurpose this sensor or move houses at some point.
After much trial and error, I determined that the best place to mount the sensor is on one of the top panels, flat side facing the wall. This is because the top panel “curves” the most when rolled up towards your ceiling, which triggers the open/closed much better than any other panel.
Step 2: Add Community Installer to SmartThings SmartApp
If you already have the community installer configured into SmartThings, skip to Step 5.
- Log into your SmartThings IDE URL: https://account.smartthings.com/ (This will automatically redirect to you log in to a URL like this https://graph-na04-useast2.api.smartthings.com/ )
- Copy everything on this page to your clipboard. This is the raw code for the Community Installer: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tonesto7/st-community-installer/master/smartapps/tonesto7/st-community-installer.src/st-community-installer.groovy
- Go back to your SmartThings IDE URL > My SmartApps tab > New SmartApp:
4. Click the From Code tab, then paste in that code. Finally, click Create.
Step 3: Enable the Community Installer
Click My SmartApps. You should now see the new ST-Community-Installer smartapp which means it installed correctly.
Click App Settings. Scroll to the bottom and find the OAuth section. Enable OAuth in Smart App and click Update.
Click Publish > For Me.
Step 4: Add Community Installer to Phone
Grab your phone. Click SmartApps > click the + sign to add a smartapp and then scroll to the bottom. The ST-Community Installer should now be visible.
Click that, set your IDE login type and sign in with either your SmartThings or Samsung account (The same account you used in Step 1.1)
After logging in, scroll down. Click Installer Home to launch the community installer webapp.
From there, just search for MyQ Lite and scroll down to install.
If all goes well, the MyQ Lite install should be complete!
Step 5: Configure MyQ Lite
From your phone, click SmartApps > Add. Scroll to the Custom section and select MyQ Lite.
Sign in with your MyQ credentials. Once signed in, you should be able to tap to select your MyQ Chamberlain “Garage Door”.
If you’ve already setup a multipurpose sensor (mine is named “Multipurpose Sensor”), select it now.
If you want two separate virtual switches (one to Open and a separate one to Close), select that option.
Finishing Up
That’s it! You can now control your MyQ garage door opener using MyQ Lite. And because we’ve paired a SmartThings multipurpose sensor with it – you can see the status of your garage door from within SmartThings ON your Garage Door device!
You didn’t think I’d leave you hanging, did you?
Here’s the reward for all your efforts – a SmartThings garage door opener! The only downside is that the garage door icon just looks like any other multipurpose sensor; I wish it had a garage door icon instead.
My Homelab Equipment
Here is some of the gear I use in my Homelab. I highly recommend each of them.
- Server 2019 w/ Hyper-V
- Case: Fractal Design Node 804
- Graphics Card: NVIDEA Quadro K600
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700
The full list of server components I use can be found on my Equipment List page.
35 comments
Worked great. Thanks for the awesome, helpful post!
One thing I noticed: This doesn’t seem to work for me if I choose the separate open/close switches. Only seems to work with the single switch option.
You’re welcome, I’m glad it helped you out!
I wasn’t able to get the separate open/closed switches to work either – I’ll edit my post to reflect that.
I have the app and everything installed but when I try to log in on the MyQ Lite it keeps telling me that either the username or password are incorrect. I have triple checked, uninstalled the entire thing and reperformed every step and it still says one of them or both is wrong. Any suggestions? Thank you!
The only thing I can think is maybe waiting a few hours to log into the MyQ app again after resetting it. Maybe they were having login issues during the time you were attempting it. Other than that, maybe contact MyQ support and see if they can help out.
I get the same result as Ian. I have also performed all of the same troubleshooting steps as Ian. Could it be that our passwords contain special characters?
Thank you for this! Easiest option out of all of the walkthroughs – congrats!
You’re welcome! I know I wanted a step-by-step guide when I set mine up, so I figured there were others who did too.
When I try to install myQ lite. All it does is say analyzing repos and keeps circling.
@FAIZAN, I had that same issue. Turns out it was an issue with the github integration with my SmartThings IDE account. Probably from when I migrated to the new SmartThings app. Whenever I’d try to add a new github repo, it would say I didn’t have permissions — even if it was a public repo. To fix it, just go to “My SmartApps” in the IDE, select the Settings button and then (disconnect). You’ll be prompted to confirm. Then back on the SmartApps screen, there’ll be a link to connect github. Before you disconnect though, make a note of the repositories you already have connected so you can add them back after you re-enable github.
This works for me… open and closes but also says UNKNOWN in the status no matter what. I can here the door open and close so I know it’s working but it never tells me if it is open or closed. Just UNKNOWN. 🙁
Thanks – this worked perfectly with my Chamberlain myQ-G0401. Instructions were excellent – a few screens shots are out of date, but not a big deal; and @greg’s fix for the github integration fixed the “analyzing repos” issue.
Only thing weird .. Alexa identifies my SmartThings “thing’ as a door – so I can say “Alexa Open Garage Door”; whereas Google identifies it as a switch – so I have to say “Ok Google, Turn On Garage Door” .
Awesome! I’m glad the guide helped you get things setup!
Thanks for the tip on Alexa, I don’t have any Amazon devices myself, but I was always curious if it would work with Alexa voice commands.
Thank you for such a easy install. Works like a charm.
You’re welcome! Happy to hear you got it working after following my instructions.
Can this integration manage two doors with a single MyQ? Of course two tilt sensors.
thank you
Yes you can. You add the 2nd device in the MyQ app, and then you should be able to see both in SmartThings.
Hey there, while trying to get this to work i get stopped trying to add the smart app with an error message that reads “×startup failed: script_app_metadata_4421bca3_40ce_4ff2_b2f1_afa7f1f12faf: 1: unexpected token: @ line 1, column 149. /st-community-installer.groovy ^ 1 error”
What could be the cause of this? How can I fix it?
Hi, This is a fantastic tutorial. Thanks for taking the time to make this. I have a question. I got this to work for the most part but how do you tell it that you want to use the sensor in tilt mode as opposed to using the separate magnet part? I can’t seem to get it to work with just the tilt sensor on one of the panels. Any help is appreciated.
The tilt sensor is built into the large piece only. If you follow Step 1 in the guide, it will recognize it as the tilt sensor.
Thanks for your hard work on this. It works for me, but I am not using the same tilt sensor you suggest. When I follow the link you provided for the sensor.. well, the price for it is $178.00?? Putting it mildly, that’s a bit steep for a tilt sensor.
I have a https://www.ebay.com/itm/124799695078?hash=item1d0ea438e6:g:xxgAAOSwv5Zg4169 sensor. It does not report the temperature correctly in the new app, but as a tilt sensor it does work.
So, I am faced with a problem. Either I need instruction on how to pair my existing sensor to the device your smart app created, or I need to know a cost effective solution to replacing the sensor I have and get it to work with the device your smart app created. I do like the idea of being able to use the sensor as a multi-purpose sensor to show the temperature inside the garage because I over-winter plants, but it’s not a dealbreaker.
I installed everything, but
Hi – I got to step 4 where you need to install the smartapp in the smartThings app. I have the latest smartThings app and can’t find “add SmartApp” anywhere. I could be doing something wrong or maybe it has been removed in the latest app?
Should be found now by clicking the plus sign + at top right of app and selecting “Add Smartapp”
Got all the way through, seemingly without error .. got a Garage Door device .. but it says “Checking..” on the icon .. if you click it, it shows two cloud icons with a slash through it.
I was so hopeful this could work!
It does work! (At least according to most recent comments from a few days ago). I have since moved on from SmartThings to Home Assistant, but at the time I wrote the guide it still 100% worked.
I’ve got the same thing going on. I see the garage door, it even has a garage door icon. No action to open or close.
How do you add a tilt sensor after the fact … I have it as a device, but how does MyQLite knpw about it. I am running 3.1.7 and for connected devices I see “Garage Door Opner (no Sensor)ID XXXX
If I tryi to modify device, it only finds my Garage Door opener.
DoorDevice No Sensor is at 3.1 though I did a update through the repo and it still says 3.2 is available.
I keep getting this error after the myq lite installation. It does not let me enter my login info
loginMessage = ” loginMessage = “Missing MyQToken in app settings. Login to the IDE and add it.”
I would appreciate any suggestions.
Thank you.
Nevermind. I’m stupid and didn’t select a “contact sensor”. It works perfectly! Thank you for the amazing guide
You’re welcome, I’m glad you got it working!
I followed all the steps down to adding the app to my phone but it is not showing up on my phone through the smart things app on my phone. Any ideas why it is not showing up there?
I have latest Android Smartthings app and it doesn’t have the step 4. Add as smart app.
I have the same problem. i got to step 4 and dont see any SMART APP to click on or a way to add the ST community installer
I am able to add ST-Community Installer, but when I select the Installer Home that I do no see the MyQ lite
Will this continue to work with the upcoming shift in smartthings away from Groovy?
Hello this step no longer works:
Go back to your SmartThings IDE URL > My SmartApps tab > New SmartApp: