Question:
Anybody have a trick to detecting a garage door part way open?
I often leave the door open ABOUT 6-12 inches for ventilation, when
I am home on the weekends.
It is easy to sense when door is all open or closed.
On regular windows you can add an extra magnet to allow
ventilation, but it is real hard to get the garage door to stop
within a normal mag switch sense range.
The only idea I came up with was to put a whole series
of magnets in a row and try and hit that range.
My home automation system nags me if I leave the door open, but
I want the message and frequency of ags to be different when only
partially open.
Answer:
If you don't care how far open the door is , only that it's somewhere
between full open and full closed then try this.
Place a magnet on the door. Place a NC switch beside the magnet with
the door fully closed and another NC switch beside the same magent
with the door fully open ( or if the magnet does not line up at a
convenient place to mount a switch, then uses a second magnet).
Wire the two switches in series to your indicator light. When the
magnet does not line up with either switch then both switches will be
closed and the circuit will be complete. If the magnet lines up with
either the top or bottom switch the circuit will be open.
I noticed this weekend that my garage door is very reliable in the
length of time it takes to traverse from one state to the other (open to
close, close to open).
Since I'm using StarGate to control it, it's simple to use a logic loop
that allows it to run for only a part of the 15 seconds, leaving it in a
particular position.
By integrating a magnetic contact sensor, I can have it go 3 seconds if
starting in the closed state, or 12 seconds if it was open to begin
with, in either case leaving enough room for the furball to get
through...
