How to create alerts when your garage door is open with the IO-Linc and the Garage Door Kit

There are several options for alerting you when your garage door is open. The intent of this page is to show you those options.

This wiki is intended to enable the I/O Linc Garage Door Kit and Indigo to provide an email or SMS alert when a garage door is left open past a certain time at night.

In this example, Indigo will check the garage door state at 11 PM every night. If the door is open, it will send an alert email or SMS (via an email to SMS gateway).

1. Install the I/O Linc Garage Door Kit following the included instructions. Be sure to connect the green and black wires from the magnetic switch to the I/O Linc. The red wire does not connect to anything.
2. Add the I/O Linc as a new device in Indigo:
   1. Choose DEVICE from the left column in the Home Window
   2. Click New
   3. Name the device Garage Door
   4. Select Define and sync and enter the device Insteon address then Start When the define and sync finishes, select Close
   5. Choose Edit Module Settings_ and select only the following options (click Upload Settings after you change them)ge them):
      1. Update Indigo's internal Device input sensor state
      2. Momentary mode for output relay (relay will only close for a few seconds)
      3. Automatically read relay state 4 seconds after it is toggled.
3. Verify that when the garage door is closed, the bottom of the Garage Door device window shows Binary Inputs: 1 and that when the garage door is open, Binary Inputs: 0. NOTE: in newer versions of the Garage Door kit, the sensor has been replaced with one that reverses this. So, if the instructions that came with your Garage Door Kit say that the status light should be OFF when the door is closed, then you'll need to reverse the ON/OFF selections below.
4. Create a new variable.
   1. Go Window:Variable List or Cmd-9.
   2. Select New
   3. Name the new variable isGarageDoorOpen.
   4. Make sure your garage door is closed.
   5. Give the variable the initial value false.
5. Create a Trigger Action:
   1. Choose TRIGGERS from the left column in the Home Window
   2. Click New
   3. Trigger Tab: Name: Garage Door is closed Type:Device State Changed Device: Garage Door Binary Input 1 Becomes On (or Off if reversed)
   4. Condition Tab: Always
   5. Actions Tab: Type:Modify Variable Variable:isGarageDoorOpen Set to false
6. Create a Trigger Action:
   1. Choose TRIGGERS from the left column in the Home Window
   2. Click New
   3. Trigger Tab: Name:Garage Door is open Type:Device State Changed Device: Garage Door Binary Input 1 Becomes Off (or On if reversed)
   4. Condition Tab: Always
   5. Actions Tab: Type:Modify Variable Variable:isGarageDoorOpen Set to true
7. Create a Schedule:
   1. Choose Schedules from the left column in the Home Window
   2. Click New
   3. Schedule Tab: Name: Garage Door Open 11 PM Alert Time: 11:00 PM Date: Every 1 days
   4. Condition Tab: If variable isGarageDoorOpen is true
   5. Actions Tab: Type: Send Email To your email address or SMS gateway address (can specify multiple addresses separated by commas). Subject: “Garage Door Status”, Message: “The garage door is open!”

Good luck!

If you are forgetful and/or absentminded like me, sometimes you just forget to close the garage door. This can be a problem if you leave your house and leave the door open - you may find that you're missing some stuff when you return! So I cooked up this little solution that will email you or SMS (via the email-SMS bridge that your cell provider supplies) if the door is open for longer than 30 minutes (or whatever length of time you choose). This solution assumes you have a correctly installed I/O-Linc with a garage door kit, named “Garage Door” (see steps 1-2 of the How-to above).

1. Select Trigger Action List from the View menu.
2. Click on the New… button to create a new trigger
3. In the Create New Trigger Action dialog, name the trigger “Garage Door Opened”
4. Select Device State Changed from the Type: popup
5. Select Garage Door from the Device: menu
6. Select Binary Input 1 from the next popup menu
7. Select Becomes Off (or On if reversed) from the last popup menu
8. Select the Actions tab
9. Select Server Actions→Script and File Actions→Execute Script from the Type: popup
10. Select Python from the Embedded popup
11. Copy the following script into the large script text box just under the Embedded: radio button:

    dev = indigo.devices[IOLINCID] # "IO Linc"
    if not dev.states["binaryInput1"]:
        indigo.server.sendEmailTo("ADDRESSHERE", subject="The garage door is OPEN!!")

12. Select the Delay by checkbox and enter the number of minutes you want it to wait before sending the email/SMS
13. Select the Override previous delay checkbox
14. Click the OK button

That's it. Now, whenever the garage door opens, it automatically creates a delayed action, and when that action fires, it runs the script that checks to see if the garage door is still open and if it is, it sends out the email.