waking me up this morning. Got at least 10 false text message all after 7am… Laser is hitting reflector but not dead center. Breath on the unit and it moves. Stuck good. Can’t find any info on the how to best set up the Sensor Settings
Notice that Reflection number keeps changing 40 to 26 now… why would it keep changing? So lower the Threshold? makes it less sensitive?
Hello Carl,
All of the settings, including sensor settings are under “Settings” tab in client apps. If you’re getting false notifications, it’s because the reflection rate crosses below threshold even though the laser is hitting the reflector. To resolve this, please either decrease the threshold (easy, but only works to a certain point), or increase the reflection rate by limiting the amount of ambient light reaching the sensor (adjust direction, location or shield it).
Shield what? the reflector or sensor? My garage has a lot of windows, 4 doors wall with windows on each one. I noticed that in the morning Reflection was down to 17 and tonight at dusk 96 … I have threshold I have it set to 5 now. Seem to work after 10am.
Thanks,
Carl
Your garage sounds like a bright place. When I mentioned shielding, I meant shielding the sensor.
It is harder for the 0.005W laser to contribute much to the brightness when there’s a 382,700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000W star shining at the sensor 
OK thanks, I got it working. Just played with the settings and yes my garage is bright. But now on to #2 I bought a second one. For my drive - way gate. Just installed it. Was not planning on using the laser thing and now wondering if I can’t use the whole thing. How can I just have it ignore the laser? Only reason I want it is because my wife sometimes leaves and forgets to take the remote, but always has her phone, or I need to let someone in, so tell me holy wise man, did I screw up in my thinking? Gate it too far away for laser but button for gate is really close to my router. It almost works if I have someone here to move the reflector on and off. 
Please look into installing the DFU driver for Particle Photon. I’ll supply you with the custom version of the firmware which you’ll be able to upload via USB. In that version the sensor will be simulated.
Great thanks, guess I just assumed I could skip the laser light
do you have a link that tells how to upload the firmware you are going to send me? I spoke too soon. Was hoping something on youtube.
Carl
is this it?
https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/connect/core/
do I need to buy some hardware to upload driver? or just a PC?
or this
http://blog.jongallant.com/2015/08/particle-photon-firmware-flash-windows.html
Both links refer to the same thing (second one is Windows specific).
You’ve got everything needed to upload firmware, no additional hardware is required.
Once you have the driver installed, the command line to upload the firmware will be:
dfu-util -d 2b04:d006 -a 0 -s 0x80A0000:leave -D garadget-virtual.bin
Please PM me the id of your unit so I can lock it out from the automatic updates. This way the updated firmware will not get overwritten.
Do I need to open unit? I don’t want to void warranty to push some buttons?
not as easy as you are making it seem. I am not a programmer, just bought it from Amazon.
No need to open the unit, it is all done via the USB. You will need to push buttons though.
I’m not claiming driver installation to be user friendly, but once you have it, uploading the firmware is pretty simple.
I got the diver installed, but confused how to update the firmware
Ok, here comes:
- Connect Garadget to your computer with USB cable
- Put Garadget into DFU Mode
- Run the command (you may need to specify full paths if files are in different folders)
Maybe easier on a Mac, I have Windows 8.1 loading driver is the problem, Thanks for your help. I will try again in an hour, have to run for a bit. Work is calling.
OK think I did it… well my son helped me. He does drones a lot more into this sort of things. So before I put it back on line I am afraid it will jump into an update. is this the ID number you need? 2b04:d008
should you block update first?
Carl
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I matched the version on the custom firmware with what system knows as current, so it will not update immediately. It will overwrite it on the next release though. The worst case is that you’ll need to run the command again.
The number I need is the one in settings page.
it works… wow, great thanks. tried it a few times but gate is busy right now with trucks driving thought so in a while will test it a few more times, had to sink picture with open and close but seems to be telling me the truth now.
I have screen shot of settings with info, and ID where should I send it? can PM here?
Carl
OK sent it PM … let me know you got it and what I sent was correct.
Thanks again.
Going to buy a few more now for sure.
Carl
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One more thing, (hopefully) seems to take a long time closing on the app. is there way to shorten it and tell unit it is down? Does it have something to do with Door Motion Time or Relay on/off time?
Carl