I just got my Garadget set up today and everything went smoothly. However, I’m having trouble understanding the alerts. I’m using the iOS app if that makes a difference. If there’s documentation on this somewhere I missed, please point me to it.
The Event Alerts mostly make sense, although I’m not sure what “Stopped” means.
From other posts, it sounds like Timeout Alerts can tell you if your door was left open for some amount of time. Is this in addition to the Event Alerts, or does it somehow filter them? Is it just the door being open for some amount of time?
Next, I don’t understand what Night Alerts are. Again, I wonder if this is a filter for other alerts, or additional alerts. Do I need to turn on something like Open events and/or timeouts in addition with Night Alerts to get anything to show up? If not, exactly what do the night alerts alert on?
Then, I have similar questions around location. Does it filter existing events or add additional ones? Is the idea that you can have it alert you of door openings when you are away from home, but not when you are there?
The event alerts, if activated will fire immediately when door enters the state.
The stopped state happens when you close the door with Garadget, but it doesn’t receive the confirmation of the closed state from the sensor after the configured motion time.
Timeout alert is independent from the state alerts and fired when the door remained open longer than the configured time.
Night alert is also independent from others and fires when door opens during the specified time period or it is open at the beginning of that period.
Location alert is fired when your approximate location is transitioning from inside of the configured radius and the door is found to be open at that time. This alert is also independent from others.
Hopefully this makes sense, but don’t hesitate to ask if you have any further questions.
Thank you, Denis. My experience has not all been bad. I installed the device and it was working fine to open and close the garage door within only minutes. Nor did I have any problems installing the app or connecting to Wifi. All seemed to go well until attempting to setup alerts. I get nothing, either by email or on my Galaxy S5. I only want to be notified if my garage door is left open. That’s it. As for the alerts, there needs to be some kind of simple labeling/description of what each of the several alerts are supposed to do… especially when they don’t respond. Reboot, Online, Open, Closed, Stopped, Offline, Timout… what do these mean… does the timeout affect the other switches? What’s the reboot mean?
So after reading comments in the forum about the alerts, I tried uninstalling the app and reinstalling… rebooting the phone, etc. Still nothing after closing and opening the door for testing. Then I just discovered in the forum that there’s a backup online interface, which I was unaware of. I’ve logged in there, and the settings appear to mirror what I have configured in my phone app… except I see a switch option for “email” alerts… surprise, since I didn’t see that in the phone app. After selecting the email alert option, I received an email opt-in message, which I replied to, and have subscribed to email alerts. After testing, several minutes ago, I still haven’t received any emails. (In the online interface, regarding Timeout, I just read “How long the door is to remain open before the alert is triggered.” That’s good to know… it wasn’t explained in the phone app. I still can’t get any notifications by email or any other means.
It looks like there might have been a service interruption. I’ve restarted the service.
Please let me know if notifications still don’t work for you. I’ll need PM with device ID to further investigate.
Thanks, Denis. That seemed to fix it and all the alerts seem to be working now! And thanks for your patient communication, and working to resolve the issue. May I suggest for your folks to take the time to thoroughly document the alerts, as well as the entire product? What you already have is a good start, especially on the initial install and setup… but it doesn’t yet seem complete. I realize this is tedious, but I work with IT support, and can attest that it will spare your customers untold frustration, as well as help to bolster the product’s success.
One more suggestion… regarding the round reflector patches for the laser pointer. Their diameter is probably fine if the laser remains perfectly stable, but my opener is older and vibrates quite a bit… which I think will eventually require me to climb and refocus the laser again. Is it possible to provide the option of slightly larger reflective patches… or a source where the patch material can be obtained? They appear to made of silver Scotchlite Reflective Tape.
I do listen to the feedback and adjust things accordingly.
There are no “my folks” so things have to be handled in passes based on priorities gradually improving all of the aspects of the product over time.
Re. reflector: you can use additional tag to extend the reflective surface in the direction of the beam travel. Additional tape can be purchased in online marketplaces by searching for “retro-reflective tape” or “safety reflective tape”.
I use the ifttt app with my garaget. What it does is actually closes the door if left open when you leave the area. It closes the door if left open after pre set time that you select. I’m assuming the garaget app just sends an alert letting you know the door is open but doesn’t automatically close it like the ifttt app does
