I set up my device on my account with no problems, but somehow during the installation process I think I shorted something, although I’m not sure how. I have a model that is similar to the Overhead Doors legacy, so I’m almost positive I should be connecting the wires to terminals 1 and 2. Unfortunately, the terminal openings are very small (just big enough for the wires supplied with the opener itself), so I wasn’t able to connect directly to the terminals. I tried splicing into the available wires, but when I plugged the Garadget in, I now get no response at all. I’ve tried disconnecting all the wiring, unplugging everything and resetting, but I’m not getting any lights at all now. I thought I was following the guidance I had seen in other posts, but I guess not, so now I have a few questions…
- Did I just brick my Garadget, and am I totally screwed now?
- Even if the Garadget itself can be fixed, what do I need to do differently to make it work?
- If I were able to connect the Garadget wires directly into the terminals, is there a specific wire that’s supposed to go into terminal 1 and terminal 2 from the Garadget? I can’t see any difference as far as positive/negative on the Garadget device itself.
- If I can’t get both sets of wires (from the button and from the Garadget) into the terminal opening, does that mean I have to choose whether to use the Garadget OR my wall button?
Sorry for the rambling/panicky tone. Just confused and frustrated. Thanks.
Okay… so I’ve got it running again. It’s showing up in the app and the blinking cyan light is back. So, before I do anything else, can I please get some feedback on my questions above? I really want to get this thing running, but I’m afraid to do anything else at this point. Thanks in advance…
Glad to hear Garadget survived the event. Here are the answers to your questions:
- Sounds like Garadget is fine
- Not sure what happened, but see below
- There is no polarity to the connection
- You can leave the original wires in the opener’s terminals, further down that wire you can remove the outside sleeve if present, pull individual lines of the wire apart, expose conductor of each line by cutting out the small section of the insulation, wrap exposed ends of Garadget wire around exposed area of the wall console wire, put some electric tape between and around.
To test the connection you can connect together the lines on the Garadget wire that goes into the controller’s blue terminal before you connect it. If the wiring is correct that should have the same effect as pressing a wall button.
Send the pictures of your final setup or if need further help.
Alright! Got everything working. Turns out I didn’t short anything, which is good because I wasn’t sure how I could have doing the steps I did. The USB adapter that came in my box is just very finicky. It only provides power in very specific positions. I found another adapter I had laying around and it worked like a champ. Everything is running exactly as expected now and the rest of the setup was a breeze. Now if I could figure out a way to have Alexa open/close the garage door as part of a routine, that would be awesome.
To be part of the routine, the device must be controlled by the home automation skill. Alexa’s home automation skills do not allow opening/unlocking with voice, presumably for the security reason. Because of that Garadget uses a custom skill with the invocation by name.
We are considering a release of the HA Alexa skill with whatever limited functionality is available, so at least it can be usable for some routines.
Please let me know if you decide to implement the additional skill. I would definitely be willing to help test it out.