Portal: Control your garage door from anywhere

by coreymgilmore • 12 years ago

11 14 12 years ago

Portal is a simple, an add-on device that allows you to open or close your garage, check if the door is open, and schedule automatic opens or closes. It works in real-time, is always connected to the internet, and is incredibly simple to setup and use. No more remotes, just use your phone! (or anything else with a web browser)

darkstar999• 12 years ago

So if your service is down, I can't open my garage? Or does it still work over wifi?

jonobird1• 12 years ago

You can. It says you can still use your normal garage opener. My question is since it syncs with your server, can you open my garage? Someone can open my garage if they gain my password, my phone, or my wifi network. Is this correct?

jerknextdoor• 12 years ago

I feel like this website is missing some critical information. Is this a product? a service? Can I buy it? do I build it? What is this other than a remote garage door monitoring tool?

ForHackernews• 12 years ago

GDOAAS

therobot24• 12 years ago

pictures?

adrianN• 12 years ago

Can someone please tell me why I would want to open my garage door if I'm not either in front or inside my garage?

damian20003• 12 years ago

Someone is delivering a package for you that you want to store in your garage while you're at work?

ntietz• 12 years ago

The more useful feature is being able to check whether it's shut or open, and being able to shut it remotely. Imagine that you're 30 minutes from home, driving to work, and panic -- did you shut it or not? Now you can check and can close it if you did forget.

User9821• 12 years ago

There are some rare use cases, but I think it would have a negative impact on my own life.

1. I'd question the security, is there going to be an exploit where someone can intercept signals to the door, and then use them to open or close it on their own when I'm away?

2. What happens if I arrive home, and my network is down? Or what if their cloud servers are not responding? What if I open the door for a delivery guy like the other poster mentioned, then the network fails, and I can't close it? I'm at work, and my package and home is now open.

3. In one of their use cases they mention setting up a schedule, so it opens when your kids get home. Same as the above, if the network isn't responding, your kids are locked outside. This means they need a key to open the door as backup, so what was the purpose of the automatic schedule in the first place? What happens if they're running late from school, my house is open when no one is home again?

4. What happens if I have something below the open door (although not in line with the sensor), and it decides to close itself because of a schedule, or someone else in my family triggering it online? For example, the trunk of my car goes up fairly high. If the door closes while the trunk is open, the braces hanging down could potentially hit it. So if I'm unloading my groceries, and my spouse is at work thinking the door shouldn't be open, we have one scratched car.

5. It's another piece of technology to micromanage. I don't want to start worrying about the schedule of my garage door. I enjoy the simple life.

Anyway, this is too much thought for what it is, but you get the idea.

damian20003• 12 years ago

From the how section ... 5 minutes seems like an extreme exaggeration, especially for connecting a sensor to the door and a trigger to the back of the motor.

Setup:

- Power to the wall.

- Trigger to the back of the motor.

- Sensor to the door.

- Use your home wifi network.

- Open the portal website or app.

Total time = less than 5 minutes.

ChristianBundy• 12 years ago

I really love how their tagline says "Zero Setup" with a 5-step setup guide.

damian20003• 12 years ago

A little similar to this kickstarter ... in fact this guy needs another $600 for his goal in 7 days.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1916007507/lift-the-eas...

dangrossman• 12 years ago

Many garage door openers made in the past 15 years were made by the same company, whether they're branded LiftMaster, or Chamberlain, or Craftsman or Sears. You can add remote opening, status and smartphone control to any of them with the LiftMaster MyQ retrofit kit.

http://www.liftmaster.com/lmcv2/accessoryfamily/213/myq-enab...

It installs in about 5 minutes: you just remove your opener buttons and move the two wires to their new buttons, which talk to their gateway. That's even less setup than this one (no attachment to the opener or the door). As a big-name commercial project, it's a pretty closed system, though. There's a JSON API, but it's not meant to be used except by their web/phone apps. There's a plugin to add it to Vera home automation hubs, but I worry about the longevity of it since I think such a thing is still against the product's TOS.

They also have the newer "Universal Smartphone Garage Door Opener", which works with pretty much any brand (adding Linear, Genie, Overhead, Stanley, Wayne-Dalton) since it appears to use a light/IR sensor to detect open/closed state and acts like any remote opener to control the door.

http://www.liftmaster.com/lmcv2/accessorydetail/19898/liftma...

The only reason I bought one was because none of the do-it-yourself or crowdfunded options were so plug-and-play, and I don't have the patience for wiring up weird circuit boards to the back of my openers and hoping they work. I also care a bit about obeying local laws that say a remotely controlled garage door must have an audible warning before it's closed, so that you don't accidentally crush a child you can't see is playing under your door. Most of the DIY stuff doesn't have that, LiftMaster's does and it's a bit like a smoke detector going off for 5 seconds before the door starts closing. There's no sound if you close it any other way (wall buttons, a normal remote in your car).

I don't really get what this site is offering, but if it were the same thing as what LiftMaster sells but self-hosted or with a much more open API, I'd have paid money for that instead.

coreymgilmore• 12 years ago

Hi all, Following up on all your comments here. Thanks for the replies and comments.

Yes, Liftmaster/Sears/Craftsman have similar products. I propose mine as an add-on to existing systems in a more universal way. Plus, nothing wrong with a little competition (although the tech world these days hates it).
Opening or closing your door could be useful if you left the house and forgot, or a friend is coming over, or a contractor to do some work. This is noted below as well.
As for security, the backbone communication system is designed to communicate device <-> server via https. So there is some security there. We are working very hard on this to implement something very strong.
Schedules will work regardless if the network is up or down. These are synced anytime the network is up, but the device runs them as needed. No internet needed.
If something is below the door, than you would have the same issue as if someone pushed a remote button. The laser sensor may or may not be tripped, and the door-load (how much force to close) may or may not be tripped. Nothing Portal can do here.
In regards to the setup. No, it is not "zero"...fixed the website. As for 5 minutes, absolutely. The trigger is simply another wired remote, two wires. The sensor is prewired and just needs to be placed. No soldering, building circuit boards, etc.
Yes, if the Portal service/servers or the internet connection is down in between, Portal will not work. It is meant to be an add on to RF remotes. However, we do provide a default website on the device with a PIN code for activating the door. Currently, its not so polished as it isn't the main focus. But needless to say, it works.
If someone gains access to your phone, than yes they could open/close your garage. Just like losing your car remote. You could always log out of the app.
Portal is a product and a service. Nest like model: buy the hardware, the software does not have a monthly fee.

Portal: Control your garage door from anywhere

Related Stories