Product Library / Garage & Access
Research profile · last verified 2026-07-28OpenGarage
Compatibility
| Ecosystem | Support | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Home | Not checkedWe have not verified this yet — this is not a claim about the product | NOT ESTABLISHED, and deliberately not guessed. The vendor's own v1.2.4 user manual enumerates its integrations by name — Home Assistant, MQTT, IFTTT, OpenThings Cloud and Blynk — and Apple Home is not among them. That is an absence from a list, not a denial: no vendor statement says Apple Home is unsupported, and this catalogue does not convert silence into a 'no'. The pages that would settle it live on opensprinkler.com, which refuses our requests. What a buyer can act on today: there is no documented native Apple Home path, and anyone needing one should treat this device as requiring a bridge they build themselves — via Home Assistant or MQTT — rather than as a HomeKit product. |
| Google Home | Not checkedWe have not verified this yet — this is not a claim about the product | NOT ESTABLISHED, same basis as Apple Home. Google Home appears nowhere in the vendor's enumerated integration list, and no vendor statement denies it either. The one indirect route the manual does document is IFTTT, via a webhook service key — but IFTTT's own relationship with Google Assistant has changed repeatedly and is not something the vendor's documentation speaks to, so it is not recorded as a Google path. Treat Google Home as a bridge-it-yourself proposition through Home Assistant or MQTT. |
| Amazon Alexa | Not checkedWe have not verified this yet — this is not a claim about the product | NOT ESTABLISHED, same basis as Apple Home and Google Home. No Alexa skill is named in any reachable vendor documentation, and the manual's integration list does not include Alexa — but no vendor statement denies it, so the cell is unknown rather than none. Worth knowing regardless: even where a garage integration does exist, Amazon's own developer documentation requires a spoken voice code before Alexa will open a garage door, so an Alexa route would carry that step. |
| SmartThings | Not checkedWe have not verified this yet — this is not a claim about the product | NOT ESTABLISHED. SmartThings is absent from the vendor's enumerated integration list and no vendor statement addresses it either way, and no SmartThings-published listing or community driver for OpenGarage was found from a reachable source. Recorded as unknown rather than none because the vendor documentation that would settle it sits behind a host that refuses us. |
| Home Assistant | WorksWorks with this ecosystem | The one thoroughly established integration, and it is a genuine one. The vendor states plainly that 'OpenGarage has an official Home Assistant integration' which 'adds the device as a cover entity. It allows door control, status monitoring, and automation.' Home Assistant's own documentation backs that from the platform side rather than the vendor's word: `opengarage` is a Home Assistant integration in the Cover and DIY categories with IoT class Local Polling, added in Home Assistant 0.44, set up through the UI. TWO HONEST QUALIFIERS. It is Local POLLING, not Local Push — Home Assistant asks the device for its state on an interval rather than being told the instant it changes, so expect a short lag versus a push integration. And it is a small integration by adoption, reported at roughly 515 active installations in Home Assistant's own analytics, which is a fair signal of how much community testing sits behind it. |
? Not checked means we haven’t verified that ecosystem yet — it is a statement about our research, never a verdict on the product. A Setup Check can research it for you.
Protocols: WIFI
Needs before it works: No hub and no bridge. OpenGarage is a self-contained Wi-Fi device with its own built-in web UI, reached at its address on your network — that web UI is the primary interface, and there is no vendor phone app in the way that most products here have one. Home Assistant talks to it directly over the LAN using its official core integration. Power is a microUSB cable into a USB adapter. Remote access without opening your network is the one thing that needs the vendor's optional cloud (OpenThings Cloud) or Blynk, both of which are choices rather than requirements.
Subscription reality
✓ Works without a subscription: Yes.
No subscription exists anywhere in the product. The device is open source, runs its own web UI on your LAN, and the vendor's optional remote-access service (OpenThings Cloud) is documented as giving 'full remote access to the built-in web UI. All features are supported except firmware upgrade' with no fee attached to it in any reachable documentation. RECORDED WITH A LIMIT ON WHAT WE CHECKED: the vendor's store and its terms live on a host that refuses our requests, so this is established from the product and firmware documentation rather than from a commercial-terms page. No paid tier was found; none is asserted to be impossible.
Maintenance reality
- Batteries: None — powered by a microUSB cable into a USB power adapter.
- Cloud dependence: No — core function survives without the vendor's cloud
- Local by construction. The device serves its own web UI and API on your network, and Home Assistant's integration for it is classified by Home Assistant as Local Polling — the cloud services (OpenThings Cloud, Blynk) are additive remote-access options rather than the control path. INSTALL AND SAFETY, from the vendor's own v1.2.4 manual: on v2.3+ hardware 'CTRL must go to your opener's Red (Signal) terminal' and 'GND must go to your opener's White (Ground) terminal', for LiftMaster, Chamberlain and Craftsman openers operating at 12 V DC, with an explicit damage warning that 'Applying AC voltage or DC voltage above 20V can permanently damage the v2.3+ circuit.' The ultrasonic sensor is mounted facing down from the ceiling or outward from a side mount, and does double duty: door status and car presence. The manual also cautions during setup that 'the door may activate or move during this time. Ensure the door's path is clear before proceeding.' A SAFETY BEHAVIOUR WORTH NAMING PRECISELY: the manual states 'A minimum 5-second sound alarm is enforced before auto-close' — enforced, not optional. That is the audible half of what 16 CFR 1211 §1211.14 requires before an unattended close; no visual warning is documented anywhere in the manual, and the record does not claim one.
The catch
This is the one product in this category with a documented way around Chamberlain's Security+ 3.0 lockout, and the details of that route matter more than the headline. The normal path is straightforward: hardware v2.3+ speaks Security+ 2.0 and 1.0 natively — 'commonly used by LiftMaster, Chamberlain, and Craftsman brands' in the vendor's words — giving door position, opening/closing/stopped state, and control of the opener's own light and lock. Security+ 3.0, identified by a white learn button, killed that for every product here at once; the vendor's own write-up on the subject says of the 2025 generation that 'RatGDO, Konnected, Tailwind, you name it, none supports it.' The workaround it documents is the sacrifice remote: wire OpenGarage to the button contacts of a spare paired remote, so Chamberlain's own hardware sends the encrypted signal. BE PRECISE ABOUT WHAT THAT COSTS, because the shorthand version overstates it. The remote leg is one-way — the vendor states OpenGarage 'can send commands to trigger door actions, but it will not receive feedback or status updates from the remote.' You do NOT lose door status, because the ultrasonic distance sensor reports position independently of the opener entirely; that is the whole point of having a sensor rather than a data tap. What you lose is the opener's light sense and control, and the richer Security+ state reporting, since the configuration requires setting the Security+ version to None. It also costs you a spare remote and is not a supported configuration in any product's official compatibility statement. Two further things to know before buying. Ecosystem coverage is thin and honest: Home Assistant is real and official, MQTT and IFTTT are documented, and Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home and SmartThings have no documented path at all — this is a device for people who bring their own automation platform. And the wiring is unforgiving in one specific way: the manual warns that 'Applying AC voltage or DC voltage above 20V can permanently damage the v2.3+ circuit.'
Who it's for
Home Assistant households who want a local, open-source garage controller with no account, no subscription and no vendor app — and specifically those with a Chamberlain, LiftMaster or Craftsman opener on Security+ 2.0 or 1.0, where v2.3+ hardware gives full state and the opener's light and lock. It is also the one product here worth a look if you have a Security+ 3.0 opener with a white learn button and are willing to run the sacrifice-remote workaround, accepting a spare remote as a consumable, no light control, and a configuration no vendor formally supports. The ultrasonic sensor makes it unusual in a second way that suits tinkerers: it reports car presence as well as door position, which is a genuinely useful automation trigger. The buyer needs to be comfortable wiring two conductors to an opener's signal and ground terminals, mounting a sensor with a clear line to the door, and living in a browser-based web UI rather than a polished phone app. It is the wrong buy for Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home or SmartThings households, where no documented path exists and you would be building the bridge yourself; for anyone who wants push-speed status, since the Home Assistant integration polls; for anyone who wants to compare prices before committing, because the seller's site refuses automated requests and the vendor's own site quotes two different figures; and for anyone expecting the pre-close safety warning to be the full audible-and-visual pair the federal rule describes — the manual documents an enforced five-second sound alarm and no visual warning.
Sources & method
opengarage.io, the product's own site, read 2026-07-28: 'At its core, OpenGarage is a WiFi-enabled device with an ultrasonic distance sensor and a relay.' The publisher is OpenThings — openthings.io carries 'Copyright © 2026 OpenThings' and presents itself as the home of both OpenSprinkler and OpenGarage, and the firmware's own cloud service is named OpenThings Cloud. Hardware generations are taken from the project's own documentation: v1.0–v1.2 predate 2018 with 2 MB flash, 'All newer versions (v1.3 and above) include 4MB flash and support the latest firmware', and v2.3+ is the generation that added native Security+ signalling. NO LEGAL ENTITY TYPE IS ESTABLISHED — see src/data/manufacturers/openthings.json; fccid.io returns no grantee for 'OpenGarage'. — vendor-page and vendor-documentation research, verified 2026-07-28 · The fallback ladder in the fetch-conduct policy was walked in full and produced no usable figure. (1) The store, opensprinkler.com/product/opengarage/, returned HTTP 403 on 2026-07-19 and again on 2026-07-28 — two observations, recorded as a blocked host, never retry-looped and never evaded. (2) The alternate first-party host, opengarage.io, ANSWERS but contradicts itself, carrying both 'Order for just $35!' and 'Order for just $45!' on the same page with no variant attached to either. (3) rayshobby.net, the author's older domain, 301-redirects into the blocked host; the redirect was not followed. (4) No US first-party retail listing exists — the product is not sold on Amazon, and the reachable distributors are Australian and German, quoting non-USD prices for a non-US region. (5) A Wayback snapshot was deliberately NOT used: it would be a stale figure presented as current, which is the failure 16 #94 exists to prevent. OWNER RULING 2026-07-28: publish the profile with priceUSD null and the reason stated, rather than skip the product — consistent with the claim-vocabulary price playbook, which names conflicting sources as a valid reason for a null price. PURCHASE STATE IS SEPARATELY UNESTABLISHED, which is why lifecycle.market.soldUntil is 'unknown' and not 'current'. — fallback-ladder research; every rung recorded, no evasion, verified 2026-07-28 · The vendor's own user manual, firmware documentation v1.2.4, at opengarage.github.io/OpenGarage-Firmware/1.2.4/manual/ — a first-party host that answers, which is why this record could be written at all. Quoted: power is 'a microUSB cable' into 'a USB power adapter'; the device has 'a built-in ultrasonic distance sensor for detecting door status and car presence'; on v2.3+ hardware 'CTRL must go to your opener's Red (Signal) terminal' and 'GND must go to your opener's White (Ground) terminal' for LiftMaster, Chamberlain and Craftsman openers at 12 V DC; 'Applying AC voltage or DC voltage above 20V can permanently damage the v2.3+ circuit'; and during setup 'the door may activate or move during this time. Ensure the door's path is clear before proceeding.' SAFETY FINDING, STATED PRECISELY: the manual says 'A minimum 5-second sound alarm is enforced before auto-close.' This is the THIRD product in this category to document a pre-close warning and the second to make it non-defeatable — but it is the AUDIBLE HALF ONLY. 16 CFR 1211 §1211.14 requires an audible AND visual warning; no visual warning appears anywhere in this manual, and none is claimed here. The distinction is recorded because a half-compliant warning reads as compliant on any comparison table. — vendor-documentation research, verified 2026-07-28 · The vendor's v1.2.4 manual states 'OpenGarage has an official Home Assistant integration' which 'adds the device as a cover entity. It allows door control, status monitoring, and automation.' Per 09 §3 the platform-side claim is sourced to the platform: home-assistant.io/integrations/opengarage/ lists the integration under the Cover and DIY categories with IoT class Local Polling, introduced in Home Assistant 0.44, configured through the UI, and reports roughly 515 active installations in Home Assistant's own analytics. BOTH QUALIFIERS ARE RECORDED IN THE CELL rather than smoothed over: Local Polling is not Local Push, and 515 installations is a small integration. — vendor-documentation and counterparty-source research, verified 2026-07-28 · The vendor's v1.2.4 user manual enumerates the product's integrations by name and describes each: Home Assistant (official, cover entity), MQTT ('OpenGarage exposes… MQTT support'), IFTTT (via a 'Webhook service key'), OpenThings Cloud ('Allows full remote access to the built-in web UI. All features are supported except firmware upgrade') and Blynk ('Allows remote status checks and door control, but does not allow settings, logs, or firmware upgrade'). Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit and SmartThings appear NOWHERE in that documentation. RECORDED AS UNKNOWN, NOT NONE, DELIBERATELY: #23 forbids unevidenced negatives, and an absence from a list is weaker evidence than a vendor statement of non-support — the ratgdo record could record 'none' precisely because that vendor's FAQ says 'we don't support them natively', and OpenGarage's reachable documentation says no such thing in either direction. The vendor surfaces that might settle it (the store's own compatibility and FAQ pages) are on opensprinkler.com, which refuses our requests. This is the fetch-conduct policy's 'unwatchable-blocked' situation in practice, ahead of that state existing as a field. — vendor-documentation research; negative recorded as unestablished rather than asserted, verified 2026-07-28 · The vendor-authored technical write-up at opensprinkler.com/security-3-0-how-to-use-it-with-opengarage/ (dated 2026-01-23), read 2026-07-19 in a rendering browser and again during grind run 2 on 2026-07-28. THE HOST NOW REFUSES PLAIN REQUESTS, and per fetch-conduct rule 2 a blocked host remains legitimate historical provenance — this is a real prior read, dated, not a reconstruction. It documents the sacrifice-remote method (wire OpenGarage to the button contacts of a spare paired remote so Chamberlain's own hardware sends the encrypted signal), states of the 2025 generation that 'RatGDO, Konnected, Tailwind, you name it, none supports it', and states the limitation directly: OpenGarage 'can send commands to trigger door actions, but it will not receive feedback or status updates from the remote.' The configuration requires Classic v2.2 or v2.3+ with the Security+ version set to None, which is what costs the garage-light sense and control. THIS CORRECTS OUR OWN DOC 02 §16, which summarised the method as 'one-way with no status feedback'. The second half was wrong: the one-way limit applies to the REMOTE leg, while OpenGarage's ultrasonic distance sensor reports door position independently of the opener, so door status is not lost. Doc 02 corrected in the same change. The v2.3+ native Security+ 2.0/1.0 capability is separately sourced to the reachable firmware documentation: 'v2.3+ can communicate directly with Security+ 2.0 and 1.0 systems (commonly used by LiftMaster, Chamberlain, and Craftsman brands)', giving 'opening, closing, stopped (partially open)' status and control of 'the opener's light and lock', where v2.2 and earlier 'rely solely on the distance sensor for detecting door status'. — vendor-page research (historical read of a now-blocked host) plus reachable vendor documentation, verified 2026-07-28 · No subscription, fee or paid tier appears anywhere in the reachable documentation set. The device serves its own web UI and API on the LAN; Home Assistant's integration is classified by Home Assistant as Local Polling; the vendor's optional remote-access service is documented in the v1.2.4 manual as OpenThings Cloud, giving 'full remote access to the built-in web UI. All features are supported except firmware upgrade', with no price attached, and Blynk is offered as a second remote option with narrower capability. RECORDED WITH ITS LIMIT STATED: the commercial-terms pages that would settle this conclusively are on opensprinkler.com, which refuses our requests, so this is an affirmative finding from product documentation rather than from a terms page. No paid tier was found; none is asserted to be impossible. — vendor-documentation research, scope of check stated, verified 2026-07-28 · The device is documented throughout as a Wi-Fi device that 'creates an open WiFi Access Point (AP)' for setup and then joins the home network; no radio specification beyond that appears in the manual, and no second control radio is documented. MATTER IS NOT LISTED and no source encountered claimed Matter certification for this product — worth recording explicitly, because fabricated Matter claims are the common failure mode in this category (16 #95) and this is one of the products where none appeared. A csa-iot.org registry query was not able to be executed reliably in this session (the search endpoint rendered its default empty state rather than an executed query), so the absence of a certificate is recorded as UNCHECKED at the registry rather than as a confirmed negative — the vendor makes no Matter claim to contradict. — vendor-documentation research; registry check attempted and inconclusive, recorded as such, verified 2026-07-28 · Load-bearing claims rest on opengarage.io, opengarage.github.io (the project's own documentation) and home-assistant.io, plus one dated historical read of opensprinkler.com from 2026-07-19. Search-result summaries were used only to locate URLs and were treated as evidence for nothing — this matters here, because a search summary asserted a '$33.00' price for this product that we could not reproduce from any page we read, and it was NOT used. HOST CONDUCT per the policy ratified 2026-07-28: opensprinkler.com returned 403 on 2026-07-19 and 2026-07-28 (blocked-403, last-good 2026-07-19, known-good alternate hosts opengarage.io and opengarage.github.io); it was probed once this session and never retry-looped. rayshobby.net 301-redirects into that host and the redirect was not followed. NO user-agent, proxy or header manipulation was used anywhere. THIS RECORD IS THE FALLBACK LADDER WORKING AS DESIGNED: the store blocked, the documentation subdomain answered and carried better facts, and the one thing no rung could supply — a price — is left unset with the reason stated rather than filled from a stale or contradictory figure. — source-quality audit, verified 2026-07-28. This is a research profile: compiled from manufacturer documentation, certification registries, and published testing — we state facts, not verdicts, and we have not physically tested this unit. How we work →
Compatibility and lifecycle information reflects the last-verified date above and can change without notice (firmware updates, cloud-service changes, discontinuations). It is provided as-is, for information — verify with the manufacturer before purchasing. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it. Full terms: Terms of Service.