Product Library / Garage & Access

ratgdo32

Compiled by SmartHomeWorkflow Research · ratgdo · Garage & Access · ~$62 ($62.00 for the ratgdo32 (SKU 32k) on the vendor's own store at time of research. The ratgdo32 disco (SKU 32disco, $94.00) is the same garage control plus a laser vehicle-presence sensor, a beeper with adjustable close delay, a speaker and an aimable mount. Prices and stock read from the store's own product JSON rather than rendered marketing copy.)

Compatibility

Protocols: WIFI

Needs before it works: No hub for the Apple Home path — the homekit-ratgdo32 firmware implements HomeKit Accessory Protocol on the device itself, so it appears in Apple Home directly with no bridge, no Homebridge and no Home Assistant. Every other ecosystem requires Home Assistant in the middle. The device needs local Wi-Fi but no vendor cloud and no account. FIRMWARE IS NOT INCLUDED and this is the most commonly misreported fact about the product: both product pages state 'Firmware not included', and the buyer flashes it themselves using a Chrome or Chromium web installer. The three firmware builds are mutually exclusive — flashing the HomeKit build means no ESPHome or Home Assistant integration on that board, and vice versa.

Subscription reality

✓ Works without a subscription: Yes.

One-time hardware purchase with no subscription, no cloud account and no recurring fee anywhere in the purchase or operation path. The vendor's FAQ states the HomeKit firmware 'does not require a home automation hub and works locally on your network without requiring a cloud service'. Worth stating plainly because it inverts the category: the subscription question that dominates every other product here does not exist for this one. NOTE THE INDIRECT COST though — the Alexa and Google paths route through Home Assistant, and exposing Home Assistant to those services requires either a paid Nabu Casa cloud subscription or a self-managed Amazon Developer and AWS Lambda setup. So 'no subscription' holds for Apple and Home Assistant and does not hold for Alexa or Google.

Maintenance reality

• Batteries: None — powered over USB from the included supply.
• Cloud dependence: No — core function survives without the vendor's cloud
• Genuinely local, verified from counterparty sources rather than vendor marketing: ESPHome's own documentation describes each device as its own server communicating over local TCP with no cloud dependency, and Home Assistant's ESPHome integration page classifies it as Local Push over a persistent local connection. The HomeKit firmware serves HAP from the device over the LAN. QUALIFIER WORTH KEEPING: local operation holds for the Apple Home and Home Assistant paths only — the Alexa and Google paths route through the internet by Home Assistant's own documentation, so choosing those forfeits the reason to buy this. Local Wi-Fi is still required; this is a network-local device, not a network-independent one. INSTALL AND SAFETY: soldering is not required as of version 2.0, and installation is three wires to the opener's terminal block plus USB power — but miswiring has consequences, since the vendor's FAQ warns that connecting obstruction sensors above 18 V 'will destroy the obstruction input circuit'. The vendor's own documentation carries an explicit disclaimer: 'Use this device at your own risk. To avoid risk of injury or property damage only operate the garage door within line of sight.' TWO HONEST UNKNOWNS: no primary source establishes whether the opener manufacturer's warranty is affected, and no affirmative vendor statement confirms that the opener's own entrapment protection is preserved — the device reads obstruction state and issues the same signal a wall button does, so the opener's logic board should still enforce its reversal behaviour, but that is reasoning rather than a sourced claim and the vendor's feature documentation makes no mention of UL 325 at all. Recorded as unknown rather than asserted in either direction. Vendor documentation also contradicts itself on obstruction sensor voltage: the FAQ says 5–16 V while the features page says peak 4.5–7 V.

The catch

It does not work with Chamberlain Security+ 3.0 openers, and that is architectural rather than a firmware gap someone will patch. The vendor states it plainly in its own FAQ: 'Security + 3.0 openers are not supported.' The reason is that ratgdo works by reading the data signal on the wall-button wires, and Chamberlain's Security+ 3.0 generation — launched November 2025, identified by a WHITE learn button — moved accessory communication to encrypted Bluetooth LE. Be precise about what changed at the terminals, because the popular version of this is imprecise: the wall-button terminals still physically exist on a Security+ 3.0 opener, but the wired button is now a PAIRED device that must be learned to the opener rather than a dumb contact you can short. Either way there is nothing for a wire-tapping board to decode. So check your learn button colour before ordering: yellow, purple or red and this works; white and it does not, and no future firmware will change that. Two smaller catches worth knowing before you buy. Firmware is not included and you flash it yourself, which several write-ups get wrong. And the three firmware builds are mutually exclusive, so the choice between native Apple Home and Home Assistant is made at flash time and is not a setting you toggle later.

Who it's for

Home Assistant households with a Security+ 1.0 or 2.0 opener — yellow, purple or red learn button — who lost myQ in 2023; this is the canonical fix and the one Home Assistant itself recommends. Also a fit for Apple Home households who want bridge-free, fully local garage control with no hub and no account, which almost nothing else in this category offers. And for owners of non-Chamberlain openers or gates with dry-contact terminals, where the generic path works. The buyer needs to be comfortable flashing firmware from a browser and wiring three conductors to a terminal block; realistically this is enthusiast-level rather than intermediate DIY. It is the wrong buy for anyone with a white learn button, for owners of the jackshaft models 8500, 8500C, RJO20 and RJO20C which the vendor lists as incompatible, for Alexa- or Google-primary households with no Home Assistant — since the workaround reintroduces the cloud dependency and subscription cost the product exists to avoid — for SmartThings households, for anyone expecting a pre-flashed app-in-a-box experience, and for anyone unwilling to accept an explicit 'use at your own risk' disclaimer on a device that moves a crushing hazard.

Sources & method

The vendor field on every SKU in ratcloud.llc's own product JSON reads 'ratcloud llc'. RECORDED EXPLICITLY BECAUSE THE COMMON ATTRIBUTION IS WRONG: Konnected sells a separate competing product, the GDO blaQ (SKU KIT-GDOv2-Q, $89.00), built by adapting ratgdo's open-source code into Konnected's own gdolib library. Konnected's founder describes it in their own forum as 'our open-source adaptation of ratgdo, packaged as a portable library for ESP32 devices' and confirms the relationship is independent and amicable, at community.konnected.io/t/how-konnected-re-wrote-ratgdo-to-secure-the-future-of-the-open-garage-door/36571. — vendor-data and counterparty-source research, verified 2026-07-19 · ratcloud.llc/products.json?limit=100, read 2026-07-19: ratgdo32 (32k) $62.00 available:true published 2024-12-02; ratgdo32 disco (32disco) $94.00 available:true published 2024-11-10; ratgdo encoder (enc) $28.00 available:true published 2026-06-10; ratgdo v2.53i kit (2.53iK) $54.00 available:FALSE published 2024-07-03. Availability read from the store's own inventory flags rather than from rendered price display. — vendor-data research (cart/inventory state), verified 2026-07-19 · csa-iot.org certified-products searches for 'ratgdo', 'ratcloud', 'konnected' and 'wieland' all returned 'No Entries Found'. VALIDATED AS A TRUE NEGATIVE rather than a bot-wall by running control searches through the identical endpoint and user agent for 'aqara', 'eve' and 'nanoleaf', each of which returned live csa_product result slugs. The search mechanism demonstrably works; ratgdo is genuinely absent from the registry. Corroborated by the word 'Matter' appearing nowhere in the homekit-ratgdo32 documentation. — registry research with control test, verified 2026-07-19 · The vendor states it directly in its own FAQ at ratcloud.llc/pages/frequently-asked-questions: 'Security + 3.0 openers are not supported.' The mechanism is documented in OpenGarage's vendor-authored technical writeup at opensprinkler.com/security-3-0-how-to-use-it-with-opengarage/ (dated 2026-01-23, retrieved in a rendering browser after plain fetch returned HTTP 403), which states plainly that 'RatGDO, Konnected, Tailwind, you name it, none supports it.' Chamberlain's own materials independently confirm Security+ 3.0 exists, is identified by a white learn button, and uses BLE — see support.chamberlaingroup.com's learn-button article, the CH125 Security+ 3.0 wall control product page, and the L956W manual (114-6096-000) stating 'All Security+ 3.0 garage door openers have a white learn button'. MECHANISM STATED PRECISELY, BECAUSE THE POPULAR VERSION IS WRONG IN DETAIL: the widely repeated claim is that the wall-button terminals are gone or carry power only. Chamberlain's OWN wired push-button manual (114-6085-000, models 003-0853-000 / 041-0489-000) shows the terminals still exist — 'Connect one of the wires to the red terminal and the other wire to the white terminal' — but ALSO requires the button to be LEARNED to the opener (press LEARN, then 'within 30 seconds, press and hold the push button until the garage door opener lights flash'). A dry contact needs no pairing, so what actually changed is that the wired button became a paired device rather than a shortable contact. The stronger 'power only' claim traces to a scope measurement in esphome-ratgdo issue #492 (a user reporting 'no sort of signalling on the line, only a constant (approximately) 14V DC', 2025-10-28) and maintainer Paul Wieland stating he is '98% confident' of it (2025-11-20) — a named community inference with a stated confidence level, NOT a Chamberlain statement, and recorded as such. The practical conclusion is unaffected either way. — vendor-page and counterparty-source research (rendering browser), verified 2026-07-19 · Wiring a controller to the button contacts of a spare paired remote bypasses the encryption by letting Chamberlain's own hardware send the signal. OpenGarage documents the method (opensprinkler.com, 2026-01-23) and notes it is one-way: 'OpenGarage can send commands to trigger door actions, but it will not receive feedback or status updates from the remote.' In esphome-ratgdo issue #492 a user reports success (2025-12-12), with contributors noting the low-power MCU's high-impedance pull-up may need a MOSFET buffer rather than a bare relay, and rayshobby adding that the 3.0 wall button 'doesn't even need to be wired to the GDO — you can power it directly with a 12VDC adapter'. RECORDED BUT NOT RECOMMENDED: it is not a vendor-documented configuration for ratgdo or for any product in this category. — vendor-page and counterparty-source research (rendering browser), verified 2026-07-19 · github.com/PaulWieland/ratgdo/wiki and paulwieland.github.io/ratgdo/ for Security+ 2.0 full support (door, light, obstruction, wireless lockout, motion), Security+ 1.0 support since v2.5, and dry contact for any opener or gate with dry-contact terminals including non-Chamberlain units. Explicitly incompatible jackshaft models 8500, 8500C, RJO20, RJO20C are named in the vendor's own wiki; newer 8500W and RJ070 do work. github.com/ratgdo/homekit-ratgdo32 documents a known limitation that Security+ 1.0 doors with the 0x37 digital wall panel do not work. — vendor-documentation research, verified 2026-07-19 · github.com/ratgdo/homekit-ratgdo32 README states the firmware works 'over your local network using HomeKit… It requires no supporting infrastructure such as Home Assistant, Homebridge, MQTT, etc.', and documents the absence of a native stop command. The ESP32-only constraint is stated in the same repository. Mutual exclusivity with the ESPHome build follows from these being separate firmware images for one board. — vendor-documentation research, verified 2026-07-19 · home-assistant.io/integrations/esphome/ classifies ESPHome as a core integration at Platinum quality tier with IoT class Local Push, over a persistent local TCP connection on port 6053 with mDNS discovery. esphome.io/components/api.html describes each ESP as its own server with no cloud dependency by design. Per 09 §3, the claim about what Home Assistant supports is sourced to Home Assistant, not to the vendor. Home Assistant's own myQ removal post additionally recommends ratgdo by name as the replacement. — counterparty-source research, verified 2026-07-19 · ratcloud.llc/pages/frequently-asked-questions states of Alexa and Google: 'we don't support them natively.' The cost of the Home Assistant workaround is sourced to Home Assistant's own documentation: home-assistant.io/integrations/alexa/ requires either Home Assistant Cloud or a manual Amazon Developer and AWS Lambda setup with public HTTPS exposure, and home-assistant.io/integrations/google_assistant/ documents that door, garage and gate covers are secure devices requiring a secure_devices_pin to open by voice. — vendor-page and counterparty-source research, verified 2026-07-19 · ratcloud.llc/pages/frequently-asked-questions states the HomeKit firmware 'does not require a home automation hub and works locally on your network without requiring a cloud service'. No cloud account exists in the purchase or operation path for the Apple Home or Home Assistant routes. — vendor-page research, verified 2026-07-19 · paulwieland.github.io/ratgdo/ carries the vendor disclaimer 'Use this device at your own risk. To avoid risk of injury or property damage only operate the garage door within line of sight.' ratcloud.llc/pages/frequently-asked-questions warns that obstruction sensors above 18 V will destroy the input circuit. UNKNOWN 1: no affirmative vendor statement confirms the opener's own entrapment protection is preserved, and paulwieland.github.io/ratgdo/01_features.html makes no mention of UL 325 — so this is recorded as unestablished rather than inferred from how the device works. UNKNOWN 2: the vendor is silent on whether installation affects the opener manufacturer's warranty and no primary source was found either way, so neither claim is made. Vendor documents also disagree on obstruction sensor voltage: 5–16 V in the FAQ versus peak 4.5–7 V on the features page. — vendor-documentation research, verified 2026-07-19 · Multiple search angles for a cease-and-desist, lawsuit or formal action against ratgdo or ratcloud llc returned nothing, including a check of Chamberlain Group's own press page. Recorded as 'searched and not found' rather than as proven absence. Chamberlain's actions against third-party access have been technical and architectural rather than legal: the October 2023 API blocking and the November 2025 Security+ 3.0 hardware change. — negative-result search, recorded as such, verified 2026-07-19 · tarahome.ai and homeautomationworkshop.com publish 2026-dated 'complete guide' roundups on this product; not used for any load-bearing claim, though tarahome.ai's Security+ 3.0 detail later proved directionally correct — noted as low-trust-that-happened-to-be-right rather than treated as a source. enshitifai.com is an advocacy site, not a record source. A YouTube video titled 'Chamberlain HATES This' surfaced repeatedly on legal-action queries and was explicitly not treated as evidence of any Chamberlain action. Worth recording that NO source encountered falsely claimed Matter certification for this product — unusual in this category, where fabricated certification claims are the common failure mode. — source-quality audit, verified 2026-07-19. 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.

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