Dummy Caseta With Pico to Operate Garage Door

[sjdrerw]

I have a garage door opener already working with Homekit but we tend to operate it with the physical remote balanced on a kitchen windowsill. Ideally I'd like a "light switch" method of operating it so we can just press a button and open / close the door. I'm wondering if I can install a caseta as a powered dummy switch somewhere (probably the garage) and then link a Pico remote to that installed behind a plate in the kitchen. Then I'd use a scene in Homekit so that when you operated the Pico it opened the garage door. What do you think ?

[randyc]

There are typically 3 ways to control a garage door opener

1 - a proprietary RF signal (i.e. the clicker that came with the door opener)
2 - a contact closure. Most wall mounted buttons are typicall contact closures although come us a PLC signal.
3 - Some openers have WiFi and/or Bluetooth capability.

Caseta does not offer anything that will work with these options. The Caseta switch controls line voltage. The CCI can only tolerate very low voltages (in the neighborhood of 12v).

[JaxFLBear]

The Pico is not exposed to HomeKit, so you can't really do anything based on the Pico.

You can however create a HomeKit automation that would open the garage door when the the Caseta Switch is turned on. The automation should still work with a Pico paired to the Caseta Switch since the on/off state of the switch is what changes in HomeKit. A Caseta Smart Bridge is required for HomeKit integration.

There are a number of buttons/switches from other manufacturers that you can pair with HomeKit and accomplish the same thing.

[Jonascc]

Lutron needs to make a caseta garage door opener. I feel this would be an easy integration for them that would add value to their product line and provide customers with an excellent experience given their superb communication technology. I envision a device similar to caseta lamp dimmer except it only has two buttons on it for open close, a safety speaker, and instead of a plug in socket on the side it has wires that connect directly to your garage door opener. Then paired with a two button pico with garage door logos for clean custom wall install. I currently have a HomeKit garage door opener that is similar to the design mentioned but it lacks the superb instant communication that we get from lutron. It suffers consistently from the no response from HomeKit that you never see with lutron devices. Therefore creating an automation does not give me the instant response I would like. And of course it doesn’t give me the option of a nice clean wall switch install.

[randyc]

Lutron is definitely behind on garage door controls. For RA2 and HQS they use contact closures which is becoming less common. I bought a $20 Amazon piece that works great, but won't integrate with my RA2 system.

[JaxFLBear]

If Lutron released a Caseta Wireless garage door opener, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

[sjdrerw]

Thanks. I eventually worked out that was the only way. I found an old switch in the house that used to operate some built in lights which still had power and swapped it out for a caseta on-off. I then located a Pico by the back door where the garage is near and set up a Homekit scene so when the Pico is pressed it opens / closes the garage door. The only downside is that if you activate the door via some other means (e.g. your car) then the switch does not recognise that the door has been swapped to the opposite state so sometimes you have to press both on and off (or vice versa) to activate the door.