I seem to have a repeated issue with leaving our garage door open overnight. Luckily we're in a quiet cul-de-sac so it's never resulted in anything being stolen, but I'd still rather stop it happening.
I'm thinking that if I could get a small light by the front door which lights up when the garage door is open, this would be a very good way to ensuring that it's not forgotten in future.
Does a product exist which would do this? I'm struggling to think of a good search term so Google isn't helping so much currently.
Is it open as not closed or open as unlocked..
You could get a remote controller switch, for a few bucks, or quids if you like, a little magnetic two-part transmitter, when you separate them it sends an 'on signal, when you reunite them it sends out an 'off'
Then you'd put a receiver swhere where it makes sense like a light switch indoors
The dutch call it kaku (the cheap version), i am sure theres something over the channel also available
Cheers, that's the kind of thing I'm after for sure. That might give me some good clues for my searching. (And it is open as in gaping wide open. I have an electric door, with the switch for it in the house. Sometimes I go back into the house and forget to press the button.)
Burglar alarms use simple magnetic contacts to complete the wiring circuit but that would require wiring from the garage to where ever you want the indicator light.
As an alternative, if your door is a Hormann and according to the catalogue I have, with special equipment it is possible to display the door position using your smart phone or tablet. It might be worth making enquires of the manufacturer or local agent for your make of door.
I can find wireless door sensors which send a signal when the door is open. I can even find smart ones which will put a notification up on your phone.
But I don't want to know when it opens. I want to know when it's still open when I go to bed! So I need a way of changing that output into a light remaining lit for all the time it's open.
Thats what these wireless guys do.
Send an on signal when door goes open,
Send off signal when it closes.
I.e. If you put that onto a light switch, it stays on until you clse the door.
I could indeed check before I go to bed. Great idea.
Man, if only there were something to remind me to do so... maybe some sort of telltale light by the front door which I would pass when I go to bed. That'd remind me to check!
I must start a thread and see if anyone can think of a way of achieving such a thing. Thanks for the tip Ronan!
Disclaimer: That was a needlessly sarcastic response. But I've asked this same question elsewhere, and a guy there is being a dipstick which has led to frustration on my part.
The whole point is that I am forgetting both to close it in the first place, and to check that it's closed. I need a reminder - one that is easily noticed, and doesn't require a preliminary action from me (such as checking a phone) to access it. Because if it requires an action from me, then I'll just forget that too!
A sign is sort of a good idea. Except it'd look terrible in our hallway or on our front door, and because it's not 'active', I'd soon stop paying attention to it anyway.
I'm sure if somewhere like Tandy still existed, this'd be easy as pie. You need a sensor which sends a signal, and a receiver which lights an LED if it's receiving said signal. Not rocket science.
Do the wireless ones not keep sending a signal until the door is closed? Doesn't the notification on your phone remain until cancelled?
Ah but that means getting into a routine of checking the phone at bedtime which is no different than going out and checking the door.
As a completely different approach. Since the problem seems to be remembering to shut the door, how about a large notice on the house door (the one you go in by from the garage) which reads "Have I shut the Garage Door?"
Last week my wife noticed I’d gone out cycling and left the garage door open. Scarily absent minded. Luckily she noticed before somebody saw it and went off with the fleet.
here's a receiver for the https://www.trust.com/en/product/71181-compact-wireless-socket-switch-acc-2300
you can see the Compatibility tab on the page listing which senders ("sensors" ) it can listen to. It still shows compatibility with AMST-606 but that is no longer available, it is replaced by ACST-606 (the one i linked in my post above).
One note, this is european plug standard, won't fit your normal UK wall outlet
So
-you get the ACST-606 sensor transmitter, glue half of it on your door and other half on the frame so they come to almost-touching when closed.
-you get the acc-2300 switch receiver and plug it into a wall socket somewhere convenient, then plug a regular lamp into it.
-you pair them by the instructions
-whenever your garage door opens the light will come on
-whenever you close the garage door the light goes off
There are also versions for the receiver that you can directly build into the wall behind a light switch, might be easier for you and oyu won't need the uk to eu adapters
like one of these: https://www.trust.com/en/smarthome/built-in-switches
Yeah, so I could go with an Alexa compatible door sensor and a smart socket - which is along those lines.
Would put the light in the wrong place, but workable. I'll think about it.
Or is Alexa, or some kind of IFTT device clever enough that I can get it to send a notification to my phone only if the garage door is open AND I go upstairs - based on phone's altimeter maybe? Or only notify if door is open and phone is on charge - that would work too (albeit the warning would be once I get to the bedroom, so I'd be slightly grumpy about having to go back downstairs).
1. Piece of 2x1 screwed to garage door, protruding 3" above door.
2. Double pole push switch (wired to be off when depressed) fixed on frame.
3. Bell wire round the house wall & through front door frame.
4. Miniature light fitting & battery box on inside of door frame.
5. Paint light bulb red.
Garage doors being left open has happened a few times in our little cul-de-sac.
I always have a look out of the window before I go to bed and have had to trot out to either knock a neighbour up or close their door.
In my previous job I’ve closed more front doors, garage doors, car doors, taken keys from cars left in the street in the dead of night, sometimes you got a thank you. :lol:
Bazza doesn’t seem to be in a twitchy curtain neighbourhood.
Oh I curtain twitch. But the garage isn't easily visible from our windows, being off to the side, so my nosing is more focussed at the neighbours.
There is a window I could look through and see it clearly - but that would involve just as much of a feat of memory because I'd have to remember to check, the same as remembering to close it in the first place.
As an example of the security of our cul-de-sac (and of having a slightly weird reclusive neighbour), one of our neighbours left their garage door open for over a week a few months back and had nothing pinched. We knocked on their door many times, and eventually rang the police because we were worried about them. Never saw an obvious light in the house, so they could have been away. Except their car was there, and we kept thinking we could see some light through heavy blinds. We never got hold of them, but eventually it closed again.
That neighbour is, as said, a bit odd and very quiet. When we first moved in, I saw her getting in her car. She came over and said "I'm Greta, I'm sure you've heard about me". I've seen her about 5 times in the 2 years since, and she's almost never said a word. The only exception was when she came around this summer to ask for help because her car battery was flat. I sorted it out for her, and later that day she came round with a bunch of flowers, a bottle of wine, and some other M&S goodies.
To be honest, I see them so infrequently, I'm not entirely sure there aren't two of them - because there seemed to be some confusion about the name.
Their front garden is so overgrown that their double width driveway only just has space for a VW Up on it.
Anyway, I rambled a bit there - long story short - very crime free area.
I've closed mine with the "blipper" and then inadvertently pressed the button on the fob when taking it out of my pocket/putting it in the drawer/sitting on it .. which then opens it again!!
(Worse is when I have the keys in my pocket and, when bending down or working on the car, accidentally close the door with the car underneath!!!! Mine luckily has a very sensitive "obstruction" feature so re-opens .. usually me puching it back before the bonnet/roof get creased!)
So a warning light when the door is open would be useful to me too ..
But I'm not going to dig up my new patio to lay cables to install it in the house .. it's a separate garage building. Maybe something on the side of the garage where I can see it from the house ..
I seem to have a repeated issue with leaving our garage door open overnight. Luckily we're in a quiet cul-de-sac so it's never resulted in anything being stolen, but I'd still rather stop it happening.
I'm thinking that if I could get a small light by the front door which lights up when the garage door is open, this would be a very good way to ensuring that it's not forgotten in future.
Does a product exist which would do this? I'm struggling to think of a good search term so Google isn't helping so much currently.
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