Internet Garage Door Opener Disocvery & Woes

Support
#1

I thought I would share my experiences with trying to find a garage door opener I could control remotely away from home.

I have a Marentec 4500 garage door opener and I love it as its the quietest garage door opener I have ever heard. Its in perfect working condition. Unfortunately its not on the MyQ compatibility list. The whole brand does not seem to be compatible. Why, I do not know as it has electric safety eyes. I have 2 garage doors I need controlled.

First I bought the GoControl/Linear GD00Z-4 Z-Wave Garage Door Opener . Hookup was easy, and it easily hooked up to my 2Gig system. Problem is, ADC does not support it so all you could do is control it via your panel. Should have searched the forums first!

I returned it and looked at the Chamberlin Internet Gateway. Looks like it would work with anything as you simply replace your manual garage door switches with theirs and the internet gateway talks to it. Upon further reading it would seem like it only works with Chameberline or Liftmaster Garage Door openers.

So I read the forums here and there is a post about using the Linear MDRU modules with garage door openers that are not on the compatibility list with MyQ. The Universal Hub communicates with the MDRU and the MDRU is hardwired into the door contacts of your garage door opener. I thought I was free and clear.

Problem is the MDRU’s are subject to all kinds of interference including electrical. I could not stop the interference as indicated by a flashing LED. I even went to the furthest point away from my garage where there was electricity and there was still interference.

So unless someone corrects me, I think I am out of luck at this point in time.

I was soooo close!

#2

I haven’t heard of the Linear MegaCode Receiver (MDR-U) have problems with electrical interference. In the few times when I’ve needed it because the garage door wasn’t MyQ compatible it worked great. Can you elaborate on the interference you’re experiencing?

The installation manual mentions interference from the existing garage door opener’s receiver in step 3. Even that confuses me. Why would the existing receiver transmit signal? It doesn’t say anything about electrical interference. I would think interference should only be an issue during the later step of programming a transmitter into the receiver. When the receiver is not in learn mode I don’t see why interference would be a big problem. It shouldn’t respond to random signals. If the interference is somehow caused by the openers receiver, can you disconnect the antenna as suggested in the MDR-U manual?

This would be the first case I’ve heard of where an MDR-U couldn’t be installed due to interference. If the MDR-U ends up not working for you, you might not be totally out of luck. Rumor has it that Alarm.com is adding support for the GD00Z-4. It seems the legal issues between Linear and Liftmaster that were blocking ADC from integrating it may have been resolved and it’s moving forward. I can’t guarantee it and I don’t know when but it’s a very real possibility now.

#3

Now I can’t find where it said electrical interference. But I disconnected the radio receivers from my garage doors and they were still showing interference from the red LED’s

I got it to work for a few hours, but then it would not work and I would look at the MDRU’s and the lights would both be solid red.

I’ll keep looking for the electrical interference thing I could have sworn I read about

I will wait for the Linear ADC integration in the meantime

#4

MyQ is junk IMHO. When you link it up via ADC, there are incorrect messages abound! Also, seems the ADC app (especially the iPad app) doesn’t really sync really well with this device for me. The app will show open when it’s closed. I think one of the kids opened it so I’ll hit the close button and the damn thing opens!

I’m going to uninstall from ADC and use the Chamberlain app to control it and see if they can do a better job.

#5

The alarm.com app is essentially just pulling data from Chamberlain/LM, as I understand it, so there is very little difference between using one or the other. Typically, issues indicate a communication hiccup during the initial set up. Is yours a wifi hub or the hardwired gateway?

If you do try Chamberlain, let us know if there is a noticeable difference without changing anything else. If so, the problem shouldn’t be too hard to find.

#6

Just to let everyone know, I returned the MyQ unit. Too many problems.

I read that ADC now supports the GoControl/Linear GD00Z-4 Z-Wave Garage Door Opener.

I re purchased this and it works incredibly well. Installation is easy and it works with just about every garage door opener. Its very easy to install and I am really happy with it.