Blaq V2 feature requests

Konnected Garage Door Opener
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1

I know it’s not out yet, but if you are looking for suggestions for a V2 of the Blaq people might join in.

My initial request would be a DC-DC power input with a wider input range.

The Merlin garage door I have (MS65MYQ) has a 30 Vdc / 50 mA External Accessory Power supply . Being able to power the Blaq off the GDO would be very convenient - I currently use a Shelly 1 as an ESPHome relay, powered off the GDO.

Also - clearer wiring guides might be helpful.
I have IR obstruction sensors wired into the GDO (required for AU/NZ standards). Do these need to be wired in parallel to the Blaq and the GDO, or does the Blaq read the state from the eSerial?

Great looking product- I am interested in getting one just to obtain door open percentage…

2

Unfortunately 50mA is not enough to power the GDO blaQ.

We also thought it would be nice to draw power directly from the garage door unit and we really tried to make it work. After real-world testing though, we found it to be not viable. The blaQ will ship with a small plug-in power adapter.

Yes, the obstruction sensor is wired in-parallel. There will be more wiring guides available at launch, but the wiring is pretty simple, just three connections:

Red - red wire to wall control
White - GND
Black/grey - wire from obstruction sensor

3

Thanks - great to get the confirmation re the amperage before I went with a home-brew step down dc-dc converter.

4

Ethernet and PoE.

I hate Wi-Fi, particularly for IoT/embedded devices, for a number of reasons:

  1. Unreliability. The 2.4 GHz spectrum is shared, crowded, and vulnerable to congestion/jamming.

  2. Constantly evolving standards. Wi-Fi standards tend to change more quickly than embedded devices do. This includes both on the radio side (ex 802.11->b->g->n->ax->be->bn on 2.4 GHz) and the security side (WEP->WPA->WPA2->WPA3). The shared nature of Wi-Fi means that as the wireless network is upgraded, backwards compatibility features that either slow down the network, or make it less secure, are required to keep your IoT devices connected.

  3. Power. Until someone invents a usable power-through-the-air standard, a cable is required to deliver power to devices, unless your devices are low-powered enough to make battery power viable (did I mention I hate changing batteries?).

Ethernet/PoE solves all of these:

  1. Ethernet is far more reliable than Wi-Fi, less sensitive to EMI, doesn’t require complicated configuration and authentication/encryption protocols to function, and is generally not vulnerable to someone without physical access.

  2. I can take any embedded device today and use it with an Ethernet switch from 30 years ago; or any embedded device from 30 years ago, and use it with an Ethernet switch from today; with no impact on performance or security for the rest of the network, completely unlike Wi-Fi.

  3. I can power almost any embedded device using PoE cheaply with a single cable, whether it’s using a PoE switch or injectors and/or splitters.

  4. Ethernet can be made available at almost any fixed location. There are a number of technologies (ex. G.hn) to deliver Ethernet via phone line, CATV coax, and powerline; in addition to traditional twisted pair cabling.

In short, I humbly request that you add, at a minimum, Ethernet, and preferably PoE, to the next version of blaQ.

Some great examples of PoE ESP32 devices that exist are the Olimex ESP32-POE-ISO and the GL.iNet GL-S10.