Hey Nate, do you have support for the LiftMaster LA500? It’s a gate controller from Chamberlain that supports MYQ. I have 2 and looking to use your Blaq devices on both. Would you like me to be a beta tester for these controllers since they are much more expensive than the ones used for standard garage doors? If so, reach out.
I am not sure, but I suspect no. I briefly researched this model and it doesn’t look like it’s compatible with any of the digital wall buttons that are typically used for a standard residential garage. The way the GDO blaQ works is by emulating the wireline protocol of a digital wall button for Chamberlain/LiftMaster, so in order for the blaQ to work, this gate opener must work with a wired wall button.
Do you know if there are any wired wall buttons that work with this opener?
Here’s a link to the wiring diagram: https://cgi.widen.net/content/tg70lydqmb/original/01392409.pdf?u=mcyivk&download=true
It doesn’t have the typical red/white terminals that a residential garage opener would have for the digital wall button, but it does have a “SBC” terminal which I believe can be used for some accessories. However, I’m not sure if the same protocol or devices are used on these commercial gate openers as the residential garage openers.
There might be a way to make something work (either with our GDO blaQ or White) but unfortunately this is not a model that we can officially support at this time.
Thanks Nate. I have a keypad connected to the gate now. I would assume a keypad works similar to a wall button?
I’m not sure. Can you provide any specs or documentation on the keypad?
How is it wired to the gate opener?
Actually I don’t think keypad is the way to go, it’s wireless communication. I think SBC is the path and I know several posts online show RATGDO and Remootio working with Liftmaster Gates, specially my version, the LA500. Here is the link to the documentation and wiring for the Remootio and the gates controllers -
Here is another post where someone got Remootio working without the need for sensors using there 2nd Aux ports on there device. See the post at bottom from Michael.
https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/comments/1ck30ay/liftmaster_la500_smart_controller_options/
This would expand your market for these devices if you can support gates. Many people have them, I have 2. I am willing to help you beta test this if you are interested.
@mccutchen Thanks for those links. I briefly reviewed them both and I learned a bit, I think. It seems like we should be able to find a solution somehow. I don’t know much about the gate controllers before this, so I’m learning about it as we go. Two key observations:
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From the Remootio documentation, it seems like the “SBC” terminals on your gate controller can be used to trigger the gate by a pulsed dry-contact output. I think that’s what the Remootio is doing. Can you test that on your gate controller by shorting the SBC terminals to each other for a second and see if that triggers the gate to open/close?
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It looks like the ratgdo may be able to get status over the “SBC” terminals, too? I’m a little confused with the ratgdo wiring why it needs the red/white control connection and a trigger connection. Maybe the ctrl wires only give status on these gate openers?
If ratgdo can read the status over SBC then the GDO blaQ should be able to, too. We can read/write the same commands over the wireline protocol as ratgdo.
Yes, I would be more than happy for your help testing this and figuring it out. Can you hook up a GDO blaQ and then capture some logs from it. I would like to see if it is able to communicate over the wireline protocol via those SBC terminals.
The gate controllers have an expansion board that allows for a “sensor free” way to get Gare status (open/close, etc). The wiring you see from RATGDO is taking this into account. The Remootio will do the same thing when wired to the SBC and to the expansion board to get status. You will see that noted in the post from Michael in the one link I sent.
@mccutchen What happens when you connect the GDO blaQ to the SBC terminals?
It’s been too cold to try it yet but I plan to get out there in next couple days as it warms up a bit. In Michigan.
@nate Which connectors on the Blaq should I use to connect to SBC?
The red and white terminals labeled TO GDO carries the serial communication to the opener motor. If we suspect that the SBC terminals are capable of serial communication using the same protocols as Chamberlain/LiftMaster garage openers, then you should connect them to the red and white terminals on the GDO blaQ.
@nate I was able to get some information that hopefully will lead to a solution for the LA500 Gate Controller.
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You had asked about pulse shorting the SBC connection on the gate and I did that. It worked. Pulse to open and pulse to close.
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I then connected the TO GDO terminals to the SBC terminals and unfortunately was not able to trigger the gate to close. The closest I got was when I chose the 1.0+security setting in Home Assistant for the BLAQ, that I got it to show as “Connected” status in the app as shown in the screenshot
In this state, when I clicked close the BLAQ made some beeps and light flashed but the gate controller did not move.
Can you mimic the shorting pulse to get it to work? As you said, this is how Remootio is doing it.
Our GDO White has a dry-contact relay that can trigger the momentary contact (shorting pulse) but not the blaQ. The blaQ is designed to communicate digitally to the opener motor.
It’s very interesting that sync shows as “connected” on Security+ 1.0. That means that there is some degree of successful digital communication. It may be the case that the protocol is the same but the gate opener uses different serial commands to open/close that we just don’t know about yet. More intense investigation would be needed there.
Does the opened/closed state show correctly when you manually control the gate? Even if control isn’t working yet, if state detection is working when synced that’s half the battle.
@nate yes it appears to have made a connection with that setting where as auto, 2.0+, etc. all showed as disconnected.
I will test the state again, the close button was enabled and open was disabled in my testing and the gate was open when I tested so it’s possible the state is correct. I will validate this again. I know with the Remootio the state can be derived by using a 2nd set of terminals on the LA500 board as shown in the posts above.
That’s fine. Based on the year that this model came on the market (2013 according to the install manual copyright date) the Security+1.0 wireline protocol is most likely. I know that it advertises Security+2.0 but that’s probably referring to the wireless remote protocol and is consistent with other LiftMaster openers introduced around that time.
Yes, please do! Also it would be really helpful if you could captures some logs from the GDO blaQ while the gate is opening and closing and you are triggering it from the manual controls. You can see the logs on the device’s built-in web page, or see this post for tips on how to stream logs via terminal.