This is not egregious behavior, at least not on the scale of garage door openers. And Aladdin's app works with Google Home and Amazon Alexa, but not with Home Assistant or my secondary/lazy option, HomeKit/Apple Home. It also logs me out “for security” more often than I would like and only tells me after an iPhone shortcut refuses to activate. It has some good features, but without deeper integrations I can't do things like turn on the brighter ceiling lights when the door opens or flash the interior lights if the garage door is left open too long. At least not without Google or Amazon.
I've seen OpenGarage mentioned on the Home Assistant forums and subreddits over the years. It is, as the name implies, completely open source: hardware design, firmware and app code, API, everything. It is a small ESP board with an ultrasonic distance sensor and a circuit relay attached to it. You can manage and monitor it via a web browser, mobile or desktop, via IFTTT, MQTT, and with the latest firmware you can receive email alerts. I decided to pull out the 6 foot ladder and give it a try.
Prototypes of the OpenGarage unit. To me they look like little USB powered owls, only with really stubby wings.
Credit: OpenGarage
Installing the little guard owl
You usually mount the OpenGarage unit on the roof of your garage, so that the distance sensor can detect whether your garage door has been rolled up in front of it. There are options for mounting with magnetic contact sensors or a side view of a rolling door, or you can think of another way where two different sensor depth distances indicate an open or closed door. If you have a Security+ 2.0 door (usually the type with the yellow antenna), you will also need an adapter.
