Schedule the opening and closing of your gate or garage door

With the Remootio Automations the users can schedule commands that open or close their gates or garage doors at the set time. 

1) Requirements

Only the following two requirements have to be met in order to set up an Automation. 

  • The Remootio device has to have internet access.
  • The status sensor has to be installed and configured, as described in the following article: Sensor installation tutorial
  • The time zone must be set up correctly in the Remootio app.
  • The gate or garage door must be equipped with entrapment protection devices, such as PE (photoelectric) beams

2) How to set up automations

Step 0) Connect your phone to your Remootio

In order to transfer data to the Remootio when setting up a new automation, your phone has to be connected to the unit. So before opening the settings make sure that your phone is connected via any of the connection options (Bluetooth, WiFi or over the Internet).

Step 1) Open the Automations settings

The Automations settings can be found among the general settings of the Remootio device (as marked in the picture below).

Schedule an automation with Remootio

Step 2) Add a new automation 

Tap on the "New automation" button, then read the legal notice that is displayed.

Add a new automatic opening or closing

Step 3) Enter the details of the automation

In the following screen you can see what details can be configured for the Automations, these are also described below.

 

Set the details for the scheduled action

Step 4) Set up the correct time zone

Make sure that your Remootio app is aware of the time zone you are in (to ensure that it will open or close at the right time).

  • In the settings menu, please select "localizations settings"
  • Select the correct time zone based on your location.

Automation action

One of the following actions is associated with an automation:

  • Open: opens the gate or garage door, if it's not already open.
  • Close: closes the gate or garage door, if it's not already closed. 
  • Operate: moves the gate or door regardless of the sensor status. If it was open, then a closing is triggered, if it was closed then an opening is triggered.

...and keep the output of Remootio active

By default, the outputs of the Remootio are activated only momentarily, but with this option being enabled the output can be activated for a longer period of time. The possible applications of this are described in the Latching section below.

Time and day

The Automations can be scheduled in a weekly recurring pattern. Here you can choose the time of the day and the day of the week when the automation should trigger the selected action.

After entering all details, tap on the "Add automation" button. And after some automations are added, the list of automations will be displayed as shown in the picture below:

The list of the scheduled openings and closing - garage or gate

3) Latching

As described above, the outputs of the Remootio can be activated for a longer period of time with the Automations. (Hint: This is also possible by long-pressing the main control button in the Remootio app, and selecting the "Hold output active" option.) When choosing to keep the output active, the screen where the details of the automation can be entered is modified as shown below.

Remootio smart garage door scheduled operations

On this screen you can enter a latching period with one minute increments.

A continuous signal given to the input of the gate or garage door opener often overwrites other incoming control signals, thus keeping the gate or door in the current position. This can be useful when you want overwrite inputs that were sent by the original key fobs and remotes. The latching can also be useful if you want to overwrite the built-in auto closing feature of your gate opener. 

So the latching keeps the output activated continuously, but the different openers may interpret this signal differently. For example, it is not guaranteed that this will overwrite the auto closing. It is more likely to work with dual input gates. 

4) Example scenarios

Scenario 1)

I want to have my home gate opened at 8:00AM  and closed at 8:00PM every day automatically, but only on the weekdays. The gate doesn't have built-in automatic closing. If someone tries to close the gate with the original remote, it should close. 

Two automations have to be scheduled:

Morning automation:

  • Action: open
  • Keep the output active: no
  • Time: 8:00
  • Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Evening automation:

  • Action: close
  • Keep the output active: no
  • Time: 8:00 PM or 20:00
  • Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Since there is no automatic closing, the gate will not close during the day. And since the output is not latched it can be closed by other means. And if the gate happens to be open in the evening, the second automation will close it. 

Scenario 2)

I want to have the gate of my shop opened at 7:00AM and closed at 6:00 PM every day. The gate has built-in automatic closing. I also want to block any triggers to close the gate during the day.

In this case it is enough to set up only one automation, but with the output kept active:

  • Action: open
  • Keep the output active: yes
  • How long: 660 minutes (it is 11 hours from 7AM to 6PM, which is 660 minutes)
  • Time: 7:00AM
  • Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

5) Common problems

Automations can't be configured

  • The phone that you try to use for setting up an Automation doesn't have admin rights. Usually this is the phone that was used for the initial configuration of the device. 
  • If your are the admin user, but the automations can't be found in the settings, then check whether you are using the latest versions of the Remootio application and the Remootio firmware. If there is an update for the application, then you can download the update from the App Store or the Play Store. The following tutorial describes how the Remootio firmware version can be checked and updated: tutorial.

Automations can be configured, but nothing happens:

  • The status sensor is not installed or not configured correctly. You can be sure that this is not the case, if the correct gate status is indicated in the application both in the open and closed state of the gate or garage door.
  • The Remootio is not connected to the Internet. 
  • In case of dual input gates or doors it is possible that the output configuration doesn't match the output wiring. If you have a dual input model, and the lower part of the horizontally split main button opens the gate or door, then the output configuration has to be modified. For example, if the current setting is: "Output 1: output to open | Output 2: output to close", then change it to: "Output 1: output to close | Output 2: output to open" and vice versa. (In step 2 of the following article the difference between single and dual input gates is described: article)