Meross garage door opener device not accessible

#1

1) Give a description of the problem
I have two Meross garage door openers and neither of them show up in webCoRE or IFTTT. The manufacture has Alexa integration but for some reason chose to make it a LOCK vs switch. You have to tell Alexa to lock/unlock the door and it pain to remember, not to mention awkward. I tried to use the " Alexa Integration (through IFTTT) with webCoRE" process to use a standard Open/Close phrase, however as I mentioned the LOCK devices don’t show up in webCoRE or IFTTT, They do show up in Smartthings as push buttons.

2) What is the expected behavior?
Alexa to open the doors using the alternate phrases.

3) What is happening/not happening?
The devices are not present in webCoRE or IFTTT.

4) Post a Green Snapshot of the pistonimage
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5) Attach logs after turning logging level to Full
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#2

when you tried to add them in settings > available devices, did you look in groups 1-3 in the select devices by capability at the bottom of that page?

#3

My first choice would be getting webCoRE to be able to control the garage doors directly… If you are unable to get this working, then you can:

Load the Alexa app on your phone > Routines > and then click on the (+) up top.

  • When this happens > When you say something > Alexa, open garage > Save
  • Add action > Smart Home > Control device > MerossGarage (make sure the next page says Unlock MerossGarage), then hit Next > Add
  • Finally, if you are happy with it, click Create

You can repeat the process so the phrase “Alexa, close garage” will “lock” it.

#4

Thanks jkp!

I had no idea you had to select groups 1-3 in addition to actuators and sensors, I thought it was an either or situation…

That did the trick, they are there and I was able to get Alexa to trigger IFTTT with a phrase that in-turn triggered my piston.

I would like to get Alexa to trigger it without having to use IFTTT which adds the requirement of using the trigger command.

WCmore

The Garage Door, actually I have two of them, was available to Alexa prior to getting it working through WebCoRE. However, when I get to the option of adding either of the doors (device) it’s labeled “Alexa will lock Garage Door 1 or 2” and there doesn’t appear to be a way of toggling it to unlock. At least not that I can figure out.

If there were I could skip using the piston and IFTTT altogether.

Is there something I’m missing here or another way to eliminate having to state the trigger command before the phrase?

Thanks,

Dave

#5

Now that webCoRE can see the garage doors, I would test a one-line piston to each door to verify. Or maybe an “unlock” command, followed by a 1 minute wait, then an “lock” command.

Once you confirm that webCoRE is opening/closing it properly, then the real fun can begin.

Excellent thinking. To get around the Alexa limitation, and the IFTTT time delay, I often code with this structure:

  • My voice to Alexa flips a Simulated Switch
  • WebCoRE sees that switch change, and then takes (complex) actions

Essentially:

  • I create a Simulated Switch in the IDE (let’s call it “Garage Door”)
  • Make sure webCoRE can see that device (same method as above)
  • Say, “Alexa, discover devices”

Then you can make a piston:

IF Garage Door turns on, then unlock MerossGarage, END IF
IF Garage Door turns off, then lock MerossGarage, END IF

If you do not like the phrase “Alexa, turn on Garage Door”, you can change the Alexa trigger phrase as mentioned earlier.

#6

Success!

I now have two physical devices, Garage Door 1 and Garage Door 2, which toggle and indicate the status of the doors within the SmartThings.app. These were installed by the door openers.

I then created two virtual switches called Garage 1 and Garage 2.

Then updated my piston to Open/Close each door based on the virtual switch being on or off.

How do I share my code here?

Last but not least I created 4 Alexa routines, 2 to turn on the virtual switches and 2 to turn them off.
“Alexa, Open Garage One” turns switch Garage 1 on.
“Alexa, Close Garage One” turns switch Garage 1 off.

Same for Garage 2.

I also have a SmartThings automation setup to turn on my outside lights between Sunset and Sunrise when either door is opened.

Would their be any benefit to incorporating code into the door open/close piston to trigger the lights vs. leaving it up to SmartThings? Other then keeping it all in one place?

Is there any way to hide the virtual switches Garage 1/2 from the SmartThings app as they duplicate the physical buttons installed by the door openers and are only used by Alexa?

Thanks for all the help!

Dave

#7

You can go to the piston, and click on the pic

Save the resulting jpeg to your desktop, and then post here, and upload the image with the following button.

pic

I usually use the IDE to rename the virtual switches with a letter “V” at the beginning. This won’t hide them from SmartThings, but drops them to the bottom, out of my way…

For example, VGarage1 and VGarage2

#8

I found other posts about prefixing the virtual switches and putting them in a “unused” room so that’s what I did. It would be nice if they made it an option to hide them…

I’ve attached a copy of the piston for you to review.

Did you have any thoughts on my other question below?

I also have a SmartThings automation setup to turn on my outside lights between Sunset and Sunrise when either door is opened.

Would their be any benefit to incorporating code into the door open/close piston to trigger the lights vs. leaving it up to SmartThings? Other then keeping it all in one place?

Thanks,

Dave

Garage%20Door%20Open-Close
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#9

Infinite reasons…

Quick answer? Your logic will grow over time…

… and of course, having one “engine” control another just makes future troubleshooting that much harder…

#10

Makes perfect since.

Any tips or comments on my first piston?

Thanks,

Dave

#11

Nothing new really… I stopped looking at that piston with all of your “Success” posts here…

Are you having trouble?

#12

I’m kind of having a hard time visualizing how and were to put the code for turning on my outdoor lights when the doors open.

I want the lights to open with either door is opened between dusk and dawn (15 minutes before each would work even better).

I might want the option to turn them off automatically after 10 minutes, but we usually turn them off via Alexa once we’re inside.

Thanks,

Dave

#13

This portion can be achieved this way:

IF Door changes to open                                <-- Trigger
   and
   Time is not between sunrise-15min and sunset-15min  <-- Condition
      Then Turn on lights
END IF

IF Lights stay on for 10 minutes                       <-- Trigger
   Then Turn off
END IF
#14

I guess I wasn’t clear on what I’m confused about. It’s the piston layout. Would I put the new statement below my other statements or can they be integrated as part of the existing IF statements.

I see “add a new condition” and “add a new statement” and I’m not sure when/how they’re used?

Thanks

#15

We’ve covered so much ground, I do not know what specific code you are referring to, but generally speaking:

There only needs to be one “IF Door’s contact changes” in the entire piston. Adding conditions and statements beneath that can direct the logic flow.

#16

I finally got around to adding my light control to this piston and quickly realized that it only worked when I use Alexa to open and close the doors OR the Virtual Switch’s “Garage 1” and “Garage 2”.

With Smartthings operating the the lights it worked all the time.

After some thought I figured out that Alexa was using the Virtual switch whereas Smartthings was using the door opener switch. I added the OR statements to include either the virtual OR the door opener switch and it works! Since the door open switch monitors both app buttons and the physical switches it covers everything.

Does anyone have any suggestion on streamlining my code?

BTW, Is there anyway to change the author name once a Piston has been created?

Doors%20and%20Lights
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