[AUS] Homelink conversion for all

[Heavywun]

I'm in Australia (also known as ROW to the denizens of Murica ), so the frequencies may be specific to Aus, but the principle is the same wherever you are.

As long as your garage door controller has a couple of terminals to wire an external switch to (like the traditional bell-push button to raise and lower), you'll be able to add homelink functionality to the door. Instead of a physical push button, you wire in a remote controll module that operates on a frequency that homelink can talk to. It's all low voltage, simple wiring.

I believe that homelink works on 433.92MHz. My roller door is pretty new, and although the specs say it can talk 433.92MHz, I couldn't get it to pair with the homelink buttons in my new Macan EV. I haven't given up on getting it to work as is, but I wanted something up and running in the meantime.

The steps are pretty simple:

• get hold of a remote and receiver module/relay that operate in the homelink frequency range
• pair the remote and receiver module
• Wire the receiver to your door controller's extra switch terminals and a power supply
• pair the new receiver with your macan's homelink button
• Stick the remote in a drawer somewhere in case you need to redo things in the future.

Your old garage remote will continue to work, and you will now have homelink as well.

It looks like this when done (ignore the little white box on the left - I've added a matter controller to integrate the door with my smart home as well):

I found the following bits cheaply available on Amazon (these are not affiliate links. I don't need Bezos chucking me 0.0002c while he makes his millions):

Universal Garage Receiver 300-868MHz Multi-Frequency Receiver
Garage Gate Door Remote for ATA PTX4 SecuraCode Garage Remote 433.92MHz Rolling Code 4 Button Remote Control

Or, for an extra few bucks and possibly more simples, I believe this one will work and it comes with the remote already: Tesla Homelink Compatible Receiver

The receiver can be programmed to talk to a huge range of remotes and frequencies with a bunch of dip switches. There are instructions for doing this in the package. For the remote above, set dip switch 5 to on, and all the others off.

The receiver needs between 9 and 30V to power it - my door controller has a little connector which has power as well as the terminals for an external switch, so I was able to wire it all in to that. If you don't have power from your door controller, you can just use any 9V or 12V adapter - there are stacks on amazon.

Pairing the remote is also covered in the instructions that come with the receiver, but it's essentially just a case of setting the dip switch, adding power, and pressing the channel button on the receiver until it flashes that it's in pairing mode. Hit the button on the remote and it pairs. Once that's done, pressing the remote button should result in an audible click from the controller as the relay activates.

Wire the switch contacts ("CH 1") on the receiver to your door controller's switch terminals, and pressing the remote should open/close the door. On my controller, the switch terminals were labelled OSC and 0v (ground).

Then just do the homelink pairing procedure from your macan - enter pairing mode, point your new remote at the mirror. Then when it tells you you need to synchronise the rolling code, push the channel button on the new reciever to go into pairing mode again, press homelink button for 2 sec, release, and press for another 2 sec and Bob's your mother's auntie.

Some pics:

Wiring:

I made a little wiring loom to add the matter control as well:

Power (+30V, GND) and switch (OSC, 0V) connections on my garage door controller:

... and stuck to the controller with some double-sided tape.

Hope that helps someone.

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[JonoNZ]

Interesting, does your AU Mscan have Homelink capability? Not sure my NZ one does?

 

[Heavywun]

Interesting, does your AU Mscan have Homelink capability? Not sure my NZ one does?

It was one of the options to tick. Gives you three buttons under the rear view mirror, all of which can be programmed to do various homelinky things.

 

[JonoNZ]

Ok, interesting, just checked and no HomeLink on the NZ configurator. I’ve never seen it offered on an NZ spec car before.

 

[Heavywun]

Seems odd hey - they all come out of the same factory after all.

Probably some bureaucratic legal nonsense about the frequency range it operates in.

I'm not sure I'd option it again - with about the same tinkering effort, I can ask Siri to open the door as I pull into the drive. Probably half the price too.

 

[anders1]

I use the Meross Smart Wifi garagedoor opener which is compatable with most garage doors. In CarPlay you get an icon on the screen when arriving home. Works flawlessly.

 

[JonoNZ]

I use the Meross Smart Wifi garagedoor opener which is compatable with most garage doors. In CarPlay you get an icon on the screen when arriving home. Works flawlessly.

I use the Meross device for my Garage Door and Gate, they work greta with HomeKit, and they do appear in CarPlay, but I also have automations and scenes to open them which I activate from my watch too.

 

[Heavywun]

I opted not to buy the Meross because it's (currently) not matter/thread compatible - I'm no longer putting any smart devices in my smarthome that needs it's own hub or app.

 

[AndrewH]

Nice write up Heavywun.

As I couldn’t get my normal garage door remote to pair with my Model S, I bought the Tesla Homelink compatible receiver and it worked well. Oddly, I was not able to get it to pair with my Macan. On a whim, I tried pairing my old garage door remote to the Macan assuming it wouldn’t work and it worked perfectly?!?

The homekit linked matter smart remote sounds like a great idea - I loved how my Model S would open and close the garage door itself

 

[JonoNZ]

I opted not to buy the Meross because it's (currently) not matter/thread compatible - I'm no longer putting any smart devices in my smarthome that needs it's own hub or app.

If you run Apple HomeKit it does not need a hub, or an app once setup.

 

[W1NGE]

I'm in Australia (also known as ROW to the denizens of Murica ), so the frequencies may be specific to Aus, but the principle is the same wherever you are.

As long as your garage door controller has a couple of terminals to wire an external switch to (like the traditional bell-push button to raise and lower), you'll be able to add homelink functionality to the door. Instead of a physical push button, you wire in a remote controll module that operates on a frequency that homelink can talk to. It's all low voltage, simple wiring.

I believe that homelink works on 433.92MHz. My roller door is pretty new, and although the specs say it can talk 433.92MHz, I couldn't get it to pair with the homelink buttons in my new Macan EV. I haven't given up on getting it to work as is, but I wanted something up and running in the meantime.

The steps are pretty simple:

• get hold of a remote and receiver module/relay that operate in the homelink frequency range
• pair the remote and receiver module
• Wire the receiver to your door controller's extra switch terminals and a power supply
• pair the new receiver with your macan's homelink button
• Stick the remote in a drawer somewhere in case you need to redo things in the future.

Your old garage remote will continue to work, and you will now have homelink as well.

It looks like this when done (ignore the little white box on the left - I've added a matter controller to integrate the door with my smart home as well):

I found the following bits cheaply available on Amazon (these are not affiliate links. I don't need Bezos chucking me 0.0002c while he makes his millions):

Universal Garage Receiver 300-868MHz Multi-Frequency Receiver
Garage Gate Door Remote for ATA PTX4 SecuraCode Garage Remote 433.92MHz Rolling Code 4 Button Remote Control

Or, for an extra few bucks and possibly more simples, I believe this one will work and it comes with the remote already: Tesla Homelink Compatible Receiver

The receiver can be programmed to talk to a huge range of remotes and frequencies with a bunch of dip switches. There are instructions for doing this in the package. For the remote above, set dip switch 5 to on, and all the others off.

The receiver needs between 9 and 30V to power it - my door controller has a little connector which has power as well as the terminals for an external switch, so I was able to wire it all in to that. If you don't have power from your door controller, you can just use any 9V or 12V adapter - there are stacks on amazon.

Pairing the remote is also covered in the instructions that come with the receiver, but it's essentially just a case of setting the dip switch, adding power, and pressing the channel button on the receiver until it flashes that it's in pairing mode. Hit the button on the remote and it pairs. Once that's done, pressing the remote button should result in an audible click from the controller as the relay activates.

Wire the switch contacts ("CH 1") on the receiver to your door controller's switch terminals, and pressing the remote should open/close the door. On my controller, the switch terminals were labelled OSC and 0v (ground).

Then just do the homelink pairing procedure from your macan - enter pairing mode, point your new remote at the mirror. Then when it tells you you need to synchronise the rolling code, push the channel button on the new reciever to go into pairing mode again, press homelink button for 2 sec, release, and press for another 2 sec and Bob's your mother's auntie.

Some pics:

Wiring:

I made a little wiring loom to add the matter control as well:

Power (+30V, GND) and switch (OSC, 0V) connections on my garage door controller:

... and stuck to the controller with some double-sided tape.

Hope that helps someone.

I just added the UR (Universal Receiver) module to my openers on the 2nd channel and then used the UR pairing mode in Homelink. This was for my Taycan but same process essentially for any.

A lot of openers use proprietary rolling codes which make it impossible to pair.

10 min job and less involved than above.

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