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When you arrive home from work or errands, it is nice to have the garage open for you without having to push a button. It might seem like a menial task and a bit over-the-top, but when you have the ability to do so, might as well.

Prerequisites

For this garage automation to work, you will need to have a few things in your Home Assistant server. First, you will need to have presence detection available. Either a GPS tracker or the Home Assistant app on your phone will work. You will also need to have your zones set up. The home zone is created when you first install home assistant. If the garage you want to open is in a different zone it needs to be created. You can read about adding zones through this link. Third, you will need to have a garage door opener set up on your server. If you are looking for a WiFi garage door opener, I would recommend the Chamberlain MyQ garage door openers which can be found on Amazon by following this link. You may also add a Z-Wave opener (assuming you have a Z-wave dongle) to an existing garage door opener with a device such as the GoControl GD00Z-8 which can be found on Amazon here. With the presence detection, zones, and garage door opener set up, you are ready to go.

Node-Red Flow

Using Node-Red you will use two nodes for this automation. There will be the event state node and the call service node. These two nodes are what can run most automations.

The Event State Node

Setting up the event state node requires you to select which person you want to track for presence detection.
Name: Name your node to make it easy to stay organized. For this I would say “[PERSON] Changes Zone”
Entity: The person you would like to track for presence detection.
If State: You only want this to trigger when the person goes from “not_home” to “home.” Use the dropdown to select “is” (which is the default, so you may not need to change it) and then type home.

The Call Service Node

This is where we will call the service to open the garage door. If you are using the Chamberlin MyQ garage door opener, then Home Assistant will call this device a “cover.” Covers are devices that move up and down such as garage doors and window blinds.
Name: Again, name the nodes for organization
Domain: Use the dropdown to select “cover.” The garage automation is opening a cover in Home Assistant lingo.
Service: Use the dropdown to select “open_cover.” This will open the garage door.
That is the extent of the automation. This will now open your garage door whenever you arrive in to the zone. If your garage door is already open, it will send the signal to open the door, but it won’t actually do anything since it is already open.

Home Assistant Built-In Automations

To use the built-on automation builder for the garage automation, you will start with a new blank automation.

Triggers

For the trigger, you will want to select the person you are tracking.
Trigger Type: Use the dropdown to select “State.”
Entity: Select the person you are tracking for this garage automation.
From: You want to trigger the garage when you go from “not_home” to “home” so type in not_home.
To: Again, you want to trigger this garage automation when you return home so type in home.

Conditions

If you have any conditions you can place them here. This automation does not require any, but you may add some helpers here if you choose to. I have a toggle helper for “garage automation” so that I can turn this on or off from my dashboard quickly.

Actions

The action is where we will call the service to open the garage door.
Action Type: Use the dropdown to select “Call Service.”
Service: Use the Cover Open service to open the garage door.
Targets: Press the “Choose Entity” button to select the garage door you want to open when you arrive home

You’re all set! Just press save in the bottom right corner and your automation will be active and ready to go. Now when you arrive home, your garage door will open automatically based on your presence!