Easy Home Automation - Control Garage Doors with Smartphone

Have you ever been on vacation and forgot whether you closed your garage door before you left home? No one is at home. What do you do?

You take out your smartphone and with a few taps you check to see if the door is open or closed. Your "smart" garage door tells you that it is closed . You double check with your web-enabled garage door security camera. You see that the door is closed. You breathe a sigh of relief.

But what if the door is open? No problem. With a few more taps you instruct the door to close, and it does. Once again you check to see whether it has in fact closed. It has.

Now your mind is at ease. With Insteon easy home automation, this garage door automation is easily within your reach.

How to set up remote garage door automation using your smartphone

First you'll have to turn your garage door into a "smart" garage door. Smarthome offers a Insteon garage door kit that allows you to do just that. It includes a magnetic door closure sensor and an Insteon I/O Linc (input-output link).

Close the garage door and mount the magnet unit on the door near the floor. Then mount the magnetic sensor on the floor close to the magnet unit. Plug the i/o unit into an unswitched wall outlet near the door. Connect the I/O Linc to the sensor and to the garage door opener motor following directions that come with the package.

Now link the sensor and i/o unit following directions. Your smart garage door is now ready to be connected to the Internet.

You'll need an SmartLinc INSTEON central controller. Connect the controller to your Internet router with an Ethernet cable. Now link the controller to theI/O Link for your garage door. (Use plug-in lamp modules for Insteon remote lamp control.)

Finally you need to download an Insteon-compatible app for your smartphone and you're ready to go. You have just installed an Insteon easy home automation network (HAN).

You call up your HAN app on your smartphone and send a command to check whether the garage door is open or closed. Your controller receives your command and broadcasts over the existing electric wires in your house, Insteon is a reliable and flexible dual band network that also sends your commands on a designated radio frequency.

Your garage I/O Linc picks up your command and sends back the status of the door closure sensor -- open or closed.

When you want to close an open door, your command reaches the i.o link which in turn sends that signal to the garage door opener motor.

Your Insteon HAN can be expanded as needed to help you automate other functions around your home such as remote lamp control. Home do-it-yourselfers like Insteon HAN technology because it is reliable, flexible, easy to install and operate, and required no monthly or annual fee.