Monitoring and control of conventional garage door openers in Indigo

When upgrading VGD from v1.0.6 to v1.1.1, a "key not found in dictionary" error occurs during the first execution of the plugin. It is an initilization error that disappears when the plugin is configured and reloaded. VGD 1.1.2 fixes the error for those who have not yet upgraded. If you have already upgraded to v1.1.1 and are running successfully after configuring/reloading, there is no need to install this version.

This release includes major updates the wiki to (1) correct errors, (2) improve discussions of door state tracking/tracking performance, (3) add a new section on error detection, reporting, and recovery, and (4) document the plugin.py changes introduced in the interim version v1.1.0. Several new plugin.py changes are also included. These relatively minor changes are listed in the CHANGE LOG in the plugin.py module docstring.

GitHub release v1.1.1 provides a fully documented, formally released Virtual Garage Door (VGD) plugin that can fully integrate with Apple HomeKit. The version allows the use of the Apple Home application to close the door when it is not fully open. This facilitates recovery from obstructed states after the obstruction has been cleared. It also enables two new capabilities using the Home application: (1) continuous state tracking, and (2) obstruction detection and reporting. To use these new capabilities, the VGD opener devices must interface to HomeKit using a future release of the HomeKitLink Siri (HKLS) plugin. The HomeKit capabilities provided by the various combinations of VGD versions and HomeKit integration plugins is explained in the wiki Design pages (see Table 2).

This release provides a significant update to the wiki, organizing it into multiple pages, and including new supported devices and references pages.

The supported devices page includes an number of new devices and plugins that are now usable with the Virtual Garage Door plugin, but have not all been tested. The specs for these devices and plugins have been reviewed by papamac and they seem to be suitable for the functions listed. The new deviceTypeIds are included in the plugin so they will be available in device selection, but they are not guaranteed to work. If you use any of these with the plugin please share experience (positive or negative) on papamac's Virtual Garage Door user forum.

This change is intended to satisfy user requests to support a number of Aeotec devices, Shelly devices, Zooz devices, Virtual Devices, Masqueraded devices, et al. papamac does not have the resources to test all of these. If users provide feedback on their experiences, however, we should be able to update the supported devices page to include only fully-tested devices and plugins in future releases.

Release v1.0.6 also fixes a bug in state tracking that incorrectly equated a timer inactive event (tt-off) with an expired timer. The fix definitively detects a new timer expired event (tt-exp) to simplify tracking. The old tt-off event is ignored.

The release also increases the default value for the vibration sensor reset delay time from 1.5 to 2 seconds. This was needed to eliminate false vs-on activations in papamac's home system. The user must set this value for each of his door openers.

This release allows supported z-wave relay devices to be used with the plugin. It was specifically added to support the ZooZ Zen 17 z-wave relay, but should now work with other z-wave relays as well.

Improve README and Wiki documentation

This release increases the maximum value of the vibration sensor reset delay time from 2 to 5 seconds. The default delay remains at 1.5 seconds. Recent experience with papamac's vibration sensor suggests that the user should have more lattitude in setting this value.

v1.0.3 also removes the plugin bundle zip file from the repo. A new indigoplugin.zip file will now be attached to each release for the user's convenience when downloading from the Indigo Plugin Store.

This release changes some comments and URLs for the initial Indigo release.

This release adds a new user-specified vibration sensor reset delay time to delay the sensor reset after the door stops. This prevents false vibration sensor activations from residual actuator shaking. The delay time defaults to 1.5 seconds. This value works for papamac's opener, but may not be sufficient for yours. You may need to increase it if you experience false vibration sensor activations after the door stops.

The change adds a new field in the opener device configuration UI. This requires that you delete and re-create your opener devices to use the change.

Initial release for the Indigo Plugin Store.