Mike Wuerthele
After a demo of the product at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, Chamberlain is shipping its MyQ Home Bridge, adding HomeKit functionality to MyQ-compatible garage door openers and compatible lighting.
HomeKit compatibility with the new bridge is limited to the company's MyQ garage doors without built-in wi-fi, and its entire range of MyQ lighting. The company predicted initial shipments of the MyQ HomeKit Bridge in April.
Also at CES, the company also announced a more universal bridge adding HomeKit control to nearly any garage door opening system. It was slated to ship in July, but there has been no update on the product yet.
The MyQ Home Bridge has an introductory price of $49.99, but will climb to $69.99 at some date yet to be announced. A full compatibility list has been posted on the Chamberlain website, which is currently under significant load.
The Chamberlain Group is the corporate parent company to LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Merlin and Grifco. Chamberlain is partnered with Comcast, Wink, Next, and Alarm.com with its MyQ initiative. The MyQ Home Bridge does not necessarily grant HomeKit compatibility with Wink or Nest products.
Introduced in 2014, HomeKit allows users to connect to a variety of compatible so-called "internet of things" devices through the iOS Home app in conjunction with each other, as opposed to a series of apps with varying interfaces. The addition of Siri to the technology allows for complicated sequences of events previously set up to be induced from an iOS device by a single voice command.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Oliver Haslam
12 Comments
Finally, but I'm still going to have to wait for that universal bridge... :(
So glad I got in to order it this AM. Can't even load the chamberlain website at this time.
Well I have one!!!! I've been BETA testing mine now for a month!!! It works great. I can use my Apple Watch or iPhone. I can go say to my Apple Watch, "Hey Siri, Open Garage" and BAM, it opens right up. Then I can say "Hey Siri, Close Garage" and BAM, the light on my garage door flashes and beeps for a few seconds and then it starts closing.
Yesterday I installed the "Leviton DH15S-1BZ 15A Decora Smart Switch for iOS". I only got one to test it out. I looked at a few of them, and this one looked the BEST. So I replaced 1 of my light switches in my Garage to this. The switch on the far side that powers up 3 light fixtures. 2, 4 T8 Florescent Bulbs and one for 2 T8. So that makes 10 lights this switch powers on and off. It works like a normal switch in that you can manually turn the lights on/off and normal. It doesn't rock like a normal switch, it clicks and stays in the middle. What I liked about this one is that it works over Wifi, for far greater distance and reliability then Bluetooth. I was controlling it on the other side of my house. It also works with your normal wall plate. I needed that since it's in a duel switch plate. I plan to swap out the other switch next to it. So I can now say, "Hey Siri, Turn ON garage light" and it turns on. Of you hold the button down on your iPhone and just activate Siri that way, you can just just Turn on Garage light. My Dad lives with me and he loves it. Even better then Siri for the Garage Door.
Once you activate it using their app, it's now in Apple's Home App. You could even control it in there. But the other thing you can do is Automate things. There's not a log of light output from a garage opener. So why not Link the light switch to the Garage Door opener. So when you Say, Hey Siri,. Open garage, that your garage lights auto turn on. You could also set it up to turn off when you ask siri to close the garage.
Right now it works great. The one thing you have to make sure is that you have a White Neutral wire in your switch box besides the black wires and ground. You need a basic tester so you can figure out which black wire is the HOT wire, and the other going to your lights is the LOAD wire. I just pigtailed a short white wire to the other white wires for my switch. it's pretty simple. Make sure you kill the power at the circuit breaker when working on it. This is a great way to add Siri support to lights that you normally wouldn't be able to do with some Box you plug into a outlet and then a light into that.
The other things you can do is have it come on/off by a geofence, or you can set the light to go on/off by set times. Good for when you go on Vacation and want to make you home look more lived in. I plan to get a couple more shortly. They do currently cost $44.99 each. It's really not a bad price. Once you start using Siri, you want to use to do more and more things. This switch doesn't work with the Amazon ECHO in case you're wondering.
So I have a Helmet Speaker/Mic when riding my Motorcycle, connected by Bluetooth to my iPhone. I can now Siri open my garage door from down the block and pull right into my garage when I get to my driveway. That's pretty nice!!! You could go for a walk come home and just Siri open the garage. It's the main way I get in and out of my house. The front door is rarely used except for guests. It's that way for many people. The other nice thing. No need to keep a clicker in your car/truck. Park in the driveway light I do, someone could break by window and now get right into the garage and then right into the house. Even worse, break in while I'm gone someplace. Take it, plus by Registration. Something with my address and drive to my house, and click, right into the garage and into my house while I'm not home. No need for a clicker anymore, just use SIRI.
"HomeKit compatibility with the new bridge is limited to the company's MyQ garage doors without built-in wi-fi" The website (if you can get it to load) seems to tell a different story: "MyQ Garage (1st Generation), any Chamberlain Wi-Fi garage door opener, or any MyQ-Enabled garage door openers that use an internet gateway"