Opening the carport from your phone

The question

The carport has an electric door. It only opened with the remote, so you always had to carry it with you. Letting someone in while you were away wasn’t possible. And from inside the house you couldn’t see whether the door was still open.

So the question was simple: open the door from your phone, also from a distance, and always be able to see whether it’s open or closed.

What I built

The motor stayed where it was. I made a small board with a Wi-Fi chip, in a case I 3D-printed myself, and connected it to the motor. The board talks to Home Assistant, without the manufacturer’s app or subscription.

The existing motor: it stays, the board is added.

The phone has one screen for the door. It shows whether the door is open or closed and for how long, whether the motor’s light is on, and when the door last opened. You open it with a slide instead of a plain button, so you can’t open it by accident. That also works from a distance, for instance to let someone in.

The screen on the phone: closed for an hour, light off, last opened yesterday.