Wall Control Issues (“Press the push bar to activate control see user manual”)

[shadhry]

Hello, I’ve installed my ratgdo on a garage door (LiftMaster) and I’ve since had issues with my wall control. Almost every time I use the ratgdo to control the garage door, I get a message that says “press the push bar to activate control” and “see user manual” on my wall controls.

I am wiring it through the board (meaning it’s bypassed I think), and I’ve had no issues with the wall panel prior to the installation. I also have no issues when I use the wall control panel itself to toggle the garage door state. It reconnects after a quick click, but it is frustrating to have to reconnect it every time the ratgdo runs and loosing the ability to use the motion sensor in automations until reconnected.

I will say, I have noticed that it looks like every few seconds while the garage door is moving per a ratgdo request, the wall control panel goes dark for a moment and seems to reboot as the display stays blank for a few moments until the error comes up. EDIT: The display actually just seems to be flashing I assume to show that something is happening. There’s another garage door without ratgdo that is doing the same thing without an error. I realize this may be a low voltage issue, but I’m unsure how I could fix that since it was working prior and all the wires seem snug.

Other than this it’s been so amazing to have and I’m very happy with it.

[rlowens]

Duplicate of #140

Also:

I am wiring it through the board (meaning it’s bypassed I think)
It is not bypassed, the ratgdo's connections are just passthroughs and are electrically the same. You are always connecting the ratgdo in parallel with the wall panel.

[shadhry]

Sorry this is my first post so I assumed since all other threads are marked as closed despite not having a solution I might try bringing it up again.

Also now that I’m thinking about it, not sure why I thought that it was bypassed that doesn't really make sense. I think initially I meant to imply its passing through the board just chose the wrong wording.

[doctorkb]

Before I got my ratgdo, my GDO had developed some intermittent issues with the button and other opener device. Turned out to have just been a poor connection at the GDO.

I'd suggest re-stripping the wires to the correct length and ensuring they're straight when inserted. Even a previously-twisted solid-core copper wire had issues in those crappy terminals that Chamberlain uses on their GDO.

[greggitter]

Same problem, with two openers and two different model wall controls. Never occurred until about a week or two after the RATGDO was installed on each. I searched on this a while ago and found a comment that sounded like the controls get de-sync'd from the openers. I left it at that and just press the button when it says to (on the other control without a display, the amber light flashes). Mildly annoying but for all the benefits the RATGDO brings, I can live with it.

[hacsjalano]

I've had this exact same issue, using both the ESPHome as well as the MQTT official RATGDO firmware.

Unfortunately the conclusion I've reached is that the RATGDO occasionally pulls the voltages on the communication line so low that that wall control loses power so it basically is getting the equivalent of being unplugged and plugged in again, resetting itself and asking to be re-synced.

I don't think there is anything that can be done about this; it's a design flaw/feature that the wall opener uses the communication lines for power.

For what it's worth, the ESPHome firmware seems to get itself into situations where it resets my wall panel quite often; the offiical MQTT firmware only does this whenever it can't reach the MQTT server, which for me is much less often, pretty much only whenever I upgrade Home Assistant or reboot the server that my MQTT server is running on.

[PaulWieland]

Unfortunately the conclusion I've reached is that the RATGDO occasionally pulls the voltages on the communication line so low that that wall control loses power so it basically is getting the equivalent of being unplugged and plugged in again.

So ratgdo only pulls the line low when sending commands to the door opener. This is also the same thing that happens when the GDO sends updates on its current position/status. The wall panel losing power and rebooting points to the internal capacitors failing, and so there isn't enough power to keep the processor running.

Capacitor failures are a running theme with the OEM wall controls. These "smart" wall panels that have backlit LCD screens, motion sensors, temp sensors, etc consume more power and are more likely to suffer from brown outs due to aging capacitors when compared with the simpler "dumb" wall panels which don't have a screen.

[hacsjalano]

So ratgdo only pulls the line low when sending commands to the door opener. This is also the same thing that happens when the GDO sends updates on its current position/status. The wall panel losing power and rebooting points to the internal capacitors failing, and so there isn't enough power to keep the processor running.

Capacitor failures are a running theme with the OEM wall controls.

Can these capacitors be replaced? Or do I need to buy a new wall unit?

[PaulWieland]

Can these capacitors be replaced?

Anything is possible if you have the tools and skill to do it.

[hacsjalano]

I've ordered some capacitors, but I do think this issue should be added the a Frequently Asked Questions section of your website because while it is not necessarily the fault of ratgdo, it is very common that many of have garage door openers that are more than a few years old and so we will have wall units that have older capacitors and will encounter this issue.

I think it's important to note this because although the capacitors are too old to handle the extra communication the ratgdo introduces, they are often not too old to function in the original manner that the manufacturer intended which is why people are posting questions thinking that something is wrong, since their garage door wall control panels seem to work just fine when the ratgdo is not connected or doing anything in particular.

It's just a suggestion so you don't have to keep closing tickets here on github.com. Or at least, if you have this on your FAQ you can post a link to it directly before you close the ticket.

[greggitter]

@hacsjalano If/when you're successful....would love to have some details on the how-to.

Thanks!

[hacsjalano]

So just a follow up - I ended up buying a new 880LMW to replace my 880LM, just in case I botched the capacitor replacement job. With the new 880LMW, which has a manufacture date of 2 months ago, so it's a new device with fresh capacitors, the problem happens less often but it still happens.

In the past I would see this issue whenever my WiFi router was rebooted or the Home Assistant server was rebooted. In the past this would happen almost every time, now it's about 1 in every 4 times. I was doing some software updates these last 2 days and so I got a chance to test this out a lot more.

I'm keeping the new 880LMW because my previous 880LM's screen was getting a little faded but at this point I'm not sure getting a new wall module if this issue bothers you. Perhaps replacing the capacitors with something beefier than what was originally on the circuit board might work, but I'm not an electrical engineer so I don't know how to safely measure how much bigger you could go without messing something up.

[greggitter]

Appreciate the follow-up. My opener which is years old...probably about 10 now is not occurring 1 in 4 times...it's actually very rare, maybe once per 1 - 2 or even 3 weeks. I'll have to watch for a pattern as to when it happens. Cheers.

EDIT: I updated esphome on both ESP units. Following that, the non-display wall control required a reset, the one with the display was fine and didn't display the message. Today I updated HA to 24.5.0 and both controls required the "reset".

[shadhry]

Thank you all for your support! Here's my update so far: I've re-stripped the wires to essentially the EXACT length as depicted on the instructions on the GDO. I reinserted the freshly cut wires and unfortunately, the issue persists. I do have some observations that might help narrow this down. It doesn't normally happen upon the garage door opening for some reason, however almost every time the garage door is closed the wall panel can be seen rebooting once the garage door has stopped moving. Im not sure why it's at that specific point in time but that's all I've really gathered so far. Beyond that I'm going to make sure everything is up to date on software and continue researching.