Garage sensor?

[justcrash]

hello! My home is pretty much all Alexa, ran with KASA and Smarthome in conjunction. TP Link bulbs and outlets, Ecobee 4 (which I really need help with) Ring cameras, a Roomba, firesticks. Basically my life is now Amazon, for better or for worse, lol.

My girlfriend has some anxiety and one of the things she panics over is if we closed the garage door. I thought, "Easy fix" and bough the first of what will be several Samsung door sensors. Now up until this weekend, I would have told you I was 100% positive that at some point, the garage door touches the house part of the garage.

It does not. Its like every other garage door now that I think about it, and its on a metal track. It isn't wide enough to stick the door sensor. This leaves me with my original issue.

Short of buying a $200 smart camera to place in our garage to view the live feed (which is a waste), what else can I do to give her piece of mind at a glance?

So far its been great because one of her other constant anxiety attacks is "did I shut off the heater/curling iron?" Now when we leave the hose we tell Alexa we are leaving and she shuts those outlets off. I work in IT so anyway I can make her life easier with tech, it should be in my wheel house.

[kevb]

Many people use a tilt sensor mounted on the upper part of the garage door to determine if it is open or closed. I think you'd need the appropriate "smart hub", like smartthings, etc to work with it. Other options are Garadget or Garageio openers which work with Alexa and have their own way to detect the state of the door.

[justcrash]

Many people use a tilt sensor mounted on the upper part of the garage door to determine if it is open or closed. I think you'd need the appropriate "smart hub", like smartthings, etc to work with it. Other options are Garadget or Garageio openers which work with Alexa and have their own way to detect the state of the door.

I do have a Samsung Smarthome hub. That's a good idea. Do you have a link you can toss me to put me in teh right direction?

[kevb]

If you bought the Samsung "Multipurpose Sensor" it can be configured as a tilt sensor in smartthings: http://support-us.samsung.com/cyber/popup/iframe/pop_troubleshooting_fr.jsp?modelname=F-SS-MULT-001&homeid=635442&from_osc=&idx=649424&modelcode=F-SS-MULT-001&

A tilt sensor:https://www.amazon.com/Ecolink-Intelligent-Technology-Z-Wave-TILT-ZWAVE2-ECO/dp/B00HGVJRX2

The door opener/ sensor I have ( I think works with Smartthings): http://www.gocontrol.com/detail.php?productId=4

I don't have a Smartthings, so I don't know if Alexa will be able to tell you the state of the door with these options. You might want to check a Smartthings user forum.

[fstbusa]

Many people use a tilt sensor mounted on the upper part of the garage door to determine if it is open or closed. I think you'd need the appropriate "smart hub", like smartthings, etc to work with it. Other options are Garadget or Garageio openers which work with Alexa and have their own way to detect the state of the door.

I do have a Samsung Smarthome hub. That's a good idea. Do you have a link you can toss me to put me in teh right direction?

I use exactly this.  I have a ST hub and use a 3 axis tilt sensor.  Stick it to the inside top of the door.  When the door move up about 8-12" the tilt sensor activates and you can see it in the app if its open.  I have some auto notifications setup when it opens and closes to send push notifications as well as when it stays open past a certain time.

[kenf]

consider approaching the problem from the other direction.

your garage door opener has a sensor for knowing if the door is closed.  that's how it stops the motor.

so look at the arm and chain track (usually run perpendicular to the door's center). 

If you can't hijack the signal from that wire, you might at least be able to mount the sensors such that you can tell then the chain arm has reached it (and thus the door is closed).