Technology X Tomorrow's Technology Today!
So you built a garage and now you want all the bells and whistles to match. That is just my scenario. We bought a home in the middle of nowhere that was on the side of a hill with no driveway and no garage. The possibilities here… The ONLY way I was getting spousal collaboration and agreement on this venture was through a promised garage build with her own bay. So we were off. The building is a bit large, to say the least, at 40×30′ with a second floor. Our first introduction to Chamberlain (LiftMaster) transpired with the three 10×10 doors.
We have 12′ ceilings and I didn’t want the difficulties of a belt/chain drive and motor to take up additional ceiling space, so we bought three Chamberlain RJ020 wall mounted garage door openers which were the best option. We found these at a great price and the price was very close to what you might pay when you combine the 10ft extension and belt with the standard belt drive system. Include the features of these doors being very quiet, having Wi-Fi and interior light motion detectors, with a hard lock and this was a no-brainer. Check Amazon for Chamberlain RJ020 pricing now.
Our next venture was to add on the just released LiftMaster Smart Garage Door Camera and you can read all about that report here. As a quick overview, however, this camera has a motion detector, 2-way audio, night vision and most importantly, it can be synced with the opening and closing of the door. It truly is a security system in itself as instant alerts come over its smartphone app. I have to be honest in saying that my better half is getting a bit annoyed of coming into the garage and hearing “What ya up to?” from this Smart Cam. So… we had one more idea that we hoped to achieve, which was having each zone of lights turn on and off with the opening and closing of the garage door of each respective bay, rather than the small light that was included with the RJ020. This is where the LiftMaster 823LM came in to play.
The LiftMaster Remote Light Switch is a Wi-Fi light switch that easily replaces your current light switch in minutes. This switch is compatible with security 2.0 or myQ and can be used in the home, or garage as we have done here. AFTER YOU SWITCH THE POWER OFF TO YOUR LIGHTS, it is a simple replacement with connection of the green wire to ground, red to load and black to line, trying to get that yellow wire outside of the box if possible as it is your Wi-Fi antenna. Our yellow wire is in the box and our Wi-Fi reception to the myQ receiver at the house some 150ft away is just fine.
Once connected and the power is back on, it may take 15 minutes to power the unit before programming can be done. You can connect this directly to your garage door opener or to myQ which gives you an added benefit. Connecting to the garage door is simply putting your garage door into learn mode, hitting the learn button on the bottom right of the 823LM and it will flash to indicate programming is complete. Now, the lights will go on and off automatically with your garage door opening or closing.
We originally connected these in this fashion, however, later reset the switch and had the myQ App find it while it was in learn mode. Once synced with the myQ App, you get a switch in the App to turn the lights off and on of your own accord. In addition, you can go back and still sync them to a specific garage door if you have more than one. So the end result… Any motion inside the garage turns the lights on and will alert you via the myQ App. The garage doors opening and closing will turn the lights on/off and will alert you via the MyQ App. Via the App, you can turn the lights on or off at any time, much the same as opening and closing the doors remotely.
Next up…. We are waiting to receive LiftMaster’s newest Smart Keyless Door Locks for review, to complete this Chamberlain/LiftMaster Smart Ecosystem!
Check Amazon for the LiftMaster 823LM Remote Light Switch.
