Today, I’ll show you another home automation gadget that I’ve been wanting to hook up to the house…I have here…the Nexx Garage where you can open, close, and monitor your garage door from anywhere..anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.
Have you had that feeling when you are driving off from your house that you haven’t close the garage door? Well, I had and sometimes I have to drive back just to make sure that I have closed it. Lately, I have installed one of my Yi cameras inside the garage which I could easily check the door but what if I really did forget?
Then, I have to turn around and drive back so that I can close it…
We have here..the Nexx garage which you can easily open and close your garage and also can check the status of your garage at anytime.
With the Nexx garage, you canuse their mobile app to control your garage door. This gadget also works with Alexa or Google assistant which I’ll show you how to setup later on.
There is also another feature that I like… the geofence feature which when I drive up to the house, the garage door will automatically open up…I don’t have to have the clicker with me or need to open up the app on my phone…
Some other features are the notification which you will be alerted whenever the garage door opens or closes…and also alerts you every 15 minutes whenever it remains opened.
All the dates and times that the garage door opens and closes are logged. This was built with security in mind and all communications are encrypted and are traceable.
So, let’s now open the box. BTW, this is not plug and play and you do need to install this. Installation is pretty easy and straight forward.
We have the main unit itself which is pretty compact and you can easily mount this using double sided tape on the side of your garage door opener. It has a reset button and a 2 wire cable that you will need to hook up to your garage door opener..
Nexx Garage Wifi Garage Door Opener – amzn.to/2BwKZ32
Not Compatible Garage Door Openers – nexxgarage.com/not-compatible-openers/
A connector where you connect the door sensors.
Next, we have some mounting brackets for the sensors if needed. And we have some screws and machine screws…
Then, we have the sensors… one part has the wires that needs to be plugged in to the connector on the main unit and the one that needs to be installed to the wall and the other part which needs to be installed on the garage door itself.
These needs to be installed at most a quarter of inch apart for the sensors to tell if the garage door is closed or not.
This wire connects to the main unit using these red connectors.
What else is inside the box… we have some mounting tape…I recommend to screw in the sensors though..
A one short piece of wire which I’ll show you the purpose of it later on…
We have a quick start guide…which tells us that before doing anything, we need to test and make sure that the Nexx garage is compatible with our garage door opener and we will use this wire to test…
Lastly, we have the installation manual which is very thorough..have good pictures and instructions on how to set up this device.
Alright, before installation…we need to check if my garage door opener is compatible. Now, Nexx have a list of openers that are not compatible with their device on their website which I’ll link in the decription down below. I have a regular sears craftsman opener which should be compatible… or so I thought…
Now, if this doesn’t work then we will need to contact nexx..
To do the test, we need to unscrew the switch from the wall to expose the connections at the back..
Then, with the included white wire..we will short the 2 connections. To pass this test….your garage door should open up…I even use a paper clip just to make sure…
Unfortunately, my garage door didn’t open..so it failed the test…
I have to email Nexx support which is BTW pretty responsive and within 15 minutes, I got an email back…
They said that there is a workaround if I failed the compatibility test. They can make an adapter using my remote clicker. They will need to wire my clicker so that it can be plugged in to the Nexx device and this will in turn open and close my garage door. Basically, Nexx will be hooked up to my remote clicker and we don’t have to wire anything from the garage door opener unit itself.
Nexx will do this free of charge even shipping the remote to them but the only issue I will have is that I will not have my remote clicker for at least 2 weeks..that will be a big hassle for me…
I think I know what they are going to do with the remote though..Your remote clicker is a switch..a push to on switch…So, I just need to open up the remote and try to find the 2 connections on the switch that when shorted, it will open up the garage…
I’ll use the same white wire and find 2 contact points on the back of the switch and see if it opens up the garage. Take note of the contact points where we will
need to solder 2 wires which will be the one that we will connect to the nexx garage unit. This, I think is what they are going to do anyways on your remote clicker if you are sending it to them… If you are not familiar with electronics and soldering..I would recommend for you to send your remote to have it wired. Also, guys if you don’t want the hassle, just make sure you check first Nexx’s website for garage door openers that are not compatible. Using the clicker method though, any garage door opener can be made to work with Nexx..
So, I now have it all wired and setup and ready to be wired to Nexx garage device. And the button still works..
Next thing that we are going to do is to download and install the app…
Create an account and register.
Click allow to get notifications…
Click the plus sign to add the device…
click allow for Nexx garage to access your location..this is important if you are going to use the geofencing feature.
Plug in the nexx garage unit wait for a few seconds..and click “Yes, the light is steady green”
Then, go to your WiFi settings and click the Nexx garage network to connect to the unit, then go back to the app..
The app will search for available WiFi network..choose your WiFi and type in your password.
Then wait until the green light is off.. and click on the green button.
Click register to cloud service.
and we are all setup…
Time for the installation…First, I will connect the nexx garage unit to my modified remote clicker…
Then, I’ll stick both the clicker and the Nexx module on the back side of the garage door opener so I’ll be putting in mounting tapes…
Make sure you position them that they are out of the way and the wires will not tangle on the garage door mechanism…the back side area of the motor unit is an ideal location. Then, I’ll just stick my remote clicker below the Nexx garage module.
Now, time to wire the sensors and this is the part of the installation that will take some time…I needed to find the stud in my ceiling so that my wire clips will have something to hold unto.
Depending on your garage door, I needed to install one of the brackets to the top of the garage door itself to mount the sensor that doesn’t have the wire…It does a couple of things.. first, it will raise up the position where you are going to install the wired sensor…which it will give you enough clearance so that the door will not hit it when it opens. Second, you will be able to adjust the sensor so that you can get as close as possible…Nexx recommends not more than 1/4 inch of a gap between the 2 sensors. You can check the app if it says that the door is closed…if it is…then you positioned the sensors right.
Finished install and hook up will look like this…
Time to see if it works…tap the app and it opens up..
Tap again to close..
It should change to closed door…
When notifications are on..then you will get notified whenever the garage door opens or closes…It will show you the date, time and who did it. Home here means the garage was activated by the wall switch or the remote clicker.
Now, let’s go over the features and settings on the app…
Clicking the left upper corner will get you to the menu…
We have the door control which is the main window when you open the app..
We have the share tab if you want to share access to the app.
We have history which will give you the history of door opening and closing..date and time and who did it..
Then, we have the settings …
We have registered devices…You can add more nexx garage door openers if you have more than 1 garage…
And we have support questions, contact email and help…
Now, if you go back to the main window..you can also access the history and help on the bottom..
And the settings menu again…
So, in here we have notification settings… so you can toggle on/off if you want to be notified when the door opens, closes, door open reminder or enable voice notification…
Then we have the auto open feature…which is basically geofencing and it will use your GPS location and open the door if you are within 50-100 ft.
Also there is voice assistants settings for both Alexa and Google home.
Then, if you want more security you can enable finger print access so that you are the only one that can open the app on your phone.
To setup Amazon’s Alexa for voice control..you have to go to your Alexa app..
Click Skills…search for Nexx garage…
click and enable skill…
You will then need to log in and assign a pin code…the pin code is required for security reasons..you just don’t want anybody to shout from the outside to activate alexa and open the garage door for them..
Let’s try it out…
At this time of this video, I am not able to add my Nexx garage door to google assistant. I cannot find it on the list of devices. This is probably temporary and I’ll install it later down the road.
Let’s test out the opener and see how responsive it is or if there are any lags…it works just like the remote clicker and it is pretty responsive..
Now, to open…
It can be closed halfway too just like the clicker…
Lastly, let’s check out the feature that I’ll be using most..the auto open feature…
When the app is running in the background, it will use your GPS to sense if you are within 50-100 ft and it will automatically open the garage door…Nexx put a disclaimer that it might not work all the time…so click ok and let’s try it out…
I now have this system for 4 days and the auto open feature worked all the time…so this is a pretty good feature for me..
Another cool thing if you have this Wifi garage opener and have cameras like the Ring doorbell, you can instruct the Delivery guys to drop off the package or delivery in your garage.