Chamberlain pulls the plug on its HomeKit smart home bridge

AppleInsider

Chamberlain Group is discontinuing its HomeKit-compatible myQ Home Bridge Hub because of low sales, though existing models will continue working.

Credit: Chamberlain Group

The myQ Home Bridge Hub has been out of stock on Chamberlain's website for a few weeks. On Tuesday, the company confirmed to The Verge that it has officially discontinued the hub.

"As our products continue to evolve, we have decided to discontinue production of our myQ Home Bridge Hubs," said George Rassas, group product manager at Chamberlain Group.

As far as why, Rassas said that less than 1% of myQ users were actually using the Home Bridge product. However, Rassas said that existing products will continue to work "for the foreseeable future."

Chamberlain is known for making a range of myQ garage door openers that connect to the internet via Wi-Fi. Its hub, which was first released in 2017, served as a gateway between its others products and Apple's HomeKit platform.

Prior to being discontinued, the bridge ranged in price from $70 to $90. The bridge allowed Apple users to ask Siri to open, close, or check the status of their garage door openers, as well as other products.

When asked by The Verge about any potential alternatives to the hub, Rassas only said that the company's goal is continuing to work "with leading connectivity brands to deliver seamless products and services that complete the smart home."

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loopless

We have one of these, and it's the only way to bring our garage door into HomeKit - the garage door uses RF to communicate with the bridge.  It has been very reliable in general with only one off-line incident in several years.

I'm not sure what those other 99% of people are doing? 

crofford

The reason for low sales is that it’s well known that it’s a piece of crap device. I can attest to the accuracy of that as well since I have one.  Initial setup and configuration is a nightmare…and I’m a tech guy.  The install instructions never worked and always required a call to the support line that had different instructions…that they would never post!!! Also the design and architecture of the chamberlain/liftmaster setup in general is terrible. 

cesar battistini maziero

Sure they are supporting matter right?

sabre86

We have one as well and its performance was spotty at best. When it worked it was really good. But it frequently took itself offline and twice just disappeared from HomeKit. When I changed routers I could never get it back.

netrox

Unfortunately, that's expected with the upcoming Matter protocol that will be the standard for home automation. Why support a device that only works with specific platforms? That's the biggest issue I had with Apple's HomeKit. Apple finally will add support for Matter meaning that every device with Matter logo should work on HomeKit, even if it's not built for it. 
 

dewme

loopless said:

We have one of these, and it's the only way to bring our garage door into HomeKit - the garage door uses RF to communicate with the bridge.  It has been very reliable in general with only one off-line incident in several years.

I'm not sure what those other 99% of people are doing? 

I’m using straight WiFi without a bridge and the MyQ app. Automation is done using Alexa. Works very reliably and also supports Amazon Key for in-garage package delivery. No complaints at all, but it does require an opener with built-in WiFi or a WiFi bridge. 

bakerzdosen

There are times I feel unique in that I've really liked my HK Bridge<->MyQ<->Genie opener setup. I know I could throw the MyQ thing into Homebridge, but honestly, this has worked pretty well for me over the years. (I bought the Bridge and MyQ device bundle the week it came out 5 years ago.)

The first 2 years or so were awful until they improved the software/firmware.

And one time I had to call support to figure out what happened with my setup. The guy on the phone was exactly how I would imagine my ideal support call: knowledgable, patient (stayed on the phone during a 10 min wait time - but gave me the option to go if I wanted), and fixed my problem on the first try.

I've heard a lot of negative stuff about MyQ and the HK bridge, but honestly, I'm going to keep using mine until the wheels fall off.

omasou

loopless said:

We have one of these, and it's the only way to bring our garage door into HomeKit - the garage door uses RF to communicate with the bridge.  It has been very reliable in general with only one off-line incident in several years.

I'm not sure what those other 99% of people are doing? 

+1

This was the best "bridge" to connect to HomeKit, especially if you need to control more than one operator. Glad I have mine.

The biggest problem is setting it up b/c the instructions are very confusing.

sxygayjust

I've had them in two different house, and they worked pretty flawlessly. I might have to try and buy one as a backup

crofford

loopless said:

We have one of these, and it's the only way to bring our garage door into HomeKit - the garage door uses RF to communicate with the bridge.  It has been very reliable in general with only one off-line incident in several years.

I'm not sure what those other 99% of people are doing? 

Are you using the device mentioned in the article?  I have two wi-fi enabled liftmaster 8500's plus the aforementioned bridge.  I'm pretty sure there's no RF in the mix.  You configure the 8500's via wi-fi and you add the bridge via wifi.  Granted, it's been 6 months or so since I last went through the configuration but it was well known by the support people that the instructions provided with the device didn't match the instructions they were using to provide support.  

appleuseryeah

Sad to see Chamberlain is now homeless. Or rather HomeKit-less. I guess it doesn’t Matter, either. 

right_said_fred

crofford said:

loopless said:

We have one of these, and it's the only way to bring our garage door into HomeKit - the garage door uses RF to communicate with the bridge.  It has been very reliable in general with only one off-line incident in several years.

I'm not sure what those other 99% of people are doing? 

Are you using the device mentioned in the article?  I have two wi-fi enabled liftmaster 8500's plus the aforementioned bridge.  I'm pretty sure there's no RF in the mix.  You configure the 8500's via wi-fi and you add the bridge via wifi.  Granted, it's been 6 months or so since I last went through the configuration but it was well known by the support people that the instructions provided with the device didn't match the instructions they were using to provide support.  

Of course there is rf in the mix, rf that exists in the door opener, before you even add the POC mentioned in the artcle

crobi222

loopless said:

We have one of these, and it's the only way to bring our garage door into HomeKit - the garage door uses RF to communicate with the bridge.  It has been very reliable in general with only one off-line incident in several years.

I'm not sure what those other 99% of people are doing? 

I’m using Meross garage door homekit hardware. It work with every garage door opener . If your garage door opener use RF to communicate they send you for free a RF hardware to be compatible .

it sell for 40$ on Amazon and work very well

rrabu

I’m using a homebridge server and myQ plug-in (https://www.npmjs.com/package/homebridge-myq) and it’s works great. Hopefully chamberlain doesn’t ditch the APIs involved which would break the plug-in too. Of course that would also break sold bridges so hopefully we are far from that point yet.

crazyexcalibur

The product is just not good. It took forever to get it to work, by trial and error. It didn’t make sense how to get it to work, it was utterly frustrating. By luck I guess, I got it to work, and when connected, it works great. 

slow n easy

I bought one in 2020 along with the latest Chaimberlain belt drive opener. I called a company to install everything for me so I have no idea how hard it is to install but the bridge works great for me. Although it would have been much better if HomeKit was built into the opener itself instead of having to have a bridge. Or maybe they just installed the opener and I had to install the bridge. I don’t really remember, but I definitely never had a problem with the bridge.

fizzmaster

sabre86 said:

We have one as well and its performance was spotty at best. When it worked it was really good. But it frequently took itself offline and twice just disappeared from HomeKit. When I changed routers I could never get it back.

Same for me - stopped working when I switched routers. I am not a fan.

sesshomaru

While I feel more “tech” oriented purchasers love the concept of the product and it’s possibilities, myself included. The biggest negative in my opinion is the constant need for companies to eek out every cent from the consumer with add-ons. I’ll take a beating for this I’m sure. If this was bundled from the start in one package at a higher price point and/or also having a sister product without it, adoption would have been larger. 

ilarynx

I can't see what this Chamberlain does (did) that my Meross doesn't do. I got the Meross garage opener a few months back in a lightning sale for $35 and it works great. No RF needed, it just jacks directly into the opener motor (a 20 year old Liftmaster). Very simple design with a simple Normally Closed magnet circuit. Quick and easy to install.

https://technogecko.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Meross-MSG100-Installation.pdf

Works great in HomeKit. We're notified on our phones or AppleTV when the door opens or closes, have it set to close at night at a certain time if we forget to do so, and we're notified if the door has remained open past a set amount of time. 

I also named the garage door "Pod Bay Doors" in HomeKit so I can play Dave Bowman when I arrive home. No arguments from Siri, so far.  ;^)

itguyinsd

loopless said:

We have one of these, and it's the only way to bring our garage door into HomeKit - the garage door uses RF to communicate with the bridge.  It has been very reliable in general with only one off-line incident in several years.

I'm not sure what those other 99% of people are doing? 

Using the myQ app on my iPhone (and Apple Watch).  Door closes automatically per schedules I set in the app.  Pretty sure that's what the other 99% are doing.