Trickyrick:
hey thanks guys some good suggestions. I think that I'm going to use the photo sensor but put in next to the garage door light then that would give me at least 15 min unless I turn the garage lights on then it won't close until I turn them off.
Great
My home automation system at www.2wg.co.nz has garage door opening and closing functionality. I use two reed switches to detect if the door is open or closed and have the garage opening circuit wired into system. I can open the door remotely via the web site and locally when I am standing at the door with this URL on my iPhone. http://192.168.1.999/GarageOpen My WIFI lan is of course secure so this only works for my family and friends that I grant LAN access to and give the URL to.
You can tell whether my garage door is actually open or closed in real time on the security page of the web site.
I also have a buzzer connected in the garage - it beeps in one second intervals when the door is opening or closing.
The garage door functionality also has auto close after four minutes (15 second buzzer pre warning) OR it will send me push emails to my iPhone after 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 minutes etc to tell me the garage door has been left open.
My system can runs in an alarm mode - if the garage door is opened while the system is in alarm mode I get an immediate push email to my iPhone.
My garage door functionality was the first thing I did with my home automation system - with winter approaching I am now pushing into my home heating management functionality.
Regards
Catweazle NZ