VisionDesign complete (stages 1–6, rev A), not built, not validated

GarageEye Bay

One camera watches up to four bay doors and tells you when one is left open

Shows the state of every overhead door in a small commercial garage, alerts the manager when a door is left open after hours or too long, and can close it safely through the operator's own controls.

Who buys it: The owner or manager of an independent auto shop, small fleet depot, car wash or fire/EMS station, sold through overhead-door service companies; HOA and apartment garage managers second.
Why it pays: About $100 per often-open door per year in heating or cooling (one Clemson energy-audit case: 40 doors, about $3,950/yr), plus fewer overnight open doors and no end-of-day walk-around (est.).
Target price: $349 camera (up to 4 doors) + $129 door node; free local dashboard; $9/site/month for multi-site reports and SMS escalation (target)
First-minute wow: A board with one tile per door showing open/closed, minutes open and whether anyone is in the bay, working with any brand of operator.

See the CAD design Concept page

GarageEye Bay concept: the idea and where each part goes — The concept. The CAD design is below, under Printable CAD.

What the research found

And how this design answers it

Home smart garage is given away (myQ hub about $30) → commercial multi-bay only, sold per site through door service companies
myQ Facility does bay doors on LiftMaster commercial operators → brand-agnostic: vision reads any door, the node uses standard 3-button station contacts
Remote close is a safety issue (UL 325 monitored entrapment since 2010) → close only, never open; bay must be clear, 10 s strobe warning, operator's own safety devices stay in charge
Per-door sensors need wiring at every door → one camera per four doors plus a bolt-on reflective target per door that reads in the dark
Energy savings are soft numbers → measured open-minutes per door; the dollar figure is labelled est. and uses the site's door size and fuel price

Use case

Bay 3 left open after closing at an auto shop

Shop ownerLast technicianGarageEye cameraDoor node

01Trigger: bay 3 is still open 20 minutes after the 18:00 close and nobody is in the bay
02Detection: the camera reads the door target as open and the bay as empty
03Alert: the owner gets a snapshot with a Close button
04Action: the node checks the bay is clear, sounds a 10 s strobe and buzzer, pulses the operator's CLOSE contact, and the camera confirms closed

Outcome: Customer car and tools secured overnight without a trip back to the shop (est.)

How it works

Architecture

01
Sense: OV5640 wide camera with IR on the ceiling; one reflective target per door
02
Decide: ESP32-S3 classifies each door's state and bay occupancy on the device
03
Send: events over MQTT/TLS on PoE Ethernet; local encrypted heartbeat to the door node
04
Act: ESP32-C6 door node closes a door through the operator's own station contacts, only after interlocks

Hardware

Real parts, buyable today

Bill of materials: about $53 per camera, $32 per door node and $11 for four door targets at qty 50 (est.).

Block	Part	Why this part
Vision MCU	ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R8	Camera interface, PSRAM for frames, on-device detection
Camera	OV5640 + 120° M12 lens + 4× 850 nm IR LEDs	Four doors in one view, day and night
Network + power	WIZnet W5500 + Silvertel Ag9905M PoE	One cable to a ceiling with no outlet
Door node	ESP32-C6 + 5× Panasonic TQ2SA relays	Dry-contact CLOSE per door plus a warning strobe
Node power	TI LMR36006 from 24 VAC/DC	Runs from the operator accessory terminals

Mechanical

Printable CAD

7 parts, generated from code and checked as closed solids. Pick a part to inspect it, or download the STL files to print.

See the CAD parts render

GarageEye Bay printable parts, rendered from the CAD — Render of the printable parts from the actual CAD. Not yet printed or photographed.

Loading the CAD…

Real CAD · drag to rotate · scroll to zoomReal CAD · swipe sideways

Open risks we are working on

Door-state accuracy with dust, glare and vehicles blocking the view is not yet measured
Not every commercial operator brand exposes the same station contacts or 24 V accessory power
Close-only control adds liability if an installer misreports UL 325 entrapment protection; commissioning must record evidence
Austin's mild climate makes the energy story weak locally; the first pilots may need colder-climate sites

Design stage only: nothing on this page is for sale. Specifications and prices are targets.