WLED Garage Gate Fun with Home Assistant

I love small projects that make daily life a bit smarter and a bit more fun. This one is about adding WLED lights above my garage gate, then using Home Assistant to make them react when the gate opens or closes.

It’s simple, it’s practical, and it looks pretty awesome at night.

🔧 What I Used

• WLED LED strip mounted above the garage gate
• Aqara Door/Window Sensors → one for “closed” and one for “open”
• Home Assistant running the automations
• Some creativity and a few presets 🎨

💡 The Idea

Here’s how it works:

• At sunset, Home Assistant turns on the WLED strip with a preset that looks like 5 spotlights shining down.
• When the gate starts opening → the strip flashes red 🚨
• When the gate is fully open → it switches to solid green ✅ (safe to drive in!)
• After a couple of seconds, it goes back to the spotlight preset.
• When the gate closes → the same sequence runs in reverse.

It’s a nice mix of useful feedback and fun effects.

🎨 WLED Presets

Before automations, I made three presets in the WLED app:

• Spots → my “normal” look with spotlight effect
• FadeRed → flashing/fading red
• Solid → solid green

Clear names are important, because we’ll call them directly in the automation.

⚡ The Automation: Gate Opening

Here’s what happens when the gate opens.

alias: Garasjeport - åpnes
description: "Garage lights when opening"
triggers:
  - type: opened
    device_id: 9d41c97f4c9d06cca1bc7634c20e207e
    entity_id: 856ff3c76a9982bdd2bd91c26184c5c3
    domain: binary_sensor
    trigger: device

actions:
  # 1. Turn on WLED
  - action: light.turn_on
    target:
      device_id: 537420d4cc0bc3402c33917a3e8f2776

  # 2. Switch to red flashing preset 🚨
  - action: select.select_option
    data:
      option: FadeRed
    target:
      entity_id: select.wled_garasjeport_preset

  # 3. Wait for the "fully open" sensor
  - wait_for_trigger:
      - type: not_opened
        device_id: 37e5bc2b5117b492ca6461c633e6b80f
        entity_id: f2ba91e3f373782d097fb7b7633ec12d
        domain: binary_sensor
        trigger: device
        for:
          seconds: 2

  # 4. Switch to green ✅
  - action: select.select_option
    data:
      option: Solid
    target:
      entity_id: select.wled_garasjeport_preset

  # 5. Small pause before reset
  - delay: "00:00:03.5"

  # 6. Back to normal preset or off
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: light.utelys
            state: "on"
        sequence:
          - action: light.turn_on
            target:
              device_id: 537420d4cc0bc3402c33917a3e8f2776
          - action: select.select_option
            data:
              option: Spots
            target:
              entity_id: select.wled_garasjeport_preset
      - conditions:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: light.utelys
            state: "off"
        sequence:
          - action: light.turn_off
            target:
              device_id: 537420d4cc0bc3402c33917a3e8f2776
mode: single

📝 What’s Happening

1. Trigger → The gate sensor fires when it starts opening.
2. Red flashing → Gate is moving.
3. Wait → Home Assistant checks the second sensor to confirm when it’s fully open.
4. Solid green → Safe to drive in!
5. Delay → A short pause so you actually notice the green.
6. Reset → Back to the spotlight preset (if outdoor lights are on) or turn the strip off (if they’re not).

🔄 Closing the Gate

The closing automation is basically the same, just mirrored. When the gate closes, you can flash red again, then switch to off/“spots” depending on your outdoor lights

😎 Why I Love This

• It’s useful → I get a clear visual signal when the gate is moving or open.
• It’s fun → The effects make the garage feel alive.
• It’s easy → Off-the-shelf parts, a bit of YAML, and Home Assistant does the rest.

Sometimes the small projects are the ones that make you smile the most when you pull into the driveway 🚗💡