While browsing around in the SmartThings IDE I stumbled across a setting for the multi-purpose sensor called garageSensor.

Googling it turned out that you can manually put the sensor into a mode where it detects it has been tilted, and then reports this state as “open.” This can be used for sectional garage doors, in which case you don’t have to use the magnet, but just the main “sensor” part.

Mount the garage door sensor vertically so that when the garage door is vertical, it will read “closed.” When horizontal, it will read “open.”

To put the sensor into the “garage sensor” mode, open the device in the IDE, and then click on the “edit” link for the device preferences:

This could possibly also be used for windows which can only be tilted — it wouldn’t make much sense to use this setup for windows which can also be “turned” open (like most European-style windows).

This helped? Then please let me know… 🙂