I was accidentally locked out of home again, and I had to call a professional to open the lock.
But if someone was home, they could have just turned the knob of the door from inside. There’s a device that can do that? It needs to do 3 full turns and it requires a bit of force to do that (armored door with iron bars that slide in every direction, so it has a big inertia to start)
I saw a ready solution on a store, the iseo x1r, but that costs 1000 euro + another 200 for the gateway (not mandatory but otherwise it uses proprietary Bluetooth protocol and so it can’t talk with HA
If you have some electronic skill you can use espHome on a esp32 microcontroller to control an RC Servo motor.
https://esphome.io/components/servo.html
If you want out-of-box there are several electronic locks that will work.
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/smart-locks-compatible-with-home-assistant/590662
RC Servo motor
My guess is that a servo will probably be a bit too weak for that. They’ll propably need a stepper motor.
Depends on the lock being actuated and the torque of the servo, I have some that can do 4.4 N-m.
https://www.amazon.com/high-torque-servo/s?k=high+torque+servo
A stepper motor would also work for sure.
What kind of servo would you use with gears and still enable 3 x 360 degree revolution?
Thanks for the link, in that thread I found two promising products, Nuki and tedee.
One is small and stylish but uses a tiny expensive single use battery, the other is plasticly and bulky but uses 4 standard AAs
I’ll check specs carefully to see if they have enough torque
Edit: the 190 euro Nuki lock is advertised as “matter/thread compatible” but you need to pay a 50 euro in-app purchase in order to enable it. This is not stated anywhere, including the user manual, website and support faq. I discovered that from a YouTube review
I have a previous version Nuki with a keypad. I think it works great, also locks my door automatically at night. I don’t have it connected to anything else however, to limit attack surfaces. You can still use the app, as it uses bluetooth. That in-app purchase is pretty shitty, though the lock itself is not that expensive compared to competitors. I would advise to search for discount codes or wait for promotions, which happen frequently.
Do remember that it requires a key into the cilinder on the inside, so if you don’t have a double cylinder you can’t use your key on the outside. Which means you can lock yourself out when the batteries die. You should get a cylinder with an emergency function, so you can use a key on one side when a key is present on the other side.
Yes my cylinder isn’t compatible, it won’t allow inserting a key from the other side. But I saw they sell a replacement one for 100 euro
Not being internet connected isn’t the end of the world, but that hidden expensive in-app purchase is really scammy because you would only notice that after you bought the device, after installation and probably even after the return window. All YouTube reviewers got the pro model, which doesn’t have this artificial limitation. If I didn’t watch that video, I would noticed that after years (I don’t have enough matter/thread devices to justify the purchase of a hub yet)
And also the door opening sensor isn’t included in the box but of course YouTube reviewers are showing it as part of the kit because they got all included. And the product page doesn’t specify that explicitly.
Searched the user manual in PDF to learn more about the product, it’s 4 sentences that explain absolutely nothing
So in the end I wanted the base model over the pro because for me having 4 AAs instead of a “proprietary” battery pack (4 AAs in a custom plastic shell) is much better and giving direct full internet access to the door lock via WiFi is too scary… but between the missing opening sensor, the IAP, the build quality, I think I will choose another one
The issue is going to be that you need 3 full turns. It also sounds like you’re not actually describing a “knob”, meaning a normal doorknob, but some sort of metal wheel.
Picture may be more helpful, but it certainly sounds like nothing would exist for this.
How do you keep getting locked out? Would it not be easier to remember your keys when you go outside?
I thought I had keys in my pocket, instead it was a different bunch. The keys were inserted in the socket from the inside, it doesn’t allow to insert the key from the other side, so I couldn’t use the backup pair that I keep in a separate location
Is the door locking mechanism something you can change? If so you could change it to one that doesn’t lock when it’s closed, only when a key is used.
Technically, yes, but I’m a bit lazy. If I can overengineer a workaround…
Can you share pics with this door? How do you walk outside and have it lock behind you?
When you close it, it’s not possible* to open it again from outside
* = only the triangular piece engages, so a professional can unlock it from outside by using a thin sheet of steel
I’d rather switch to a lock that doesn’t lock automatically and captures the key, when open.
Ok, the latter is probably a bad idea for a fixed lock. Works pretty well for a padlock.
