Had to read this twice. Very different from the way other locks work, but kind of cool at the same time. Most of the time you have to choose between a lock that works with the manufacturer app and one that is controllable by a Z-Wave or Zigbee hub only.
So if I'm understanding how the Pro works, you get to still have August app access and remote unlocking via Connect, plus you get Z-Wave Plus?
Oh and just to confirm, you are correct about the Apple TV as a hub for iOS users. I have a Gen 2 and a Connect I bought separately, but if you're an iOS user, you can actually control the lock via HomeKit Home app remotely. It used to work with an Apple TV 3, but that was flakey. They removed that capability and now you must have an Apple TV 4 or later. If you have that, then you don't need a Connect for remote lock/unlock. However, it doesn't give you remote unlock/lock via August app. Still need the Connect for that. Plus, the Connect gives you control via Alexa, Google Assistant, Stringify, IFTTT, etc.
I've had an August Lock Pro installed for about a year and just bought a HE. Thanks, @mike.maxwell, for the driver! I was not expecting that the contact sensor could be read over Z-Wave. That being said, mine has a quirk: the contact sensor reports fine for an hour or two, and then ceases sending updates. The lock state is still reported properly, however.
I read somewhere around here that removing and replacing the batteries fixes this issue, and it does—for another hour or so. I don't know what's going on.
I've always had an external contact sensor on my door so I never relied on the z-wave contact, but I can also confirm that it's not reading properly. It does for a bit and then stops. The august app reports the contact as closed but in HE its showing as open for me...
Even though I bought the August keypad a couple of years ago, I only installed it recently and I can now confirm the batteries + cold temperatures are really an issue. I had to replace the batteries twice this winter already and when really cold it does not work well. So I started researching on how to cable this guy for power.
When I installed my August Doorbell I drilled between the bricks close to where my dumb doorbell button was in the door frame and after a lot of trying and luck was able to pass the cable to it. This was a standard dumb doorbell which uses 20VAC so I figured I already have power passing by, but the keypad uses 2xAAA batteries so that's 3VDC. After some research fond this $5 converter / regulator that can use a 5-35 VAC input and output whatever you want in DC as long as it is 3V less than the input:
A week later I got it and could not figure our a way to cleanly fit this thing inside the door frame close to the button. I then remembered that the builder had used a 4 wire cable for the doorbell installation and used 2 wires together for live and neutral all the way (transformer -> doorbell -> button). I guess they do it so they do not have to buy special cable with thicker gauge? not sure but I remember my previous house was the same...
So, I got the idea to separate these cables from the doorbell to the door button / doorbell cam, a pair each, that way I could install the regulator inside the house next to the doorbell. I figured the August Doorbell Cam and Keypad provably consume very little power and a single pair for each should be enough. Connected the regulator and graduated it to output an exact 3V (this thing is quite stable BTW, I measured while ringing the doorbell and the voltage didn't move at all).
Proceeded to adapt the cable to the Keypad, I originally wanted to do this without modifying it using something like a battery dummy with the cable attached to it but could not find anything cheap enough to make it worth it plus my keypad was already out of warranty anyway. Finally decided to solder the cables to the board. Testing showed the keypad works well with 3VDC directly connected to it.
Also, turned out the actual doorbell had space inside the housing and I was able to fit the regulator in there, Like a glove!. I was a little worried about the cables getting hot but I did a lot of testing, I connected to the cam stream while its battery was charging and started ringing the bell like a mad man while also using the keypad, cables didn't even get warm...
The installation ended being really clean and works beautiful! Disabled battery saving mode in the keypad and it works even better now! Here are some pictures to better understand what I did:
Yeah, I never understood why they didn't design the keypad to somehow tether power from the doorbell...
I remember being hesitant about this back when I bought the Doorbell Cam as it would not be difficult to take away either if you know how it hooks, what convinced me is that August has this policy where they'll ship you a replacement if yours get stolen, you do need to send them the police report... also being so cloud dependent its easy for them to block stolen devices which would make them useless to whomever takes it...
Awesome! I am using a similar setup with my Iris Keypads outside. I have two Nest Hellos and an Iris Keypad running off the same transformer without an issue. I soldered onto the Iris battery terminals.
thanks. so you mention Connect is for remote access to lock settings, then mention that Hubitat should give remote control as well. So should I buy the connect or try without it.
Main intention of this lock, is letting the kids unlock the door with Bluetooth and occasionally providing a third party access to my house for a few days.
I believe they had a promo that included the connect with the lock but not sure if still available...
I recommend it. I use Hubitat to check lock status and in some automations like for example, my good night routine does verify the doors a locked and if not then locks them. That said, I find myself using the August app most of the times for manual lock and unlock and it is very useful to be able to do it remotely from it... I do have the Doorbell cam which may be part of why I use their app so much instead of Hubitat dashboard for this.
If you get the Doorbell cam then the connect is not necessary, they both serve as a bridge between the lock and WiFi.
Also, the driver does work with the doorsense and reports fine for me, but some users here have reported that it only works for a while and they need to restart the lock to make it work again or something like that. I don't have that problem but it is still good to have a door sensor on the your front door...
Help. I have tried a half dozen times to get my new August Pro Lock to connect to Hubitat with no success.
The August App says it is connected but the discovery wheel on the Hubitat side never stops spinning and it never shows the August Pro Lock.
I have tried all suggestions on this thread but just can't make it work. I have platform version 2.0.6.112 and still can't seem to get the driver that Maxwell suggested to detect it.
Did you have it paired to another hub before? I originally had mine paired to Smartthings v3, and was having a hell of a time pairing it to Hubitat when it was time to make the jump. Turned out that despite being unpaired from ST, the hub kept connecting to when I was trying to pair it to Hubitat. I had to go into the old ST Classic shop and unpair it right after doing so in new ST app, and it finally worked.
No luck here. On the few occasions something shows up during inclusion, it gets stuck at "initializing", and the log shows this:
groovy.lang.MissingMethodException: No signature of method: keyWe-Z-Wave-Lock.installed() is applicable for argument types: () values: []
Possible solutions: uninstalled() (installed)
For some reason it shows up as keyWe, and if I try to interact with it afterwards nothing works. I also tried switching the driver to August and Generic lock, nothing worked.
yes except the device didn't complete the join process at all.
there should be values in the data section.
can you look in zwave details and see if a device with id 06 exists in there?
