Is it such thing as a Zigbee or ZWave Door Lock or Door Handle with RFID capability?
I did a lot of search but unfortunately did not find anything like this.
But maybe somebody have one in mind.
I have "ready to go" Hubduino RFID project.
The only problem is - I live in a condo and they are against if
someone installs something on the walls in the corridor.
I am not quite sure what yo mean by an RFID lock. There are certainly plenty of locks that use Zigbee, Z-wave, WiFI or Bluetooth and can be opened with your smartphone.
I do have a Z-wave lock, but it has a keypad and key cylinder as I do not carry my phone with me when I go out in the yard. I do not want to get locked out.
August makes a smart lock that mounts on the inside of your door, but keeps the original lock on the outside. In a condo situation, that might be ideal. Your neighbors won't even know you have it.
I had August Pro (ZWave) Lock in my old house as well as right now in my condo.
The only problem I have - native Auto Unlock is not working reliably.
It did work very well in my house but in a condo it is not reliable and most
of the time it fails. I am trying different ways to improve Auto Unlock with
HE RM and different ways to detect presence. Neither one is fast enough.
Things works but it takes up to 2 min for unlocking.
Of course, this is not acceptable (WAF).
My condo already is using RFID tags for entering the building and
activating elevators. So, it will be nice to use the same RFID tag for
unlocking my door too. As I mentioned, I have ready to go and tested
Hubduino RFID project. But condo rules do not allowed me to
install it. That is why I am looking for RFID + Zigbee/ZWave Lock.
There are many different good looks but either Zigbee/ZWave or RFID.
Unfortunately I did not find any which has both at the same time.
Not exactly what you are looking for. But if you are an iPhone/Apple Watch user Apple's Home Key looks interesting. Not sure if there will be some sort of API. Worst case you could set up virtual devices and Apple automations. Schlage is a member of the CSA, so maybe Matter capability in the future.
Thank you for the advice but I am not using any watches at all ...
Unfortunately this toy is not available.
And again, I cannot install anything outside of my apartment door.
Condo management don't like any electronic looks as well but so far closing their eyes.
Many people already have one installed anyway.
My August Pro Lock is invisible from outside. This makes my life a bit easier.
Take a look and see if an NFC tag is a possibility.
Another thought. Do you have the August Connect Wi-Fi Bridge as part of your setup? Older versions didn't come standard with it I think. That may make a difference in communication reliability.
Yes. I have August Pro Lock with the WiFi bridge.
Communication with a lock is not a problem.
The problem is with August Auto Unlock implementation (timeouts?).
When I lived in a house I did not have any single problem with
built-in auto unlocking function. Now in a condo it is a problem.
I am on a 9th floor. Geofencing reported "welcome home" well before
I will be Infront of my apartment door and usually (I guess, due to timeout).
As a result app reported "failed to unlock" 99%.
All my attempt to use many different ways of detecting "presence" are working
fine but with huge delay (up to 2 min). Of course, this delay is 100% unacceptable.
RFID is not an ideal solution as well but at least will eliminate necessity to use
mechanical key.
The ideal solution will be fast (under 15-20sec) and reliable "presence" detection
when phone still in a pocket (taking it out of the pocket negates the entire idea) is
used as a "presence" detection device.
I still did not give up and trying different approaches ...
NFC reader still need to be installed outside which is not allowed by condo rules.
I don't have any more ideas. What you are experiencing doesn't seem to be how the Auto Unlock is supposed to work. This article says they've made recent improvements but I don't see any dates on it. It does say you need to toggle Auto Unlock off then on to activate the improvements. Perhaps August customer support can be of assistance.
As I already mentioned, August Auto Unlock worked for me when I lived in house.
My very good experience with this lock was a reason to by the same one when
I moved from house into condo. Unfortunately in a condo the story is very
different. I did call and emailed few times to August customer support.
But for this specific case they were absolutely useless.
One issue with home automation while living in a condo is that there can be a lot of RF interference. Since nearly everyone has Internet and a WiFI router these days, congestion on WiFi channels is likely to be a huge problem. Since Zigbee and Bluetooth also operate in the same 2.4 gHz frequency spectrum as 2.4 gHz WiFi, both can be affected as well.
Those living in a condo might find Z-wave devices are more user friendly when it comes to interference, but that does not mean Z-wave will be trouble free.
Yes. I was afraid about potential RF interference before I moved into condo.
And yes, I can see gazillions of 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz WiFi networks and Bluetooth devices.
Many have very strong signal.
So, initially I tried to go ZWave only (I am almost 3 years in a condo).
But to my VERY BIG surprise my Zigbee Mesh is very stable in this very harsh RF environment.
On the other side, ZWave Mesh once in a while presents some surprises. But as of today
it is stable enough.
@vitaliy_kh Could you try using ESPresence? It runs on an ESP32 and detects your phone via BLE. I think it should work through the door if mounted inside. However, not sure if interference would be a problem in your congested environment.
This is exactly what I am running now.
But instead of phone (which is not always with me) I am using
keychain BLE Beacon fobs.
This might be an option, if it actually exists and you can figure out how to get it.
EZSET ELECTRONIC ,Zigbee, RFID card, SMART HOME LOCK (PLD) | TONG LUNG METAL INDUSTRY CO., LTD.
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