Project 1

A customer wanted to automate his front door lock, but did not want to use one of the rather bulky and ugly Z-wave locks available on the market today. As he only had a large pull handle with a key cylinder for unlocking the door. 

We suggested using an electronic strike instead. 

Remember to make the strike no power lock. This way if there is a power outage, your front door will not be open to the world. Most electronic strikes are setup up like this, but just be sure.

The customer cut the strike in himself as he was a carpenter, then our electrician wired in a double micro module. As the strike was next to the main light switch inside the front door it was rather easy to get power. One outlet of the micro module to the outside light, one outlet to a transformer to power the strike.

Once connected and powered up, we joined the micro module to the Zipabox, then changed the device type of the micro module outlet to the strike as a lock. 

Now with the puzzle maker we can set a timer on how long the strike will stay open for. It was a simple puzzle that consisted of "When" the lock is active(on) "Wait" 20 seconds, Then turn off.

Now there can be many other puzzles that can be done also, but we stuck with a simple one for now. Also instead of attaching the second outlet to a light, attach it to a switch only. Then in the puzzle maker make this switch(which is not attached to any lighting) when turned on, will unlock the door. Sort of like an exit/emergency release button.

We went a little further as he wanted to use his phone to unlock the door. So with a combination of apps on his Android phone, we were able to let him unlock the door with an NFC sticker outside, and automatically lock the door when outside of a geofence (location). All this was possible and quite easy, with Tasker, Imperihome, Trigger and a plugin for Tasker for Geolocations.