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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io

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What device can rotate a knob and works with HA? (feddit.it)

submitted 2 months ago by Moonrise2473@feddit.it to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world

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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

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[–] AbidingOhmsLaw@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] AbidingOhmsLaw@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 months ago

TIL about high torque servos.

[–] ulterno@lemmy.kde.social 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Gears !!!

Read that with elongated syllables, sparkles and reverb

[–] Oisteink@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What kind of servo would you use with gears and still enable 3 x 360 degree revolution?

[–] ulterno@lemmy.kde.social 0 points 2 months ago

Oopsie! You're right. No way.

[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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

[–] jeroenvaes@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] jeroenvaes@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah, charging 50$ to enable hardware they already sold to you is quite something. My model didn't have that option, it only has a bluetooth radio.

Can't complain about the build quality though. It's been rock solid for more than 2 years now, running on 4 rechargeable batteries which seem to last quite long. My first device was from a batch that apparently had radio problems that didn't affect me, but they replaced it proactively anyway. Can't really say anything bad about them from personal experience...