Hub v2 + BLE = Kevo?

Any idea if we might be able to control a kevo lock with the BLE in the Hub V2?

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Eventually maybe, yes. Though the Bluetooth radio will not be enabled at first. I fear that bluetooth locks are the hardest part of the smart home equation depending up on the distance from the ST hub.

Thanks @ben - maybe that’s why Kevo/Unikey is working a two straight years of promise then no-show on a bridge.

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I figured that would probably be a first target. It’s tough seeing as everyone says BT is the future yet BT mesh HA protocols are a mess last I heard.

Bluetooth mesh isn’t a mess: the standard isn’t even finalized yet. It was only accepted by the working group a few months ago.

But it looks like most Bluetooth home automation will be using a “bridge and tunnels” approach where there is a Bluetooth/Wi-Fi bridge device every hundred feet or so. That’s basically what Lockitron has done with their bridge for the Bolt. And it looks like it’s what homekit is going to do.

The combination of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth has a lot of advantages for home automation. But other protocols have other advantages in particular lower cost in terms of both dollars per device and energy draw.

If you want a $25 sensor, it’s not going to be Bluetooth. And if you want it to be battery-operated, it’s not going to be Wi-Fi.

Every protocol has trade-offs. Bluetooth will be part of the future, but not the only part.

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For the amount of time the world has had that sounds like a mess to me.

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I’ve been waiting for Kevo Plus for a while, and they’ve always had excuses for why their development process is so long.

I figured they would have just reversed engineered what the August folks did with their Connect bridge.

Personally I’m conflicted about this new functionality in the hub rather than using a dedicated bridge, mostly because I know that if the hub is close to any lock (unlikely) it will automatically be far from all the others. I’d rather have a low cost Wi-Fi / BLE bridge for locks or a lock that supports the functionality native, to have the best experience possible.

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A BLE (Bluetooth low energy) makes sense for an apartment where all locks are likely to be reachable from your phone or a BLE hub. But for a house, I think a bridge becomes essential.

That’s precisely my situation now.

If you have an apartment with one front door you always use then that’s no big deal. For a reasonably large house you’re bound to have issues with either the front or rear doors, or both. That’s assuming you don’t have another “side” door that leads to a garage or whatever, or that you’re ok with mixing and matching hardware and bridges.

I also like the idea of using a single system / vendor for this type of thing, so if I’m going with Kevo or Schlage or whatever then I can use similar hardware on all the doors. In the case of Kevo I think you can use one app for all the locks as well, although I’m not sure – nor do I know how the Plus would work if you have multiple locks.

Kevo Plus was just released and is shipping now at a price of $70 with no monthly service fees! http://www.kwikset.com/kevo/kevo-plus

That’s $70 for the bridge piece that allows you to connect their Bluetooth lock to your Wi-Fi network so you can access it remotely through their app.

You still have to have already bought their Bluetooth model.

I didn’t see anything about an API for other services to connect to it, though.

I really want to know about an API…

Also, I have two Kevo’s they are both within bluetooth range easily … can I use one gateway to talk to them both?

I smell something strange: Terms of use:

Kevo hardware and equipment is provided to you on rental basis and you are responsible for returning them to us, if requested in writing by UniKey or its partners, in the same condition as provided to you, other than normal wear and tear.

Service(s) are provided to you on a month-to-month or year-to-year basis. If you are receiving Service(s) at a trial or introductory rate, you may cancel your Service(s) at the end of the trial or introductory period by visiting http://www.unikey.com/contact/ and contacting UniKey personnel via email or by telephone.

I asked their support to clarify, then we will see if I get straight answer or some crypto fineprint.

That’s from the old service agreement when you had to pay a monthly fee. It was basically the same as cable company set top language. home automation as a service.

My guess is that it will be updated soon now that the contract is no longer required

There wasn’t such a service as kevo plus.
It is brand new thing, before they was just selling locks and electronic keys ( first 2 keys are free) not services. I already filled credit card info to pay and then I just stumbled upon terms.
I will never subscribe any fee. I rather get z-wave lock even its inferior to bluetooth.
Also smartthings didn’t turn bluetooth radio on, and with the speed they fixing bugs, chance is it will happened sometimes in very distant future.

Thank you for contacting us.

The Kevo Plus includes a free Bluetooth Gateway for a one time fee of $69.99. The Kevo is not currently compatible with SmartThings. However, we have documented your comments and appreciate your feedback.

Thank you for allowing us to assist you. We appreciate your interest in our products.

kevo plus is sold out at the moment

Does anybody know if they’ll have an API so we could do some kind of network-level integration with ST?

I finally got my Kevo Plus last week, so far it’s working great!
Looking forward to ST integration. I’m hoping it will come quick since they already have Kwikset locks connected.