I see many manufacturers advertising the fact that their door lock is “battery powered - no cords needed” as a feature.
I find this crazy! I much prefer a one-time installation over a constant yearly (or even 2 times a year according to some reviews) battery replacement. And don’t forget that if you’re too lazy to replace the battery in time, you might find yourself locked outside of your own house… unless you find some bizzare, hard to find, prehistoric 9V backup battery.
For some reason I couldn’t find ANY z-wave / zigbee door lock that is using a constant power.
Why?
There are other, non-“smart” door locks solutions that uses constant power, obviously, but I’m looking for something that I will be able to control from my SmartThings…
Technically there are 2 ways I can think of, one of them is by using some contacts between the door and the door’s frame, that will transfer power / charge the lock inside the door.
Something like this:
You can of course also use inductive charging (“wireless charging”) but this will be more expensive obviously.
Another option is that you don’t necessarily even get power to the door itself, and you will control the locking mechanism from the door’s frame itself.
Something like this:
This is just not true.
I understand that you are unaware of the solutions that are out there, but electric door locks are available for years (my parents house have one of these for like 20 years…). Only problem is that it’s not a “smart” device.
Besides, it’s completely practical to transfer power between the door frame and the door lock, as there is a physical connection between them.
[quote=“Omri_Amos, post:7, topic:61489”]
I said - technically speaking.[/quote]
No, you didnt. You said it was “completely practical”.
You opened a topic asking if mains-powered smart door locks exist, not if ways to provide power to them exists. Regarding the latter you said…
“I understand that you are unaware of the solutions that are out there…”
If they’re “out there” then they exist.
So how is that going to work in practice? Do I run a power cord from the nearest outlet and along the wall to a special door hinge with these contacts built in, and run another cord from the hinge along the inside surface of the door to my lock? That sounds ugly. Or maybe I pay an electrician to run wires inside the wall to said electrical contact hinge, and replace my door with one that has the wiring inside?
That sounds like a lot of effort and expense just so I can avoid changing batteries a couple of times per year.
LOL! So pointing out flaws in your idea is all it takes to be a troll?
Because zwave is aimed at the budget conscious DIY market, The complexity of installing an always powered lock has just been a poor match to the market segment.
(I myself am quadriparetic, and use a wheelchair, so I’m very aware of the options for automatic doors. Many of these are mains powered and effectively act as locks. But they are much more expensive and the installation process is more complicated, as well as being much more visible than the battery powered options.)
One option that some community members have done is to use an electric strike instead of A battery powered lock. This can be mains powered. As far as aesthetics go, it depends on how much you’re willing to put inside the wall. But if you have a need for a mains powered option, I’d suggest looking at that. It’s not quite as secure as the battery operated deadbolt, but it might meet your needs.
Here are two project reports from different community members. One had a primary goal of spending as little money as possible and used inexpensive parts. The other wanted to retrofit an existing lock to an electric strike. So the equipment used was a little different.
Anyway, both might give you some ideas. (These are clickable links.)
There are two options here. One is that the door is always locked if it has no power, and the other is that it is always unlocked if it has no power.
Commercial warehouses usually choose the “always locked” option. In the United States, fire codes generally prevent this – – you have to be able to get out of the building in a fire. However, if the door can be opened manually from the inside without an additional tool or code, then that would meet Fire safety code in most areas, so some people go for that.
This is just something you have to think through carefully in terms of your own needs when you set up this type of device. This is discussed in detail in the electric strike thread that I linked to above.
Yes, this is one of the options I considered. However, I don’t know of any electric strike that will work with z-wave - how will I be able to control it from ST?
The two threads that I gave you are clickable links. If you click on those you will see all the details of how it works, including the specific devices those community members used for connectivity. You can ask any follow-up questions about those specific projects in those specific threads. Or that may give you additional ideas for ideas to discuss in this thread. But first start by reading what’s already there.
You can ask any follow-up questions about those specific projects in those specific threads. Or that may give you additional ideas for ideas to discuss in this thread. But first start by reading what’s already there.