Smart Lock Questions

I recently installed a couple of Yale Smart Locks that I really like. One of the locks is on a door that has hinges that are spring loaded and close the door automatically. Rather than let the door close with a bang, I have developed a habit of catching the outside of the door with my hand to let it close more slowly. After installing the lock, I realized I am catching the door on the lock keypad. This causes the lock to lock before the door is closed and the bolt then hits the door jam.

Does any smart lock have a feature that won’t let it lock unless the door is closed?

Has anyone developed an app that will use a sensor to stop the lock from locking unless the sensor shows closed?

The new August Pro (the version with zwave) has a built in sensor called “door sense” which can tell whether the door is open or closed, not just whether the lock is locked or unlocked. It should be able to do what you’re asking for. However, this is a brand new device and some community members have been reporting that the door sense feature just doesn’t work very well. So it may take the Company a little while to get this feature working correctly.

http://support.august.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2875962-intelligent-auto-lock-with-doorsense™-android-?b_id=10917

You can simulate this with other locks by adding your own door sensor, not using the auto lock feature built into the lock, and instead having webcore determine when to lock the door while checking to make sure that the door sensor is closed first.

However, If you are pushing a lock feature on the keypad itself, I don’t think there’s any way for a smart app to override that, though. Pretty much all locks will assume that something physically done on the keypad takes priority rather than running it through the network first.

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Yes. This is a habit I need to break before I break my door frame.

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Does the lock have the ability to turn off auto-lock?

If so, turn it off… then have ST lock the door a few seconds after the sensor closes.

There are a couple of options:

  1. You could use an app like CoRE to create a rule that is a lock event is detected, and if the door state is open then send an unlock command
  2. If you have access to RBoy Apps you could use any of these apps which provide that functionality to unlock a deadbolt if the door is left open

The difference between the two is that one programs user codes into the lock while the other doesn’t.

However all that being said remember that these solutions are only as effective as your z-wave mesh. If your mesh is slow or losing commands then there will be a delay between the hub detected that the lock has extended the deadbolt and then the app sending the command back to the lock to unlock the door.

The good news is Yale locks are very responsive (Schlage deadbolts have a minimum time between unlock/lock commands which can hamper this feature). So give it a try and see how it goes YMMV.

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