August Smart Lock - Beware

Hardware
1

Just bought an August Smart Lock Pro from an online vendor.

It naturally requires a goofy installation via an app.

The app tells me the lock has already been "registered" to someone else, and it cannot be used until the previous owner unregisters it. Only it was shrink wrapped and clearly brand new; there WAS no previous owner.

August tells me to contact the dealer, the dealer tells me to contact August, August tells me to contact the original owner, but won't tell me who that is, dealer tells me it was new, there was no original owner and I need to contact August .. round and round it goes.

Thankfully I only bought one, even though I need several. The others WON'T be August, that's for sure! Even so, I'm out three hundred bucks!

2

Hi, that's of course a bummer if they keep going you round.

I would contact them by mail, both parties in the same one, add the proof (bill) that you bought it as new and ask to solve this.

For that kind of money, I would do some extra effort and it's not the brand but maybe it's service.
You do understand when reaching for help and a security device seems not be your own, they are reluctant.

3

Here's the thing. It would appear that all that's needed to register a device is the 16 digit serial number of the device.

And that's posted on a sticker on the outside of the box! It's on the device and on a card inside the box, but it's also on the outside of the box. Security? Right.

4

If you paid with a credit card, just initiate a charge back via your credit card provider/bank. It sounds like you have the evidence that you need to support one.

5

You can debate about the security of the lock and throw away the money or try to solve it or even go for a refund.

6

Ain't no way in hell I'd throw $300 into the wind. Time to change your tone of voice during these phone calls, ask for managers, and demand results.

1 Like
7

how are you out anything? just return it?
they sold you a non functioning smartlock

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8

The story goes on, and my opinion of August may be changing.

I had pretty much resigned myself to simply using the mechanics, connecting the motor up to a home brew ESPHome device. Looked easy enough. Remove the small circuit board inside, bring the motor leads out, done.

But rather out of the blue, several days after my initial contact, August emailed to say they'd reset the device, which is to say, they did something in their database, and I should try to initialize the device again. And it worked! I have a working lock, that I can open and close by Bluetooth!

Yay!

However, I want to have Home Assistant to control it .. close it .. and that required the setup of the included WiFi bridge.

Which didn't work.

This is a device roughly the size and shape of a USB charger.

Pretty simple initialization. Step 1, press the button for 5 seconds, wait for the LED to flash. No flash. 10 seconds, 2 seconds, 30 seconds, 2 minutes, no flash.

"She be dead Jim"

So I took it apart; nothing to lose after all. Inside I found two circuit boards. On the bottom was a remarkably complex power supply board. Components on two sides, 30 or 40 components in all. It attached via a 6 pin connector to the INCREDIBLY complex digital board.

I was able to determine that 2 of the pins on the connector supplied 3.3 volts, so this repair wasn't going to be just a simple fuse replacement.

Examining the digital board, there were again components on both sides. Half of one side is obviously the radio portion, with an 84 pin device taking up the rest of that side. The reverse has a 64 pin IC, a 48 pin IC, half a dozen other 8/14/16 pin ICs and dozen or more caps and resistors.

I was, quite frankly, astonished at HOW MUCH ELECTRONICS were packed into this little package. Suddenly, the $100 replacement cost didn't seem so out of line.

I put it back together to find that it still didn't work (no surprise) and started to get depressed again.

As I was packing it all up, I noticed on one corner of the box the word "ZWave".

Cheering up again, I emailed August support and they confirmed that this device does in fact support ZWave. They then sent along detailed instructions for linking the lock via ZWave, including the specifics for use with Home Assistant.

Holy Crap! You usually get Apple and Amazon instructions, but they included HA as well.

So I ordered the HA recommended ZWave adaptor. In for a penny, in for a pound. It's roughly the price of the August WiFi bridge but of course lets me add other ZWave devices. (Right now I'm mostly Zigbee, some WiFi.)

The adaptor should arrive today, and by tomorrow, I'll either have thrown good money after bad or I'll have a working lock.

I have to say, August tech support has been very good. 5 out of 5 stars.

My opinion may be changing.

1 Like
9

And now I'm done with this.

When attempting to add the August lock to Home Assistant using ZWave, it immediately returns an error, as in, one quarter second after tapping "Add".

So I did a factory reset and got the same results.

Did another reset, since I have more time than money. (Note that I don't have much time .. I'm a pretty old man .. but I have even less money.)

Started the whole process from square one. Now the lock won't even open or close under Bluetooth! It did do that initially.

So I give up.

I'll reuse the hardware .. it's actually quite well done .. but I'll toss the electronics and build something using ESPHome to control it.