August Smart Lock Pro (zwave)

I haven’t gotten it to work. I’m not sure if it requires a non-generic OpenZwave configuration, or if August isn’t even transmitting that data over zwave.

There’s a SmartThings DTH available that implements the DoorSense functionality, so it does get sent over ZWave - apparently as part of the Door Lock Operation Report.

Hello, I own a Kwikset 910 Z-Wave Deadbolt (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013KZRTTG/ref=twister_B017JUFBXO?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1) and had it connected to my Smartthings system working just fine. When I connected it to my Home Assistant system and clicked on ‘Lock’ it, the lock span backwards (I mean, it was unlocked and it span in the same unlock direction), I immediately remove the battery and connected back to my Smartthings system.
The problem is that when this happened, I tried to manually lock/unlock the doorlock and it becomes a little hard, like the gears are stuck in some point, I am able to lock/unlock but using some force. When I try to lock/unlock from my Smartthings app, the motor becomes crazy and stuck.
I am aware that my issues begun with a software problem, now I just want to know if there is a solution to my deadbolt so it could go back to normal. I would appreciate some help.
I was wondering if someone has any experience with z-wave smart locks, I just made my kwikset 910 spin backwards
I use to had a Smartthings system and the lock working fine with it, once I migrate to Home Assistant using Hass, I was able to pair my lock through a Zstick gen5. The problem started when I tried to lock it. At first, when I pressed the ‘Lock’ button, nothing happened, after a rebot, being unlocked, I clicked on the ‘Lock’ button and the lock tried to spin the other way (like in the unlocked way) and it kept doing this repeatedly, I had to remove the battery from the doorlock to make it stop.
In the ‘config.yaml’, I just add this:
zwave:
usb_path: /dev/ttyACM0
network_key: “0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x04, 0x05, 0x06, 0x07, 0x08, 0x09, 0x0A, 0x0B, 0x0C, 0x0D, 0x0E, 0x0F, 0x10”
any idea… thanks

The lock trying to turn the wrong way is an issue with the lock itself. Basically by default it’s set up for a door that swings one way, and if you have it on a door that swings the other way it doesn’t know. To fix, remove the battery pack, hold down the lock button on the outside of the door, insert the battery pack, and wait. If it makes a bunch of noise and then extends and retracts the bolt properly, you’re done.

I am having the same exact problem, similar logs. I’m pretty sure it paired securely after adding the network_key. I got a warning in the August app that the security was not S2 and not as good, which I didn’t get before I had the network_key.

Anyone have new ideas?

The best thing I ever did in home assistant was give up on it’s horrible zwave support. I’ve moved my zwave network to a vera unit that integrates with home assistant. More reliable, easier to troubleshoot, much faster to respond.
zwave on HA is just awful, moving it to vera while keeping HA for all my control and automations has given me the best of both worlds.

For anyone looking who hasn’t built their system yet, DO NOT buy a zwave stick or pi hat. Buy a vera instead and save yourself a LOT of frustration!

That makes me sad… I have SmartThings hub, I guess I can try and connect that. I was switching away from it because it’s not that great either and they are going through a mess right now trying to change up their platform and apps and not sure how that will end up.

The lights and sensors I have hooked up with zigbee and zwave with the HUSBZB-1 so far have been way more responsive than I ever got in SmartThings, but that’s probably because of SmartThings terrible platform and cloud approach.

I don’t know much about Vera, will look into it.

They are also not cheap and I read about connectivity issues with them as well, and many day their zigbee support of terrible. Seems like no good solution.

I have all August gen 3 Plus, so the ones with the dongles, wifi, and zwave. I used the August component and now connect over Wifi and it’s working, for 3 separate locks. There are other threads with component issues, but it works for me.

I don’t like it not being local, will try again with zwave. I might have had my network key wrong before, but at least I have it working now someway.

Is there any way to get the doorsense binary sensor through z-wave, or is this sensor limited to the August Component? I’m running HA 0.83.2 on a rpi3 with an Aeotec ZW090 Z-Stick Gen5 and recently purchased an August Pro 3. The device added beautifully via z-wave, and it populated the following components below but unfortunately, I don’t see anything related to doorsense, nor do any of the August related sensors show a state or attribute change when I open my door.

lock.august_asl03_smart_lock_locked_2
sensor.august_asl03_smart_lock_access_control_2
sensor.august_asl03_smart_lock_alarm_level_2
sensor.august_asl03_smart_lock_alarm_type_2
sensor.august_asl03_smart_lock_sourcenodeid_2
zwave.august_asl03_smart_lock_2

So far the only things I’ve managed to get the lock to do over z-wave are lock, and unlock. it reports battery level, but it’s always 100% even when the batteries will no longer open the lock, and none of the “sensors” seem to actually mean anything. I think the only way to get anything further is using the bridge which I haven’t bothered to get. I have another sensor for door open anyway (old wired alarm) so for me the only thing that’s really missing is the battery level.

I also gave up on the August app for opening the door automatically as I approach, it was about 1 in 20 that it would actually do so, so instead I use Home Assistant for all locking/unlocking.

It’s a product with a lot of promise, but it doesn’t always deliver. That said, none of the big name companies seem to offer anything comparable (I don’t want a keypad, I don’t want a fingerprint reader, I don’t want an easily re-keyable keyway, and I don’t want it connecting to a remote server. Every one of those is a huge security hole I’d rather not have, I just want to be able to open my high security dead-bolt through automation.)

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im in the same boat as you, ve6rah, have a old wired alarm door sensor but installed the DoorSense sensor since i had it anyway. its much more responsive than my old wired alarm in terms of the closed signal (the wired alarm is a honeywell and has ~5 sec polling delays for closes). unfortunately it doesnt seem like there is a way for HA to gain access to the DoorSense sensor info at the moment through ZWave. I think there has been some movement towards getting the sensor active in HA via the august component, but although i havent tried, without the august connect, i have no reason to think that would work.

From the least-trusted name in home security…Kwikset actually makes a deadbolt retrofit kit that’s fairly similar to the August in terms of functionality. Attaches to the back of the door and gives you zwave. They’re about $100 and readily available. Supposedly they aren’t compatible with Medeco and other proper high security deadbolts but that’s nothing a little ingenuity and a 3D printer can’t fix.

https://www.kwikset.com/products/styles/kwikset-convert-conversion-kit.aspx

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my wife complains about the size of the august locks. The kwikset thing is huge!! LOL

@turboc it depends what they’re objecting to exactly. I find that although the case for the other smart locks is larger than the August lock, the thumb turn itself is more the size that people are used to, and as such they often seem to be more acceptable to people at first glance. They’re also not any different in size from the back of any keypad lock you’ll find.

@Dan_Bowkley It’s actually really good to know that they make a retrofit version like that though. I had considered whether it would be practical to take the back portion of one of their smart-locks, and marry it to a normal cylinder to avoid having the keypad on the front. It appears that kwikset has already done exactly that with this product. Even better, it appears that it works with other brands of cylinders, so you can choose whatever is already on the door, or a company you’re more comfortable with.

I do have to object a bit to the assertion that these are fairly similar to the August in terms of functionality though. August’s headline functionality is the bluetooth unlock on approach without any other user intervention. The Kwikset doesn’t appear to have that. That said, I have found that particular feature less than reliable, so it’s up to the individual as to whether that feature in it’s current state is important to them, or if they’re really just looking for a zwave lock.

@HandsFreeHome LOL. She objects to it being thicker than the normal lock. She says it looks like a wart on the door. LOL . She’s gotten over it. Since she no longer has to get out of bed to go make sure the doors are locked at night. It’s one of those things, that she doesn’t know she likes it till we try it. There are still some issues I have with it’s functionality but it’s things that I can just override in HA and HA lets me manage the lock the way I want.

I was thinking about doing this, but how do you make it secure? I was thinking about going down this path as well, but haven’t figured out the geofence/security

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I was thinking about doing this, but how do you make it secure? I was thinking about going down this path as well, but haven’t figured out the geofence/security

Depends what you want to do, however overall it’s exactly as secure as your home assistant instance. In my case that means that it’s password protected, SSL secured, and with a firewall in front of it. Not to mention it’s not advertised anywhere, and even if you found it and got in to it, there’s nothing on the interface to tell you where I live, or on the house to indicate what the URL is.

Sure it’s possible someone could hack it. But it’s far easier to kick in the door than go to that effort.

That’s a great point. Mine is pretty secure, I don’t have a firewall in front of it, but it’s definitely on the list. I just got fail2ban working which I think is a good first step.

What I’m trying to accomplish is when I come to my home to auto unlock the door. August app sucks so much.

My thoughts are to use location service, a boolean for home and away incase location messes up. How do you have your autounlock setup?

Thanks!

I don’t currently auto-unlock, however if I did it would likely be based on Bluetooth or WiFi scanning coupled with not having been home for a while. (Downside is that it can take up to about 15 seconds for either of those to see me as I approach)

What I do right now is just use it to get from my detached garage to my house. There’s a button in my garage that both closes the garage door, and unlocks the house door, and another button in the house that both locks the door behind me, and opens the garage door. When I leave the house it’s almost exclusively to the garage (either for my car or my bike), as my car has keyless entry and start, my keys never leave my pocket for either the car, or the house.