I’m currently have an Conexis L1 with the Z-Wave module, but have received an email from Yale to say the Conexis L1 app is being migrated over to the Yale Home app. They are providing a “free” Accces Module to move over to the new app.
I would like to know if I can continue to use the Z-Wave module once transitioned to Yale Home ? The FAQ from Yale states that I can, but the key fob/card leaning process is onerous.
I’m wondering if:
Can I swap in the access module to migrate to the new app and then swap back in the Z-Wave module and continue using the lock in the same way i do now.
AND
If I need to learn a new keyfob/card, can I simply swap in the access module to go through the process and then swap back in the Z-Wave module.
I’m also trying to understand this. The link to the FAQ is a good set of questions but I can’t see any answers.
I have purchased the new access module for £4.99 with the expectation I could use this in addition to the z-wave module. This is not possible. Also, the new access module needs a hub to work and I am not planning on spending another £35 on yet another hub.
My plan is to keep using the z-wave module unless some knows how to hack the new access module. This should work as before.
I had to do a full reset on the lock recently (December 2023) and the old app had stopped working in the sense it would not allow me to add new key fobs. I reported this issue to Yale support and was told to wait for the new app. Little did I know it would be a complete replacement.
That said, during reset you can pair as many fobs as you like without the app. Not as useful as adding a fob at a later date as a full reset loses all previously paired fobs.
If it is possible to add a new fob any other way all would be good. If anyone knows how to do this without the old app (that no longer works) would be great.
I currently have the L1 with the zwave module, which works great for me with Home Assistant. The members of my household all have access to HA so that is the method we use to unlock the door.
The problem comes with guests who need access to my house but who don’t have HA access. Until now they have used the old Yale app, which will no longer work.
I purchased the access module and the hub, which arrived yesterday. Other than it being the most backward install process ever (you can’t setup the hub until the lock is setup) I had it running quite quickly.
However, adding it to Home Assistant isn’t easy from what I can tell. It looks like I’d need to root my android phone to hack a private key out of the file system. This isn’t something I’m very keen to do so I’ve reverted back the zwave module. It also states in the integration that the L1 doesn’t report it’s state, although I’ve seen conflicting information that says you can poll for it’s state. I use the state in a couple of integrations this is another negative for me but I might be able to work around it.
At the moment I am stuck trying to figure out how to give people access to unlock my door without giving them access to Home Assistant. Sadly, guest access isn’t something HA is very good at today.
(update) I tried again this morning, and I have the lock setup with the new update module/hub and it integrated straight into HA without any problem. No need for android rooting, so I guess I just had bad luck yesterday and thought to over complicate things. At the moment the lock is responding as well as it did with zwave, and it is reporting its state too. I’m not so concerned about cloud, so I’m going to go with this solution for a while and see how stable it is. I’ve always got the zwave module to fall back on if it doesn’t work out, or if Yale decide to pull the cloud service.
Providing you are only using fobs or HA through z-wave to open and close your lock, then you should be fine.
Any virtual keys in the L1 app you have will stop working and to learn new fobs, it looks like you have to go through the lock reset procedure each time.
I’ve been running the WiFi module for a couple of weeks now. Here’s what I have learned:
Reporting the state of the lock back to HA (and the Yale app itself) is hit & miss. Often it’ll say the lock is locked when it is not, or it’ll say it isn’t locked when it is. This is awful - if I have left home I need to know for sure if the door was locked or not.
I tried to overcome 1. by using the “Wake” feature that is in the Home Assistant August integration. It’s hit & miss too. I’ve got an independant contact sensor on the door so I’ve set an automation to “Wake” the lock 45 seconds after the door has been closed. Sure enough, if I close and lock the door many times it’ll not update until the “Wake” automation kicks in. Most of the time, sometimes it doesn’t update. This only works if you close the door and then immediatly lock it. It doesn’t account for unlocking the door but not opening it, or locking the door when it is has already been closed for some time. For this I ping “Wake” once an hour. It’s probably going to drain the battery quicker and, as I said, it doesn’t always update the state anyway.
I’ve had to re-calibrate the lock/doorsense a couple of times already. The DoorSense state for the door went stale.
I had to use disposable batteries instead of re-chargables. I realise the user guide says not to use re-chargables, but I’ve been using them forever and accepted that the battery % would be misreported and had zero problems. The new app sends notifications about the battery being low and I can’t see how to disable it. It even sends the notification to my guests who have app access. I had to switch to disposble batteries to lose the alert and stop my relatives messaging me to say my lock is reporting to them the battery is flat.
Once I’ve had to fall back on the Yale app to open the front door because HASS refused to - this never happened with the Z-Wave module.
The “hub” occasionally reports that it is back online. I’m going to figure out how to track this better and see if it correlates with the lock not reporting its state.
The fobs programmed with the old app still work with the lock without having to re-programme them.
Overall, it’s been a much worse experience that with the Z-Wave. I’m tempted to instruct my guests to use fobs and not the app, use the Z-Wave module for my household and Home Assistant, but retaint he WiFi module if I ever need to programme new fobs.
Just installed my new module. Upon pairing, it asked to update the firmware. Anyone tried this? Does it have any impact on z-wave and HA? Or maybe it solves any of the issues?
Also, I guess this new module is WiFi. I don’t have a hub and will never buy it. So I guess the module is worthless?
Also, the new app communicates with the lock via built-in bluetooth (inside the lock itself). Will I be able to pair new fobs/cards using the app, without WiFi/hub?
I have had much the same experience as reported above and have reverted to the z-wave module.
Has anyone tried working out what the module pins do? I was thinking it might be time to build a small esp32 module to manage the lock.