I was having a tough time figuring out how I could set up sensors to detect whether or not the “dumb” deadbolt in my door was engaged. I did not want to get a smart lock. I found a handful of guides out there, but didn’t much like the idea of having to run wires.
I ended up using an Ion Digital Wireless Plunger
http://ionsecurityproducts.com/plunger.html
This piece of hardware uses 2gig. I couldn’t find anything similar with zwave. However, I was already interested in integrating with my alarm sensors, which also use 2gig.
So I followed this guide:
The ion sensor is fairly bulky. Definitely deeper than needed for placing within the deadbolt recessed area. I just used pliers to pull it apart, which made it dramatically smaller (maybe 1/3") . Thin I drilled a small hole for the antenna and a larger one for the sensor. I just took a magnet and stuck it on the deadbolt.
Just thought I’d post this as it ended up being a bit cleaner to me than some of the ideas I’ve seen out there. It was, of course, inspired by all of those.
