Hi!
I tried to describe the case but I ended up writing an essay which nobody would read so in my second attempt I’ll try to make it more “clear” (-ish). But first … thank you in advance for any feedback.
Prolog:
- I have house. Well … sort of. It is a construction yard but it has a roof. In some months it will be a new home for my family. The big things are more or less defined so now my brain is full of the “small but smart” stuff. And this topic is about opening the front doors w/o keys.
The Desire:
- Have a nice-looking NFC reader next to my door bell (most likely Unifi Doorbell)
- Get myself a box of these or maybe something more nice/custom like this
- Give the NFC tags to my better half, my kids, parents, neighbor,
mistress, … - Use them to open the front (and maybe back) door
The door:
- I have security door with certified mechanical and electric lock (not a smart lock!). I can unlock/open the door by sending electric pulse to the lock. I will be using Shelly relay to do that meaning I can open the door from HA by simply triggering the relay.
- I don’t want to change the lock to “smart” stuff (no way)
- The door, the lock, the keys will stay as they are. I just need a way to trip the HA event to unlock.
The NFC reader:
- I know people are using (hidden) tags and then swiping their phones/wearable to trigger . This is not a solution for me. I have teenage kids and they don’t have smart phones (yet). Also phone battery can simply die while out, etc…
- Reader must be “outdoor”. Some sort of IP rating is expected. I am not expecting direct rain or something but it should handle moisture and morning hoarfrost (if any).
- It can’t be DYI. Yes it would be cheap but it would be ugly and most likely unsafe (i am not good at this). I want something which already exists and i can just plug’n’play. I am willing to pay extra for the easy setup.
- PoE is preferred (but not mandatory)
- Must be WIRED (no Wifi for security elements). So either PoE/LAN or … well another way.
- It must NOT need any gateway or whatever 3rd party “box”. Boy I like the look of UA Ultra and/or UA G2 Black but if i understand things correctly it requires the UA Access Door Hub. I don’t want to have yet-another-(pointless) blackbox somewhere especially when i am not going to user their lock or CloudGW. More over there was some recent drama about the Unifi protect HA integration. I want to be free to change the reader by something else (like fingerprint, retina scan, blood reader or whatever the future bring us…).
The “Why?”
- Because i have kids … and it is easier and cheaper to revoke the NFC tag ID if one gets lost and get another one from the box rather than replacing whole cylindrical lock with new set of keys.
- I can enable/disable certain TAGs when needed so my mother in law will stay outside as she did not announce her arrival in advance (I don’t care it is -10 degree, she could simply call a day before). Or i can grant permission remotely to my neighbors If i get stuck outside of the city and i want to avoid nuclear event in my house (i have cats, they need food, if they don’t get it, well … let say it is better to feed them on time).
- And bunch other reasons …
I tried to find some existing solution but either it is DYI (yea, i get it, but i don’t want dangling wires) or it is very ugly (cheap rectangular plastic things with no mounting brackets and/or visible cables) or it does NOT work with HA (proprietary things or unsupported HW) or it is the other way around solution (hidden tag + swipe with your phone).
So, is there UniFi-like reader without the gateway thingy?
And yes, it is a story-like size post again … sorry, i can’t explain things in two sentences. Oh and pardon the grammar mistakes, english is not my native language.
Thanks !