I’m wondering is there any ready made fingerprint scanner that connect to a MQTT broker in the market? I’m thinking of integrating this into HA to unlock a non-fingerprint Z-wave door lock.
If none in the market, I don’t mind a DIY solution as well.
Has anyone done this before?
Thanks in advance.
Hi @masterkenobi,
From scratch I have built and deployed two fingerprint scanners that talk MQTT. It was a pretty complex process and very custom. That said it was extremely rewarding to do it and they have been working reliably for 12mths and 6mths each. I have recently added them to Home Assistant and thats all working fine. They both detect a person approaching and turn on a footlight, then start the fingerprint reader.
My advice is unless you really want to get in deep, then buy off the self something that integrates with Home Assistant. One of the capabilities I’d like to add but haven’t is to include within the device a way of adding/deleting fingerprints from time to time. Currently I have to plug a PC into it to do that and its messy.
Good luck.
Glad to hear someone has successfully made it. I try to avoid going down the DIY road. But can’t seem to find any off the shelf device. May I know which parts are you using? I’m thinking of using either nodemcu or raspberry pi with usb scanner.
Maybe you’ve already checked this but just in case… The video is very clear and they provide training and recognition example codes.
It’s a DIY solution using an arduino and a library developed by Adafruit, although it seems that the product is out of stock right now.
On ebay this part is just 10usd :D, how much markup Adafruit puts on is amazing - http://www.ebay.com/itm/FPM10A-Optical-Fingerprint-reader-Sensor-Module-All-in-one-For-Arduino-Locks-/112070491878?hash=item1a17ebfee6:g:mOMAAOSwN2VZPzxa
The adafruit part is the part I use. They do mark up considerably but I get so much good quality info by way of tutorials, libraries, drivers, howto’s etc, on loads of different modules/topics on their site, I’m happy to spend with them.
Maybe I’m concerned about security too much, but in my personal opinion I would never have a fingerprint alone be able to unlock a door. Biometrics can be replicated quite easy, so a second layer of security (like a PIN) is a must. If you just want to lock out the kids from the… candy, fingerprint alone would be ok. But the front door to a house? Nah.
On a keypad they can narrow it down by the wear pattern, tho’ still many combos to try. RFID cards could also be used and that the receptor for it would be concealed inside the wall, and maybe a fake keypad, that could be an option, to add illusion to the mix :)…I’m not sure about smart locks old-fashioned lock probably still wins 
You could mitigate the wear pattern on a keypad by having a dynamic pin: OTP Sensor. Although of course there should be some fallback in case your smartphones battery is empty. 
Can you explain the “mode of operation” since I don’t get this, its a bit too technical maybe :). So the phone would generate the one time passwords and send to the main HASS server? So I’d be able to read the new password on the phone?
I haven’t thought of a specific implementation yet. But what you would do in general:
Point 1 and 2 are generic, 3 to 5 are very individual and depend on what’s available in the setup. The input interface could be a keypad which publishes the entered PIN to a MQTT topic, and then an automation would simply wait for changes on that topic and compare the value to the one of the OTP sensor.
How to steal fingerprint? Like in those spy movies? Copy it from a glass?
The goal here is keyless entry. Rfid is not an option.
I’m trying to avoid using phone to unlock the door.
Either this, or much simpler: the door handle of your car. Sitting directly in front of your house. At least my car is full of my fingerprints.
And yes, the OTP topic wasn’t directly related to your usecase. Could be a regular pin as well which you could just memorize.
Anyways, the gist of what I’m trying to say: biometrics can be used for identification, not authentication. The fingerprint should just verify that it’s you who is opening the door. The possesion of a somewhat secret key is what should authenticate you to be the rightful owner and grant access.
Simple example: some kids have figured out that they could just tap the fingers of their sleeping parents on their smartphones to unlock them. That wouldn’t work with password protection.
So if you want keyless entry, I would either go with a PIN based method, or that in combination with the fingerprint. The second would be what we nowadays call multi-factor authentication.
Thanks for your input. What do you think is more troublesome for a burglar; picking a dumb lock or copying fingerprint?
Actually, I don’t mind as long it is more secure than a dumb lock.
Hi Master
I have purchased and ZKTeco F7 fingerprint and this has a windows SDK. I the near future I will install it and try to make a MQTT gateway for this.
Mario
That’s great news. However I prefer if it has SDK for Linux so that I can use Raspberry Pi for that. Anyway, please keep us updated. thanks.
Hi @SledgeHammer,
I plan to buy the same device. Had you the chance to make a functional gateway to MQTT / HA ?