Have you received an estimate for installing a traditional card-key system? I recall one place I stayed at where, after using the card to unlock the door, you had to slip it into a wall-mounted reader (and leave it there) in order to energize the room’s lighting and AC. Of course, powering this solution does require new wiring (but so do some of the other solutions proposed).
If the goal is to avoid new wiring altogether then a purely battery-driven solution, using residential-grade ‘smart’ locks, seems to be a viable option (if one can use the word ‘viable’ for a consumption rate of a minimum of 400 batteries/year). My concern would be the design of a very reliable z-wave network able to handle 100 devices spread out over the length of a motel.
I think giving codes to guests might not be great. Guests will forget them. Instead, consider an RFID reader (and optionally, bluetooth phone app) for door unlocks. You pair the card to the door on check in, and remove the card from the door on checkout. The cards are cheap too, which is good as you should expect some loss here.
(they are quite clumsy and “ugly”, but, cheap and reliable)
using a wiegand card reader:
all connected to an arduino using wifi and sending MQTT message to the central unit.
On the arduino you can also hook presence detection system, a relay to turn on/off stuff,… One 12V power supply for all automations in the room (presence detection, dock, on/off ac…). All on wifi.
Quite a bit of DIY, but with this you are on the cheap side. Arduino are super reliable piece of kit.
You can also use RFID cards in addition to PIN codes to get in the rooms (eg. cleaning)!
I have been using this kind of solution on two outside doors in my house for 2 years. No glitch.
Hi @greengolfer do you mind sharing all your setup which you have described? i.e. the arduino codes etc? It looks interesting and I would want to set up something similar.
At the moment, it is still connected to my old home automation system. So, the code is not really applicable to HA. I am using “home made” messages and not MQTT. But, that is on my to do list. The concept remains the same though. I will share when completed but not yet. Sorry!
For something like this, Z-Wave is likely a poor choice. It has a limit of 232 devices, and 4 hops from the controller. Making that work will depend on the layout of the building (and the material it’s built from).
Zigbee (particularly Zigbee 3.0) has significantly higher limits (some 65K devices, no documented limit in hops, but there will be a performance hit as the hops increase). Zigbee would also potentially allow you to use multiple meshes.
The challenge with any solution requiring a power-supply is the need for an existing electrical outlet (given that there’s a desire to avoid the addition of new wiring). The outlet needs to be very close to the door and, at least in the hotels/motels I’ve stayed in, there’s rarely an outlet right next to the door (because it’s not a particularly useful location). If there is one, great; then comes the challenge of securing the power-supply to prevent disconnection (accidental or otherwise).
Why would the solution I describe require the outlet close to the door? I am running 12V using 2 wires of an ethernet cable over 10m… I need extra 2 wires to open the lock. So, yes, this solution is wired. But over 100 rooms, having 2 or 3 equipements with batteries in each room wouldn’t be my personal choice.
GV
As @sparkydave as mentioned, the use of a strike plate door lock would be recommended. I have purchased one very similar to this from Aliexpress to install in my front door with a Sonoff SV as the controller to lock/unlock.
It requires power to unlock, so in the event of a blackout, the door remains locked allowing you to still use a key and operate the lock as normal. They are 12v meaning wiring is easy, and the Sonoff SV is WiFi enabled, this is the perfect use case for something like you want to do.
I can also highly recommend Ubiquiti gear, I use an AP AC Lite in my house and I think I have in excess of 40 items connected to it. For $125, they are great value for money and 1 AP would serve WiFi to 5-10 Rooms, depending on wall construction and distance. You may be better off with a Pro though in that sort of environment.
I would suggest mid to high end NUC to run HA and the Unifi software in your situation, an i5 or i7 NUC would be well suited.
Further to the door strike that @kanga_who linked to, you can ‘monitored’ strikes which have a microswitch inside the part where the door tongue goes so it can report if the door is open or closed. This is handy for access control and saves you needing to put a reed switch on the door.
An i7 NUC would also have enough power to run a bunch of CCTV cameras in passageways and the carpark etc. (MotionEye add-on for the win)
Because HarvieQ specified that the solution should not require extensive (re)wiring. Therefore any proposed solution relying on a low-voltage supply (like 12V) will have to source it within each room with little or no exposed wiring. That’s why I said it would be preferable to use an outlet close to the door (for a power-supply to drive a card reader and, potentially, an electric door-strike).
Even if it’s a suspended ceiling, it involves electrical work (adding a hard-wired 12V power-supply) and fishing low-voltage wires through the wall to the card-reader and door-strike.
That’s 100 card-readers and door-strikes and enough 12V supplies to power them all. That’s a lot of wiring (and labor) and contrary to HarvieQ’s preference.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good, reliable solution, just not within the constraints of the stated requirements.
Hey Everyone,
Thanks heaps for your responses, this website rocks!!
The most important issue here is cost to install and reliability.
The building is made of cement block on concrete floors so retrofitting wires will be expensive, thus a wireless system with minimal installation would be preferred.
An intoxicated backpacker can lose their keys as easy as forgetting their code but at least a code can be given over a phone or the door unlocked remotely.
The benefit of using smart locks and smart power switches is that they units can be operated (openned or switched ) from anywhere using an app or web site. My understanding is the smart locks can usually be installed using the existing drill points on a door and the power controller installed behind the air-cons powerpoint.
Well, HavieQ did say ‘everything’ had to be wireless… so that would exclude any sort of 12v wiring to a lock mechanism…
Having said that, it wouldn’t take much to wire in a Clipsal 413 above each door and plug in a 12Vdc power supply. This is something I do a lot of. (disregard the list price on that website because they are only about AU$2.50)
What is the building config? Is it single level? Access to ceiling space? Service ducts etc around the place?
Definitely, however your options here that are AUS certified are a little limited. You can get z-wave ones which I use at home however as Tinkerer mentioned, you would have device and hop limits to think about
You probably should’ve directed that reply to greengolfer who had presented the idea of using a card-reader. I had simply commented on it and wasn’t a proponent.
I agree a wireless solution involves less invasive work (and labor) than a wireless one. However, whatever the wireless technology used by the locks, it will involve some careful planning to ensure it operates reliability. As already stated, the building’s configuration (square, multi-level, narrow, wide, long, etc) will influence the network’s design.
