I am completely new to home assistant or any home automation at all. I am not at all techy and did not understand how far out of my depths I might be with this set up. I simply want to connect the schlage connect to the home assistant so I can control the lock via HA and remotely when I’ve away from home. I have the zooz zwave thing plugged in, have tried many times to pair them properly but seem to fall short.
I have re-interviewed and it says ‘interview complete’ with several green check marks next to words that I don’t remember. But the entities still just say ‘node status’ and ‘ping’. My understanding is that means something went wrong with the pairing, and when I try to get into ‘automations’ there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do.
I don’t know what to do next.
My lock is about 15 feet from HA with zwave, I kept the lock active while pairing, and it is listed in the Z wave list of devices.
I just want to program some lock codes and a couple things like locking automatically behind certain family members etc. I am not really planning on automating a bunch of stuff in my house. I am wondering if I need to return this whole set up - you all seem to know a whole language that I do not and it seems people spend alot of time figuring this out and tinkering with it? I got it for the privacy aspect when I found the need for a remote controlled lock, but didn’t anticipate the language learning/system learning/frustration part. Any help with setting it up or telling me this doesn’t sound up my alley would be so appreciated! (I read the posts I could find about this general topic but wasn’t able to gain much).
The lock really sucks when trying to connect. When you put it into “pairing mode” (or whatever the terminology is), the lock goes into “whisper mode” … that is, the lock highly attenuates the signal so that the lock has to be within 50mm of the z-wave dongle (I’m not sure of the distance, less than 100mm worked for me). Normally, the Z-Wave dongle and lock is 10m and through 2-3 walls. I had to take the [insert stream of swear words here] lock off the door and put it near the dongle to get it to pair. There are at least 4, probably infinite, number of “pairing” modes. I forget which magic combination worked for me.
I curse you for reminding me of the nightmare through which I went. Perhaps you will only have bad dreams.
Hi Nina, welcome to the HA forums. I highly suggest learning to use the search function, many questions/issues like this have already been asked and solved.
I appreciate the reply! I had actually seen that thread when I searched before posting, but sadly even that conversation didn’t quite get me over the hump as it included some instructions to do several other things that I did not quite find the path to doing yet. I keep looking for the most basic beginner instructions and haven’t found that yet. Might be trial and error for me! Thanks again for the reply.
On my post for suggested solution I list 4 steps. Which of those could you not figure out?
You have to provide more specific feedback in order for the community to help you.
Thank you so much for tryiing to help me and validating the frustration of setting this up! I think this system is more involved than I am willing to deal with for my simple needs and i am officially throwing in the towel. Thanks again!
Thanks for following up and trying to get details to help me. I think I’m going to go with something simpler for my needs and leave this to the experts here to continue building..I am not as patient or persistent as this requires
Don’t abandon your lock - You can just leave the lock installed in the door and use it with fingerprints, and not use HomeAssistant at all. Come back to it later.
You could give your lock seller the opportunity to give you clues before you get a refund, such as pair and program the device right next to your hub before installing it in the door.
Other locks of similar caliber will possibly have the same requirements for integration and automation.
Break down your task into smaller steps. Read, and re-read the instructions till you understand them and know what to press and what to enter on the respective screens. Most of it will be automated, but it helps if you can mentally tick off each step as you see it happen.
Set up your HomeAssistant server.
Install Z-Wave so it can talk to ZigBee devices.
Make sure it can then see your ZigBee hub.
Check your Schlage lock app is installed correctly. Details here.
Unpack your lock. Check no missing screws and bits.
Place the lock close to your ZigBee hub. You want the best and clearest signal as it pairs up to your system, exchanging secret security codes.
Install batteries. Devices may flash to indicate they are in paring mode. Often these pairing time windows are short, so be prepared to work fast if you need to press any buttons, etc.
Once pairing is complete, check the lock shows up in HomeAssistant.
Verify you can lock and unlock the lock from HomeAssistant. You should hear a solid clunk and the bolt should retract as it unlocks.
Install lock in door.
Enter fingerprints, etc so you can enter without using HomeAssistant. If you have done this earlier, no need to do it again.
Check that you can still unlock using HomeAssistant, in the lock’s final position, away from the hub. If it does, pat yourself on the back - you’ve done it!
Go back and have a play in HomeAssistant to get familiar with it. You may find the hours disappear as you futz around…
Did you install the HomeAssistant Companion on your phone and can you unlock from there too? Try it.
Go read a little more - there is a whole new world of smarts and automation out there, ready for you to explore. Automate your fridge, shopping list, car, calendar, etc.
Sorry but your guide is all messed up and will probably just add more confusion. For example, you’re mixing z-wave and zigbee and also asking him to make sure he has installed an app that is totally uncompatible with the BE469… The app you’ve linked is for the wifi locks only.
I had a BE469 before, now I have the BE469P z-wave plus variant.
Both variants are a pain to pair but I always got success by doing the exclusion process just before attempting an inclusion. I don’t know why but these locks just like a fresh exclusion before, even if new and never joined another network before.
Since op’s lock is already paired but missing all the entities, I would try a re-interview first, making sure to wake the lock just before launching the interview.
The exclusion before starting is usually the step most people miss with the Schlages assuming it’s new why do I need to.
I think they test them in factory or have a high return rate so almost all I’ve ever tried to connect have been included prior and needed exclusion first.
That would make sens, I remember both my BE469 and BE469ZP wouldn’t complete the inclusion process before being excluded first.
And yes having the lock really close to the dongle during inclusion helps a lot like said by @OldSurferDude. The temporary key exchanged during the inclusion handshake is unencrypted so the locks enters whisper mode (low transmit power) to reduce the risks of the key being intercepted during the inclusion. It’s designed this way in the z-wave protocol specifications, for all z-wave locks, so its not a a Schlage issue, its the expected behavior for all z-wave locks to reduces their transmit power during inclusion. After its included in the network, the lock will use its regular transmit power so it can work normally from its final installation location (provided its still in range of the z-wave dongle or in range of another beaming z-wave device in the mesh).
Also worth mentionning that the BE469 must be included using S0 but the 469ZP uses S2.
If the inlcusion was done using the wrong security level (i.e: no-security instead of S0 for the 469 or S2-unauthenticated instead of S2-authenticated for the 469ZP) or if the key exchange failed during inclusion because of the low transmit power, Z-wave JS will knows that the node exist but won’t be able to decrypt any command class response from this node (so it won’t build any entites except “Ping” and “node status”).
My advice to @phillyninab, don’t give up, its a really reliable lock once included correctly. Take your lock close to your z-wave dongle, do the exclusion. Then redo the inclusion making sure to chose the correct security level for your variant.
Once its re-installed at its final location, I would also do a “network heal” (now called “rebuild routes”) just to force it to re-learn the best route to use now that its installed at its real location in the house.
This announcement is unrelated to Op’s issue. There is nothing for him to “review carefully” in this announcement that could help resolve his inclusion problem. It’s just saying you can now manage user codes directly from z-wave js, which is good news for everyone using z-wave locks but not of any help for someone having issues including the lock in a z-wave network…so pretty much off topic here.
