Home Automation

TL:DR

Set up an app to lock a door at your house, and to change codes on the lock from a web page or phone.

Background

I am getting started with home automation.

For now, my want was 'simple'.  I want to have a way to change the codes on the door locks on the inside of my house using a web page, and/or a mobile device.  The interface has to be extremely simple.

So I did research.  I am a techie guy, and a handy guy, so I figured that there had to be a solution out there, and I expected it to be 'wifi' enabled locks.

I was (kind of) wrong.  The articles I read explained how wifi is too power greedy to be used in something like door locks that use battery technology.  In other words, the wifi locks exist, but you will be replacing batteries way too frequently for my taste.

Ok, drat.

So I know people are making their homes 'smart', how are they doing it?

So I found some things called 'zwave' and zigbee' that are low-power alternatives to wifi for things like door locks.

Sweet.

So I read up on how to set up this stuff.  Apparently you need a 'smart hub' that you use for linking your low powered devices to things like 'zwave' and 'zigbee' capable devices.  

There are commercial options for these, but did I mention I am a techie guy?  I wanted to do a little of it myself.

Well, so far a 'little' might be misleading, but I am going to walk through everything I am doing to get to the end result.  

Which is: I have a very simple app on my phone, or inside a web browser to lock/unlock a door in my house and to change to lock codes on the door.

Stay with me for a bit and I will walk you through the hardware, and setting up software to make this happen.


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