Smart Home Blog

Cool solution to show the status of door lock is given by Martin Howell. He uses a standard micro switch, mounted on to an aluminium plate which is screwed to the inside of the opening in the door frame where the lock tongue goes in, two LED lights and CAT5 wiring for each switch. The wires come from the ‘engine room’ where server and all network stuff are located and carrier power from a central 12v power supply to the LEDs. Using CAT5 he receives the status of each lock to the central place. It’s passed to the HomeSeer server via Ocelot. As result the status of the door lock can be viewed from touchscreen panel or system will say about it via SONOS players using text-to-speech software.

Simple and cheap solution but it’ll help you to make your house more secure. Sure such approach can be used for new house with more then one door (my friend has three plus garage). There is a possibility to install door/window sensors but they can indicate open the door or window or not. The status of the lock is unknown in that case. You can use “smart” locks such Schlage LiNK but it’s too expensive than the Martin’s solution.

Remote for cars locks is already standard de-facto. It’s handy, compact and more or less secure. With the Locca Access keyless entry system you can open the same manner door in your house or flat.
The system includes two remote controls and an easily installed receiver that stores up to 19 secret codes, and there’s a backup battery inside that will keep the system working for 48 hours if there’s a power outage. The remote can trigger the door opener from a distance up to 50 meters. You can buy Locca Access for £39.99.

[via Sci Fi Tech]

I found this geek Swing Door Opener on Smarthome.com. It allows to remotely open and close doors. It’s cool if have parties often or you have a pet and don’t have a special exit for it.

The door can still be opened or closed manually during power failure which is very helpful. Also, there is a built-in obstacle detection system. This means that if an obstacle is detected in the path of an opening or closing door, the door opener will stop to avoid serious injury. Other useful feature is a timer. You can set it to close the door after specified delay.

The price of this wonder of engineering is US$324.99. You should decide by yourseld is it expensive or
not.