Got my Lock Installed this Weekend! Bit more work than I intended.
Spent the last couple weeks upgrading my dongle and converting Vera to Master with my old Master now as secondary. Also had a couple red cogs that a device reset and network heal addressed.
Got the Schlage Friday, The Box seal was open, looks like someone was curious at the distributor and opened my box, everything looked fine though until I tried to pair. No luck, but a factory reset solved that.
After Pairing I went to replace my current deadbolt in the back basement door, Very easy less than 20 minutes. Then I discovered the Lock can not communicate through the Mesh and needs direct contact to the dongle on the router, doh. My network closet (where Vera is) is either too far (one floor up, 10 ft back) or there is too much EMI on the closet with all my gear.
Not good, so I got a 15 ft USB extender and dropped my Dongle to the basement through my closet wall and mounted it between my front door and back basement door under one of the joists. Just in case I plan to add a zwave lock to the front door.
It seems it to work ok, just had a few observations and questions
Scene Activation is slower than I like, takes 5 to 10 seconds after the Schalge disengages the pin which is 5 to 10 seconds as well. So I am halfway through dark the basement before the light turns on. I did a network heal since I moved my dongle to double check, but no luck. Anyone have any suggestions to speed this up. I really didn’t want to get a door or motion sensor
It looks like there are two ways to create a door event, “An User unlocks the door” and “A door is opened or closed” Any reason why there are two ways to handle this event? IS one faster than the other. And from other posts I see that you can make the event in global or local scenes with global scenes allowing more flexibility in specific user triggered events. Any speed differences here?
I was thinking if it were possible to trigger a scene the moment a good code was entered rather than waiting for Vera to poll the lock/unlock state after the bolt has been thrown, before it triggers a scene.
Can anyone confirm that more than one zwave lock can be on the network. I assume so but I’ve been mistaken many times before. I would like to put one on the front door, but I’m hoping the Black and Decker automated bolt lock will coem out soon and that Vera will support it.
Note that it mentions two Z-Wave modules that CAN enable the mesh to communicate with Schlage LiNK locks. I suspect more will be released.
To answer your question about multiple locks: Schlage has a Facebook group in which such questions get asked and answered. I noticed their official response is that up to 200 locks can be accommodated within a single ‘Schlage Online’ account … that each home can have multiple locks (no upper limit stated) … and that each home requires at least one Schlage Bridge (something Vera users don’t need).
So, “Yes” to Question #2.
(It bears noting that the discussion there goes on to claim that the Bridge-to-Lock distance can be up to 200 feet, which sounds a bit exaggerated!)
Meanwhile, any luck getting better response time on your “door unlocked” macros/scenes mentioned in Question #1?
I’ve been using the Schlage lock for several months now and it works great with Vera. As for multiple locks, I assumed the Schlage solution would support multiple locks with the Schlage Bridge, but I was wondering if multiple locks could be supported by Vera without the Schlage Bridge.
Right now I’m participating in a Beta test that has my entire Z-wave network dismantled using an old Vera firmware version. I’m also testing a Schlage Bridge which I am not a fan of. I can;t wait to restore my network and load up the latest firmware.
Response time is still an issue. Most times unlocking the door turns on the lights in a bearable amount of time, but sometimes it takes forever. I suspect because the Vera can only process one command at a time and the door being unlocked may get stuck in a queue.
I was also hoping to create single device event and chain them to trigger as from other scenes that get triggered so I can control the order of lights when I unlocked the door, but that does not work at all. The door does not notify me if a wrong code was put in either. But a newer v16 firmware has come out since mt beta, so I’ll try that and hope it fixes my problems.
I’m also going to try to associate the lock with other devices. to see if ifs possible to directly control lights when I unlock the door. The last option would be to install a motion sensor.
i have more than one lock (no schlage bridge), and have no issues. i haven’t been able to do a great deal of testing yet, in so far as setting events to trigger. i did briefly try asking to be sent notifications whenever anyone enters, but haven’t been able to get that working yet.
i am also beta testing so was wondering if some of my troubles were related to that as well, so thus far haven’t worried about too much outside the beta responsibilities.
Question regarding the Schlage Lock pairing & lock installation - I understand the requirements to pair the Schlage Lock to Vera, needing to have the lock close to Vera with the dongle plugged in, etc. What I was curious about was if the lock loses its pairing with Vera if the front part of the lock (keypad) is disconnected from the back part (interior), but the batteries are left in. I’m asking because I have the opportunity to pair my lock with Vera before actually installing it on my gate, but as you know, the front part of the lock connects to the back with a small plug, and the batteries are in the back part. If that plug is disconnected, is the pairing with Vera lost? Or is whatever the lock does to pair with Vera persistent? Also useful to know when it comes time to replace the batteries in the lock.
Thanks in advance for the info - this could save me having to figure out how to bring Vera outside the house and across my back patio to get it close enough to the lock.
Figured it was time for me to chime in about my latest acquisition, the Schlage BE369GR kit (lock, lamp module, bridge), which I snapped up on eBay for well under list price. (There’s plenty more!)
I’ll be re-selling the bridge, in case anyone has need for this part.
Meanwhile, the lock installed quite gracefully and with minimal hassle, and everyone in the house loves its operation! Vera gets along famously with the new lock, too, and because she’s located just across the same room, I didn’t have to use “Method #1” (referenced above). Setup was cake.
I also just deployed the lamp module (#RP200) and am happy with its operation, especially how - being a Z-Wave device - it’s able to revert to its prior state two minutes after a scene has been activated (by someone unlocking the door). In the old days, X10 modules were either ‘On’ or ‘Off’ and the system had no way of knowing the status.
The RP200’s “dim ramp rate” is very appealing, I find. I’m liking Z-Wave in general so far - though it’s only been a few days - and don’t mind doing the ‘Dongle Dance’ with each addition.
(NOTE: Had to do a dongle-based ‘Reset’ of the lamp module, before it would pair with Vera. No sweat. Perhaps it came pre-paired with the bridge?)
I’m having some trouble with Vera losing track of the status of the lock. When I remotely unlocked the lock with mobile phone, it worked. When I tried to re-lock it, it did not, and after several attempts, I just locked it myself with the button on the back. However, now Vera shows the state of the lock as “Unlocked” even though it’s locked. I’m beginning to have serious concerns about reliability.
I noticed in an earlier post that you said you had an opportunity to pair the lock with the Vera close to the dongle, but is the lock and dongle within range in their final resting locations? The Lock needs to be in range to keep status. I was having intermittent difficulties like you when it was out of range, it was not until I moved it in range that it became reliable. Also, make sure it does not give you a red cog. I bet once it is in range it will provide correct status.
If it somehow does not, then the lock state in Vera may not be in sync with the lock state in the the lock, the wiki has a section on how to sync them. But I would make sure you get a green cog all the time first.
It also sounds like you have the lever lock, I have the Dead Bolt, I would think they are similar in operation. btw, I’ve been waiting for a stable release dongle firmware, so my z-wave network is completely dismantled, but the lock still retains its codes. Obvious, but still nice.
[quote=“slackner, post:9, topic:164488”]I’m having some trouble with Vera losing track of the status of the lock. When I remotely unlocked the lock with mobile phone, it worked. When I tried to re-lock it, it did not, and after several attempts, I just locked it myself with the button on the back. However, now Vera shows the state of the lock as “Unlocked” even though it’s locked. I’m beginning to have serious concerns about reliability.
So now I’m just stuck & frustrated. After logging into Findvera this afternoon, my lock was once again out of synch, showing “Unlocked” in Vera when it was actually locked. However, now, when I attempt to change the status in Findvera, I get a red “Off” icon, which I don’t quite understand. I did read the help on the status icons, and obviously red indicates an error, but I don’t really know what an “off” error means. When I poll, I get a red icon as well, which I’m assuming means it couldn’t poll the lock.
Any ideas? Or am I just experiencing the effects of firmware issues?
Hi Slackner, You didn’t answer the question asked about the range of the system. Most people said you can’t have Vera more than maybe 40 feet away from the lock. If you have walls and obsticles between it probably less. Mine are 15 feet away and don’t have an issue. Did you try moving vera closer or maybe use a usb cable to get the dongle closer if vera can’t move.
