IoT Lock

Keys are so last year. With the Omega and the internet, we can unlock things with our keyboard or touchscreen!

In this project, we’ll be building an electric lock system with the Omega:

The omega controlling it

In fact, we use this very setup to control a secondary lock at Onion HQ:

The lock itself

Note: in fact, keys are still very useful. We still recommend you to use a normally-open lock and a key-lock in conjunction, as power failure will result in a fail-safe backup instead of locking you out.

Disclaimer: This security-related project is just that, a project. This is not intended to be a fully-featured or robust home security solution. Use your own judgment when applying this project to securing your belongings, property, etc. By doing this project, you accept all risk and Onion cannot be held responsible for any damages or misuse.

Overview

Skill Level: Intermediate

Time Required: 1.5 hours

To accomplish this, we’ll use the HTTP server, uhttpd on the Omega to listen for the unlock signal through a request and cgi-bin scripts to control the lock. When it’s set up, we’ll be able to to unlock by accessing a web page through a phone, a laptop, a tablet, a tv, anything!

The web page will allow us to:

  • unlock
  • lock
  • toggle - unlock and then lock again after some time
    • If the lock is currently locked. If not, this action does nothing

Ingredients

Lock Mounting Tools:

  • Screws
  • Bolts
  • Extra wires
  • Appropriate tools

This really depends on where and how you’re mounting your lock

Here’s what our list looked like - minus the mounting tools and parts. The components we need

Step-by-Step

Our instructions will be based on the recommended lock type. If you have an advanced electric lock with multiple settings, you can adjust the instructions as you see fit.

1. Prepare

To get started, we need to set up the Omega and our lock.

First we need an Omega2 ready to go. If you haven’t already, complete the First Time Setup Guide to connect your Omega to WiFi and update to the latest firmware.

Plug in the Relay Expansion, and that’s it for the Omega.

expansion dock and relay expansion

2. Test the lock

Next, read up on the operation of the lock of choice. Our code is based of a simple on/off switch system so it helps to know if it will work with your chosen lock.

It’s a good idea to start with a simple circuit to test the hardware. Using a two-wire lock, we’ll connect it to our power supply through the Relay Expansion.

To set up the terminals on the Relay Expansion, turn the screw on the terminal counterclockwise until the metal clamp inside is sitting a bit less than halfway in the bottom of the housing, not too much or the screw might pop out. The screw terminal on the barrel jack adapter is a bit different, it will rise and sink depending on the clamp position. When the screw is roughly flush with the top, it is open. To close it, turn clockwise until the screw sinks to about halfway, or until it becomes difficult to continue turning.

  • First, connect the negative (ground) terminal (usually the black wire) of the lock to the negative (ground) terminal of the power supply.
  • Next, connect the positive terminal of your supply to the IN screw terminal of Channel 0 on the Relay Expansion
  • Finally, connect the positive (power) terminal (usually red) to the OUT screw terminal of Channel 0 on the Relay Expansion.

here’s our testing circuit

Once the lock is wired, connect to the Omega’s command line and then switch on the relay:

relay-exp -i 0 on

If the lock’s state changes, you’re all set to continue! Before proceeding, Yyu can disable the lock with:

relay-exp -i 0 off

4. Plan out the Lock Placement

Before getting to software, you should make sure the lock chosen can be mounted to the door with good fit. Take some measurements and plan out the wiring and placement of the Omega/supply so we can quickly follow through once the software is ready to go.

Measure twice, cut once.

5. Mount the lock

Now that the pieces work together, it’s time to mount your lock! Keep all the components powered off, and take the testing rig apart

Our wiring setup

At Onion HQ, we’ve extended the wiring of the lock and routed it to an Omega and power supply right next to the door, but depending on the situation, you may have to do something completely different.

6. Download the Project Code

The code for this project can be found in Onion’ iot-door-lock repository on GitHub. We’ll use git to download the code to your Omega: navigate to the /root directory on the Omega, and clone the GitHub repo:

opkg update
opkg install git git-http ca-bundle
cd /root
git clone https://github.com/OnionIoT/iot-door-lock.git

If your lock has more modes/controls, feel free to take a look at the code (specially www/cgi-bin/door.sh) and make changes that control your lock more effectively.

7. Adjust the Code for your Lock

The code assumes two things:

  • That the lock in use is a normally closed lock
    • ie when there is no current (the Relay Expansion channel is off) the lock will be in the locked state
  • When toggling the lock, it assumes a delay of 24 seconds between unlocking and locking again

To adjust either of the above, you’ll need to edit the www/cgi-bin/door.sh script:

  • To change the Relay Expansion channel values for the lock, adjust the LOCKED and UNLOCKED variables
  • To change the delay between unlocking and locking during a toggle, adjust the TOGGLE_TIME variable

8. Serve the Lock Webpage

In order to serve up the webpage that we’ll use to send the lock commands, copy the contents of the www directory of the project directory to the /www directory on your Omega, and you should be good to go!

cp -r iot-door-lock/www/ /

By virtue of uhttpd, the HTTP server running on the Omega, all of the files in the /www directory will be served up as a website.

Using the IoT Lock

Now the truly IoT part, using the IoT Lock!

  1. Connect your Omega to your WiFi network, or connect your computer to the Omega’s WiFi network.
  2. In a web browser, navigate to omega-ABCD.local/lock.html, where ABCD is the last 4 digits on the sticker on the Omega.
    • On some Android and PC devices, the omega-ABCD.local address doesn’t always work. Follow our guide on finding your Omega’s IP Address and use the IP address instead of omega-ABCD.local when connecting the web interface. It will be something along the lines of 192.168.1.109/lock.html
  3. Hit any of the buttons to carry out the action indicated
    • As a refresher, we can Toggle the lock (unlock momentarily and then lock again), unlock it, or lock it

lock web page

Bonus: Automatically Lock & Unlock

To make this truly useful & automated, we can schedule when the IoT lock will unlock and lock using the cron Linux utility!

Check out the cron example that sets up the lock to turn on and off at 11AM and 6PM respectively but only on weekdays:

0 11 * * 1,2,3,4,5 sh /www/cgi-bin/door.sh unlock
0 18 * * 1,2,3,4,5 sh /www/cgi-bin/door.sh lock
#

This is included in the project code repo as crontab.txt

Here’s a quick overview of cron job definitions work:

# * * * * *  command to execute
# ┬ ┬ ┬ ┬ ┬
# │ │ │ │ │
# │ │ │ │ │
# │ │ │ │ └───── day of week (0 - 7) (0 to 6 are Sunday to Saturday, or use names; 7 is Sunday, the same as 0)
# │ │ │ └────────── month (1 - 12)
# │ │ └─────────────── day of month (1 - 31)
# │ └──────────────────── hour (0 - 23)
# └───────────────────────── min (0 - 59)

# The hash (#) denotes a comment that will be ignored

So the first line specifies that the lock will be unlocked at 11am on weekdays, and the second line specifies that it will be locked at 6pm on weekdays.

To apply this scheduling to your IoT lock, type crontab -e to add a task to the cron daemon, it will open a file in vi, enter in the command listed up above. Then restart the cron daemon for the changes to take effect:

/etc/init.d/cron restart

Great! Your IoT lock now runs on a schedule!

Check out the Omega documentation for more info on using cron

Going Further

While this is really useful, next we’ll make the lock react to Tweets from authorized users, so you can lock and unlock your IoT lock from anywhere, and even give access to your friends!