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Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

lockitron.com

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Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#111

Post by profgubler »

catch23 wrote: post #86
paulgerhardt wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Continuously connected? No. We'd last about two weeks. We poll infrequently during off hours and more frequently when people are likely to be coming and going. Knocking also wakes it up. Bluetooth 4.0 gets us the rest of the way. It's instant for iPhone 4s and 5 users and we should have rudimentary support for the Android devices with BT4 by March.

So what happens when a packet is sent when you're in sleep mode? Does the device have to renegotiate the connection when waking up? What if you sold a separate device that plugged in the wall and had a constant wifi connection, then used BT4 for communicating with the lock powered by 4xAA? Then you wouldn't even need wifi on the lock. Also, why an arduino mega? Are you using that many I/O pins or is it because your c…

I don't think they are using an Arduino Mega. They are using the same processor that an Arduino uses which is the Atmel ATmega, which is a very common processor for microcontrollers.

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#112

Post by xradionut »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #85
jevinskie wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the lockbox has been working just fine for hundreds of years and isn't technological enough!

Remote disable is a killer feature that the lockbox has never really achieved.

Lockbox + Security system with different pin or code = win

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#113

Post by jeltz »

plusbryan wrote: post #23
bluetidepro wrote: post #17

So, do people who use something like this just never lock your bottom handle lock? I live in a busy city and lock both to keep my place secure. I'm not sure I would like just being able to lock the deadbolt but not the handle lock.

Having taken a lock picking course, I can say that one lock is approximately the same security as two - even after 15 minutes of instruction, with the right tools I could unlock most any standard house lock in moments. Home door locks are a deterrent more than anything else, so I'd opt for convenience.

This is not true everywhere. For example here in Sweden the second lock is usually a lever tumbler lock or some variant thereof. Way harder to pick than pin tumbler locks. What matters is the type of lock, not the number of locks.

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#114

Post by mdip »

showerst wrote: post #2

Neat idea, but what makes this worth 150 bucks?

When I was 16, I was given a car without keyless entry and I was willing to pluck down $200 (that included installation) for the luxury.

I could see spending $150 to get similar functionality plus the ability to unlock my home remotely and check the state of the lock on the only door I enter/exit from.

My family shares a vacation home up north and I'm tempted to buy this for there as well. Because of its proximity to town (two blocks walk) we've already had plenty of trouble with people locking themselves out because they're not taking their car to the tavern in town and simply forgot their keys in the process. We'd have to get in the habit of only using the deadbolt, or replace the door handle with a non-locking door handle, but it might be worth it to me.

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#115

Post by avree »

MatthewB wrote: post #106

We use Lockitron at the 500startups offices. It worked well most of the time. The few times it didn't work was very annoying and I had to rely on someone else to open the door for me (from the inside). As long as you have a secondary option for opening the door, it's a great product.

We use it at Getaround and it works well all the time. We once had our internet line go out and couldn't lock our office until we found the spare key, though.

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#116

Post by wr1472 »

watty wrote: post #81
rflrob wrote: post #65

Looks like a really cool product, but as a note to the marketing department: the product itself looks just a little bit too much like an iPhone. I got confused for a moment, and thought the device was an iPhone with a picture of the deadbolt on it. There's probably a way to make the materials somewhat clearer that the Lockitron is the big square bit, and not the C-shaped mounting adapter.

Are you kidding me? The only similarity to an iPhone is the rectangular shape.

Isn't that close enough for getting a court order to ban sales?

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#118

Post by tomsaffell »

rdl wrote: post #110
larrys wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Empirically people are a lot less likely to forget their phone than to forget keys," That also varies on whether you drive a car or take public transportation. If you drive, leaving your house requires taking your keys and it becomes a habit. Same with leaving work. If you drove there you need your keys to leave. A good way around forgetting keys also is a realtor style lockbox either on the door or hidden with a sp…

Yeah, I forget my phone way more than I forget keys, because I need the keys to open (NFC/HID) the door to the garage and to use the car. I use a deadbolt so I can't lock myself out of the apartment, but also can't go into the garage without keys, and I ~never go out the front door. I end up leaving my phone docked in my car about 10% of the time by accident, though. The key (heh) to not forgetting anything, though,…

Totally agreed on the pocket layout - don't know what i'd do without my cargo pants/shorts - must be an engineer thing... http://xkcd.com/806/

Re: Lockitron: Keyless entry using your phone

#120

Post by codinghorror »

Kudos to the team. This looks fantastic, and I love that it's a v2 product! Preordering now.

It could be more clear that the lockitron does two very interesting things, I had to watch the video to figure them out:

- knock detection via microphone so you know someone is at the door (awesome)

- auto-unlock based on nearby phone presence (presumably bluetooth) so you can just walk into your house.

If it works like it's supposed to, this is seriously great.

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