Indigo, MorningLinc, and Morning Industry lock functionality

Hello, I've been reviewing some of the posts from last year re: Smarthome's new Morninglinc, and it looks like some of the folks out there are getting it to work. I was thinking of purchasing a morninglinc, and a couple of thew 3-in-1 morning industry locks: http://bit.ly/hXySfA

My question is, what kind of functionality can I expect once I paid the morninglinc with indigo? Will indigo indicate if the door is locked or unlocked? For example, if someone enters the code on the lock or uses a key and they leave the door open will Indigo show the "open state"? Or, is that not possible. I'm also thinking there's probably no record in Indigo as to which users come through the door either (that's probably the Schalge 12.95/mo feature )

Thanks for any assistance with this.

-Scott

[matt (support)]

Hi Scott,

Although I have a MorningLinc module I received for testing, I don't have the actual lock so hopefully someone that does will chime in.

It does not support polling or reading of the lock state remotely. So basically it gives you Indigo control of sending the lock/unlock commands, but won't provide any useful lock state information.

Lastly, note that a couple of users have had problems getting their MorningLinc's defined inside Indigo -- their modules stop responding correctly. However, after fairly extensive testing I haven't been able to reproduce the problem here. Last I recall one of those users was going to send me their module but I'm still waiting to receive it. Note there definitely are users that have them working though, so I don't think the problem (whatever it may be) is common.

Matt, thanks for the quick response (on a Sunday no less!), much appreciated.

It's possible that the morninglinc has been updated since those previous issues encountered by the other users. I'm not sure, but I do know that I've had my share of faulty insteon controllers etc. in the past so it's entirely possible.

I think that the important issue to consider here is that unlike lights or other insteon controllable items, the security of our homes is something completely different. If I'm going to use Indigo and insteon to control door locks I need to know two things:

1. If the door lock open or closed at any given time.
2. That the data is reliable.

The last thing that you would want is to think that your door was locked when in fact it was open.

Have you found that Insteon technology is at a reliable state at this time as it pertains to door locks? Or is there still some ways to go on this? I surely don't want to spend $12.95 for the Schlage technology.

Thanks.

[matt (support)]

I'm don't believer there hast been any major functionality added to the MorningLinc. Maybe a few tweaks, but I haven't heard anything about more 2-way communication where Indigo would be able to read the lock/unlock state, unfortunately.

The INSTEON data can be pretty reliable, but I wouldn't say it is bullet proof in all scenarios. Some folks have no signal problems and everything works almost all the time, others have a few trouble spots that cause issues (which can be fixed with FilterLincs or more repeating modules), and a small minority has more severe power line issues. Point being, I think the reliability of using the MorningLinc will be the same as controlling other INSTEON modules in your house. If you aren't having problems, then the MorningLinc will probably be very reliable. But I agree "very reliable" may not be reliable enough when it comes to your door lock.

Hopefully I'm not going to jinks my setup but I thought I'd pass on my 2 cents anyways

I have the 3 in 1 QF-01P on my garage door, which gets opened a bunch of times every day. I have a sensor on the door that on closing will cause Indigo to activate the lock 10 minutes later.

It's been in place for several months and has only failed to close once. I currently lock it only once. Reliability could easily be increased by having Indigo lock again a few minutes later. I have a contact switch that I was going to install in the bolt throw to get feedback but have delayed installing that based on my experience. Having the door locked automatically after 10 minutes probably leaves it locked much more often then relying on manually locking it.

Would I use it on my house door. I think so. Going to order another one this weekend.

I have the MorningLinc close to the door. I've not had any bad experiences when running on Emergency Power, I.e. always works.
I usually open the door with the remote and let it lock itself.

My Indigo/House-Power setup is not the cleanest. Lots of WiFi and computers running around too. The lock setup has been more reliable than some motion sensors and mag sensors.

Bottom line... I'm quite happy with the lock. 2-way communications would be nice but it's not keeping me from buying another one.

Keep in mind though... your milage may vary.

Something I am doing for a locked/unlocked state is watching for the powerlinc command for lock-which changes an indigo variable to locked, and another one that watches for the unlock. I also use a triggerlinc at each door that I'm controlling with that has a trigger which changes the variable to unlocked if it goes off. Sure someone could go up and unlock the door without opening it, but that condition is pretty low probability. It's worked really well for us so far... now when kids enter the picture and are able to start fiddling with things... maybe we'll have a different situation then.

Yes, you'll have a new problem to solve when a mixture of use is involved, I.e. manual/keypad lock/unlock.

I did install another one on my house side door but added a 2450 i/o link with a push button that the dead bold closes. This gives me actual state. Have not added the 2450 to my garage door yet. I have an open/closed sensor on the door and I just assume it's unlocked everytime it's opened so I lock it 10 minutes later.

Not perfect but tolerable and it does increase the overall time the doors are locked.

So you have the morning industries deadbolt? All I have is the lock on the knob version. We live in an area where crime isn't a huge issue, so that is sufficient. Great idea for the state with a button. We typically don't use the key fob very often, but again, just like with a manual entry, if key fob is used, we are typically going to be going in or out of the door. When we go to bed I have a scene I run that locks the doors regardless of the state. Again... luckily we live in an area where most people leave their doors open most of the day.

I have the 3-in-One. I used to use the key fob some to open the "other" door but have since put an INSTEON wireless switch by each door which opens the "other" door. The doors I'm talking about are house side door and external garage side door across the walk between house and garage so we unlock the "other" door as we open the door we're departing from. A lot of our "traffic" is between house and garage as that's where computers, etc. live.

I used to have the keypad PowerBolt locks on each door but every once in a while I'd forget to lock because of constant in/out of the garage, etc. Unfortunately our neighborhood is not as nice as yours
We've been lucky sofar but we pretty well keep doors locked at all times to minimize exposure. With the INSTEON setup and keypads it's less intrusive, I.e. not always looking for a key or even key fob and if we do forget chances are pretty good that Indigo will lock 'em.

A lock with proper state feedback would sure be nice

Pretty snazzy setup! I agree.. simply having the state broadcast would be a great addition.

Even if we had to poll the MorningLinc to get its status it would help. Then one could at least confirm that the MorningLinc got its command leaving only the RF link as an unknown and from experience, that short hop is probably more reliable than the INSTEON portion.

SmartHome/SmartLabs... are you listening?

Can't use just use a trigger for a state change or an insteon command from the morninglinc to drive your variable? I mean... it's supposed to be a handshake so if it doesn't happen and that is your trigger, it shouldn't change the variable you have set for lock state. I'm new to this so I may be missing something... wouldn't be the first time

Thanks for making me think.

Have some new ideas to try. One of the hazards of maybe not doing it right the first time.... long ago.

I think all of us are guilty not necessarily of "not doing it right the first time", but of not knowing another way and it works, so if it ain't broke don't fix it! I've had indigo for 2-1/2 years now and it's only in the last few months have I used it for anything more than shutting down everything at night and showing off to friends what it can do with some crappy control pages. The real power to me, it seems, is really understanding how it all works and paying attention to everyday things that annoy you, or are monotonous that you can automate to make your life easier. I work as an engineer designing products, so this kind of problem solving is right up my alley. I'm sure if you sifted through every action/control you have in your system you can get things more efficient. Even Jay from Indigo suggested something for making things more efficient in an audio application and he's had it from the get go. Granted, he's way busy working... and while we all don't own our own businesses, most of us do have day jobs.

Just to support the original question about reliability, I too have a MorningLinc which I use with Indigo and a RF-01P (this non-keypad deadbolt) on my front door. I've had it for about a year and have never had any linking or communication issues with the MorningLinc and Indigo (using a 2413U PLM interface). The MorningLinc is about 15 feet from the deadbolt and has never had MorningLinc -> deadbolt communication issues either. I, too, use a TriggerLinc for the front door to detect when it's opened or closed. Whenever the door is opened I have a trigger in Indigo that sends the OFF command to the MorningLinc (I have the OFF command linked to the unlock state). This updates Indigo's on/off state for the MorningLinc. It also makes the deadbolt beep, indicating that the system now recognizes that the door is unlocked. When the door is closed, I have an Indigo trigger that sends the ON command (linked to the lock state) to the MorningLinc 10 minutes later. This has never failed to work (except when mains power is out, of course). So, while there is no status polling of the deadbolt, using the TriggerLinc to control unlock and lock triggers in Indigo works very well for my situation.