• First attempt

    Daniel Johnson • 08/05/2021 at 01:17 • 0 comments

    The first thing i had to do was understand how the keypad communicated with the opener. There are 3 wires that go over to the keypad, 3.3V, Data, GND. I attached a scope expecting to see some sort of standard (SPI, I2c, etc.), but what i found was the keypad just sends a series of 50uS pulses depending on what key is pressed. 0 = 1 pulse, 1 = 2 pulses .... 9 = 10 pulses, and lock = 11 pulses. The signal is open drain, so it makes it very easy to piggy back with the keypad so that both still work. 

    Here is where it went wrong, I used the 3.3V to power the ESP8266, but soon ran into a batery draining issue. I added in some sleep time so the battery would not drain so quickly, but since i want the door to open when i get home, it has to wake up frequently and the batteries would only last a few days. To fix this, i ran power through the hinges of my door and into a 5V power supply in my attic, This worked for a while, but the large power draw from the ESP8266 was too much for the door lock's internal regulator.

    To fix this issue, my latest design includes its own regulator, Since i have to run power through the door anyway, i am also going to run RS485 to connect to my homes RS485 network for better reliability. More to come when i get the time to connect up the latest design.

    I have included the arduino sketch for this first attempt if anyone wants to try and improve the power consumption problem. The power issue could likely be fixed with just a big capacitor.