Brainstormed, designed, built, and programmed a smart deadbolt from scratch
- Attaches to my backdoor’s OEM deadbolt and turns the deadbolt lever to lock and unlock door
- Mounts to the door and deadbolt without any adhesive or mounting hardware that could potentially damage the door
- Leverages radio modules for communication with smart home controller
- Powered by an Arduino Pro Mini 5v that drives a high torque TT motor
- Comprised of 13 different 3D-printed parts
- Designed from scratch in Autodesk Inventor and 3D printed by yours truly
- Custom modular design allows for rapid prototyping and iterative design
- The deadbolt lever has a 3D-printed adapter that snaps around it (no adhesive necesssary) to convert it into one big gear
- This gear is then turned by the TT motor through a smaller gear with half the teeth which
- Limit switch senses when door is closed or open - useful for functionality such as preventing deadbolt from being extended when trying to shut door
- Potentiometer sitting opposite the motor shaft provides two-fold functionality:
- Acts as an axle of sorts for the gear driven by the TT motor
- Is a highly precise, non-volatile, axle "encoder" that allows for knowing the position of the deadbolt gear, and can thus infer when the deadbolt is turned into the unlocked or locked position
- Seamlessly integrates with my custom smart home ecosystem
- Functionality provided by Smart Home:
- Automatically locks deadbolt after a minute if it is left unlocked
- Remote monitoring of whether door is ajar/open
- Remote monitoring and control of the deadbolt from anywhere, enabling the ability to let guests into home remotely
- Function that prevents deadbolt from locking for any reason - useful for when you want to step outside quickly without needing your keys or a smartphone
- Currently on its 4th major version (V4)
- V1 was the proof of concept
- V2 was a more complete prototype, with only small improvements over V2, mostly just improved modularity
- V3 saw the complete overhaul of the design into a proper enclosure with better modularity and better complexity
- V4 took V3's complete design and cleaned up the aesthetics considerably, while adding fully realized modularity allowing for the addition of more attachments and sensors
Project Status : Archived
Project Progress : Functional
Project Dates : Oct '21 - Aug '23