Control a Schlage Electronic Deadbolt With an Arduino!

Intro: Control a Schlage Electronic Deadbolt With an Arduino!

This instructable will walk you through the process of dismantling and hacking a Schlage electronic deadbolt in order to control it with an arduino.

STEP 1: Purchase the Lock and Unpack It

I got mine on sale for $99 at Lowe's.

Remove it from the box and take a look at what's there. The construction of the lock is really great. Anywhere that could even remotely see any moisture is surrounded with rubber sleeving or a rubber o-ring. The lock has 3 basic parts:

outside portion: This portion has a regular key cylinder, a knob for the deadbolt similar to what you normally see inside of a house, and a keypad for entering the code.

inside portion: This portion has a knob to operate the deadbolt, a housing for a 9v battery, and a switch to tell the electronics in the front of the lock when the lock is in use.

deadbolt mechanism: This portion is similar to any other deadbolt on the market.

STEP 2: Take the Faceplate Off of the Lock

Turn the outside portion over and you'll see 6 #2 phillips screws. Remove them and you should see something like the second picture.

STEP 3: Take the Intermediary Plate Off

Flip the outside portion over and you'll see what's in the first picture.

remove 2 T10 Torx screws seen in the second picture and you'll have something like what's in the third and forth pictures.

STEP 4: Check Out All of the Neat Stuff

You should see the backside of the intermediary plate as well as the part of the mechanism that actually does the locking.

If you weren't careful, the long thin part that goes through the middle portion likely pushed its way out a bit and an almost invisible spring went shooting somewhere. Go find it. We'll call this assembly the working portion. Picture 2 displays how it goes together.

On the right you'll see a piece of plastic that resembles a backwards C. This piece of plastic uses a post on its backside between two coils of a spring attached to a motor. When it moves up, it pushes the mushroom shaped part of the working portion upwards causing the "stem" of the mushroom to stick out into some of the fingers of the star shaped piece on the rear of the intermediary plate. This allows the knob on the front of the lock to turn the working portion and operate the deadbolt.

It's pretty simple but very effective. Motor spins in one direction, plastic goes up and the lock works. Motor spins in the opposite direction, plastic goes down, lock freewheels.

In the next step, I'll show how to attach some wires to the motor so you can control them.

STEP 5: Wire It Up!

Pull the control pad off of the motor and examine the rear. You'll see a black wire and white attached to the small motor. These are isolated from one another via the microcontroller on the Schlage circuit board so just find some small wiring ~24AWG and solder one to each post.

Carefully route these two wires around the Schlage circuit board and push them through the rubber sleeve so you'll have access to them once the lock is reassembled.

STEP 6: Reassemble the Lock

Put the working portion in, put the intermediary plate on and then put the face plate back on the lock.

You should be able to use a 9v battery to control the lock's function.

STEP 7: Create H Bridge Circuit

Follow this schematic and create your H bridge circuit.

http://www.robotroom.com/BipolarHBridge.html

You should now be able to pick any two digital outs on the arduino. Setting one low and one high will operate the lock's motor in one direction and obviously if you do the opposite, the motor will operate in the opposite direction.

I added a Parallax RFID reader and I can use the Schlage's keypad or an RFID card to open the lock.

I also am developing a new security product, Tactcess, that I've interfaced with the arduino.

Read more here: http://www.cribbstechnologies.com

Comments

[MACKattacksnipe]

Now only if you have a remote control to use on it Wireless Entry

[AnnaK75]

My wireless entry starts when I pull into my drive way from 80 feet away and unlock my front door's deadbolt (not on the Internet) simply by pressing the key fob velcroed to my car's visor.

[quadmasta]

I just found out Arduino/X10 communication is fairly simple and straightforward.  I may take some time and interface an X10 remote with this.  Good idea!

[smk8383]

Nice hack but I think it would be easier if you started with an RF controlled deadbolt. All you do is hack the fob which has lock and unlock buttons and you can put anything you do in a box within about 30 ft of the lock. You don't need to actually touch the lock or the door. If you screw up you've only messed up the fob.

[AnnaK75]

Please let me know how successful you are in hacking the REMOTIZER. I'll send you one free. message me me at my contact info above and good luck, you'll need it. If you can't hack it, please be kind enough to report your opinion on this thread . Thanks!

[quadmasta]

Easier, yes but from what I've seen the RF controlled deadbolts that are worth their salt are upwards of $300. This only cost $100 and is very high quality. I finally started the installation process of the RFID portion of this circuit into my house and will post another instructable on that process once finished.

[smk8383]

Frys.com has the Morning Industries RF deadbolt for $70. As you say, it's only a Grade 3 lock where the Schlage you used is a Grade 2. In my application this doesn't matter since there is a window right next to the lock. Who would bother breaking the lock when they can break a piece of glass?

[AnnaK75]

Anything that uses electricity and has an "IP" address can be hacked in time. Try to hack my one in four billion encrypted proprietary key fob. No Internet. No IP address. My REMOTIZER (under $50) uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Control), similar to the way automotive key fobs has successfully used for decades.

[rav527]

I have a kwikset powerbolt 2 electronic deadbolt lock. I would like to do a similar thing like you did in the schlage deadbolt project except i am not interested in RFID. I want manual control via keypad and be able to control it via app. any ideas are welcomed.

[Shannondalebreaux]

Hello i have this exact lock i was wanting to add bluetooth to the existing lock. It is a 4 digit pin code lock. can anyone help i want to add bluetooth mod to it email me at [e-mail]

[pmahesha]

which processor is used in schlage BE365

[ZacWolf]

Realize this is an old project, so I'm hoping you're still around. Do you remember the timing for the motor in each direction? I don't wanna ruin the spring inside. Worse case I'll start really small, but if you remember that would be a big help!

[TakashiMoto]

bipolardriver.JPG link no longer works, could you repost? thanks

[quadmasta]

http://www.robotroom.com/BipolarHBridge.html Check out this page. The site has a lot of other good stuff on it.

[bizshop]

How would I connect two schlage digital locks so a correct combination in one will open both?

[tinker234]

wow this is nice

[quadmasta]

Thanks!

[tinker234]

hey could you program it to respond from a code like 4y456364762

[erikdv]

Thanks for the info! I'm looking at hooking up the motor leads to a small 9v relay which in turn would be hooked up to a wireless DSC home security contact. The N/C or N/O trigger can than be used to disarm my alarm using the keypad on the Schlage. No need to type the same code when getting in the house!

[quadmasta]

Did anything ever come of your project? I'd be interested to see how you used it.