Garage door keypad event logging

Joatmon

New Member
I've done quite a bit of searching and have not found what I am looking for. I currently have the cheapest garage door keypad from Craftsman that only allows a single code for access. Now that I am divorced and living alone, I need the ability to provide access to certain service/repair people when I am not at home, and need the ability for "temporary" codes. I know this can be accomplished by upgrading to one of the other Craftsman models that allow for limited use codes (by number of uses or by length of time). However, being the naturally paranoid guy that I am, I thought it would be nice to have some sort of logging feature incorporated to let me know after the fact when someone has used or tried whatever code. Cooler still would be an interface to my HA software (currently ActiveHome, soon to be upgraded). Does anyone have a solution for me?
 
hmm... i'm guessing you don't have an elk. i was trying to think of how i would do this with an elk. maybe get an extra keypad for outside (protected, i guess), set it up for an area that doesn't have any alarm capabilities, and set up temporary codes on it? then, when the temporary codes are activated, turn on an output that opens the garage door. i know this probably isn't any help to you.
 
hmm... i'm guessing you don't have an elk. i was trying to think of how i would do this with an elk. maybe get an extra keypad for outside (protected, i guess), set it up for an area that doesn't have any alarm capabilities, and set up temporary codes on it? then, when the temporary codes are activated, turn on an output that opens the garage door. i know this probably isn't any help to you.

That is EXACTLY what I did last weekend with an Elk M1KPAS. I am using HomeSeer for the logic to open and close the garage door for now because I couldn't quickly figure out how to make it work the way I wanted with Elk rules.

For those without an Elk, you could use something like this:

http://www.smarthome.com/7458.html


Scott
 
To put a log entry into a M1 when a door is opened, you can set up the zone as an auxiliary 24 hour zone. Any opening of the zone will put a log entry into the log.

This should be a separate hardwired zone from a burglar zone, but you can use the same switch wired for the hardwire burg zone:
From the burg zone parallel jumper wire over to the zone that will be defined as an Auxiliary 1 zone.

Define both zones as Normally Closed, not EOL. EOL will not work because you have two zone pull up resistors in the control pulling the voltage too high for the EOL value. Note: A 1K instead of a 2K EOL resistor would make EOL work.

When the burg zone opens, the Auxiliary 1 zone will activate its silent alarm and put the alarm into the log. If you do not program the communicator to dial out for the Auxiliary 1 alarm, all you will get is a log entry.
 
Another option similar to some of the above but does not the keypad is to wire your open to relay (this does work best on the Elk) - either an Elk output or a relay on a board that can go in your pc. Then you toggle your relay when somebody wants in. With the Elk all you need to do is dial in to it and toggle the relay, a pretty simple process and you just need a phone. With just the PC I guess you would need either some remote control of ActiveHome if it exists, or I guess you could use logmein (including on a mobile phone) to get into AH and toggle the relay.

This is a lot cleaner on the Elk and many folks do this so they maintain complete control of when somebody goes in - only when they open the door themselves.
 
So, the consensus seems to be that the only real option is an Elk. That's a big step for me to take - I've been planning to explore it for a while now, guess I'll have to get serious about it. Thank you all for the suggestions.
 
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