15
Aug, 2024

I test the Welock wifibox3 gateway for home automation integration of Welock locks

Objective

On a proposal from the manufacturer, I agreed to test this BT-Wifi gateway, a complement to the brand’s connected locks, which can be easily integrated into a domotised house.

So I will try to connect the Welock lock to Alexa and thus drive it remotely or by voice.


I will also try to integrate the lock into Home Assistant so that I can unlock it from my Home Assistant… Dashboard.

Who is Welock??

WELOCK is a company specialising in smart access solutions for homes, combining more than 10 years of experience in developing, manufacturing and marketing smart locks. Founded in 2013, WELOCK quickly established itself as a major player in the connected locks sector, with a particular focus on security and convenience. Their mission is to popularize high-quality smart home products, providing users with a safer and more convenient life experience.

Innovation is at the heart of WELOCK’s strategy, with flagship products such as smart lock cylinders and fingerprint lock cylinders. The company marked the industry by being the first in the world to integrate biometric fingerprint technology into lock cylinders. This technological advance allows modern, secure and simplified access control without the need for physical keys.

WELOCK has expanded its influence globally, building partnerships in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Australia to provide localised services and support to its users. The company is based in Shenzhen, China, under the name MYHAND IN CHINA LIMITED, located in an important technology center of the country.

My interlocutor WELOCK is located in Germany, which confirms the European involvement of the brand.

The WELOCK website is available on https://www.welock.com/ The whole range of its products is presented.

Where to buy this box?

In all logic, it is to be bought in the same place as the Welock connected locks.

There are packs with the box included with the lock.

Unboxing and product discovery

The gateway I tested was part of a Lock+Passerelle package, so I do not have an unboxing dedicated to it.


The footbridge is at the bottom right of the photo, well set.

In this photo, I surrounded the elements dedicated to the footbridge:

A small instruction manual for the box is provided in the box.

A quick note on the instructions for use provided

Ladies and gentlemen manufacturers, do not provide a manual or a single one in English but properly written, this one is truly outrageous.

On this page, Botton instead of Button, it passes. The title is incomprehensible and the list of elements of the package are not present in French.


Step 1, ok, Step 2 ?! disappeared, Step 3.1: absolutely incomprehensible. I think it means "Connect the gateway to the USB cable" 

Step 3.2 The procedure is wrong, you have to press the button (called the configuration button on page 1) but it is the 3rd green LED that will flash very slowly, not the red LED.
Step 3.3 This is not "add a portal" but "add a gateway" on the application.

This page is correct, the last part “3 add a device under the bridge” is useless, everything was done automatically at my home.

So I didn’t understand what they wanted to do. The dry contact that is not explained anywhere worked on its own, it is controlled since the application, it is a shame it is a real plus this dry contact, it should really be valued. I do not comment further on the translation of Part 5.

Of course, I am at the manufacturer's disposal to translate this document for free.

I connect the gateway

Attention, I had USB Type-C cords but they do not work with this product, the cable provided works perfectly, so I power the gateway, the power LED lights up and the red LED informs me that the connection has not yet been established.

I press the button on the side for a few seconds, the 3rd led (green) lights up and blinks very very very slowly, the bridge is waiting for pairing. (This does not correspond to the doc, I will not tell you why).

On the Android Welock app, I click on add a device, then gateway, the gateway is detected. I add my WIFI and it’s good, the red LED goes out and the green one remains fixed. My gateway is in the app, so on my WIFI network.

I discover a great dry contact for home automation 

At the end of the bridge integration, I came across this button in the shape of a blue circle, obviously, I pressed it thinking that it would unlock the lock. Not at all, I hear the click of a relay sticking in the box.

There is nothing in the documentation, I search, I search and I find on Amazon: ‘ [Additional upgrades for WIFIBOX3] Other remote unlocking tools can be connected via the 2-pin connection cable. It is therefore for this purpose that the small connector provided with two black and red wires is used. I will look for my multimeter and test if what happens on these two wires, it is simply a dry contact !! great, it can be used for everything in home automation, for example to open a gate or a garage. Hence the image showing the bottom of an intercom on the app (had to understand!!)

I'm going to install the Skill Welock in Alexa.

To do this, I go to the Alexa app to search for the Skill section.

I install the Welock skill and then the association is launched. You must identify yourself:

It is not very simple at first because the screen is not the same as the previous registration, for a number in 0611223344, you have to put 611223344 in Account.

As soon as the account is associated, Alexa launches a search for new equipment

This is perfect, my lock is detected and added to the equipment piloted by Alexa.

Be careful, for some time now, the locks have been disabled by Alexa by default, you must go and authorise the unlocking by the application and/or the unlocking by voice command.

If you enable voice unlocking, you must also add a 4-digit code.

I test the unlocking of the lock by the Alexa app

I have previously allowed the app to unlock, so I go to my lock in the Alexa app and click on the unlock button.

The lock unlocks on average after 7s, I did a lot of tests, the unlock time is between 6s and 10s . This is not very good, but we can understand that there is a link:  Alexa Android -> Amazon server -> Welock server -> Welock gateway ->Welock lock

I tried to find out where the slowdowns were. I noticed that the gateway was blinking when it received a request. It is perfect, I will be able to follow the requests and the changeover time.

  • The latency between the Alexa application to the gateway is almost always 3s (between 2 and 4s) which is pretty good.
  • The random time and here it is not understandable is between the bridge and the lock, so about 4s.

I remember that the Android Welock application also allowed unlocking the lock, so I will test the time that was set …

well, the application takes about 4/5s to validate the unlock, much like the gateway, so it is this protocol that takes time. I note a small negative point, if there is a transmission failure, the user is not notified, so the link via Alexa does not manage an acknowledgement of receipt and good opening. An important point that needs to be improved by the developer of the Skill Welock.

I test the unlocking of the lock by an Alexa voice command

I allowed voice unlocking and set a 4-digit code.

I ask Alexa to unlock my lock by giving her name, Alexa asks me the 4-digit code, I give her and the command to unlock by good to the gateway and then to the lock. Same timing, about 7s.

I try to move the lock away from the walkway

I read in some user comments that gave a high failure rate when the distance is too large. The manufacturer talks about 10m which seems to me little. 

My tests by going upstairs or deviating quite a bit show that the link manages to establish itself as if the footbridge were close. I did not manage to defeat the bridge (except by removing the antenna). I also read that the V3 has improved on that side, which is good news.

I would like to launch an unlock from Home Assistant

My first reflex is to find out if there is a Welock integration, lost, no integration in the Home Assistant store. Some discussions on the international HA forum that are two years old but nothing concrete. Welock may not offer an API or a way to chat with its server, making it impossible to create an integration.

I will therefore change my option and try to create the link via Amazon’s server, i.e. via Alexa.

To date, apart from multimedia equipment, I do not know directly how to control from Home Assistant equipment present in Alexa.

This restriction must therefore be circumvented by using the Alexa Media Player integration to (a little bypassed) ask an Amazon Echo to launch an Alexa routine.

I will therefore have to start by creating a routine that unlocks the lock.

I create in Alexa a routine to unlock my Welock lock built into Alexa.

Bad news, I read all the forums a lot, obviously Amazon blocked the unlocking of locks via routines! And it seems to be a firm decision. They had added the specific authorisation for piloting through the app, they had added the specific authorisation for voice control (with a code) but at this stage, no authorisation for routines!! 

I don't give up, I keep looking for …

Since you can control the unlock by voice and a feature called ‘Custom’ allows you to ask Alexa something as if you were telling her by voice, I will try to ask for the lock to be unlocked.

I start the routine, patatra … he refuses, he asks me the voice code!! Well, I have to figure out how to give it to him in the order.

Here it is, I found:

So now I have a functional routine that unlocks the Welock lock.

For the purposes of the exercise, I named it ‘unlock’ to make it simple.

I go back to Home Assistant to test the service to trigger.

There, I searched a lot and here I give the result. You have to use the service media_player.play_media (yes, you had to find it), service of Alexa Media Player. Put an Amazon Echo, the one you want as a ‘target’ or as a ‘target/entity _id’ if you work in yaml.

Here is the command in graphic mode and in yaml:

action: media_player.play _media target: entity_id: media_player.salon data: media_content _id: unlock media _content _type: routine

At this point, it’s okay, when I launch this action, the lock unlocks.

I'm going to create an entrance that will symbolize locking the lock.

So I go to Settings / Devices and services / Inputs to add my switch which will carry the id:  input_boolean.lock_welock

I will do a mini-automation to relock the lock entity

I know that as soon as you switch to unlocked the lock, a few seconds later, it locks again, so that my Home Assistant interface is close to reality, I program this.

alias: Relock the lock Welock description: "" trigger: - platform: state entity _id: - input_boolean.lock_welock from: "off" to: "on" for: hours: 0 minutes: 0 seconds: 10 condition: [] action: - action: input_boolean.turn_off metadata: {} data: {} target: entity_id: input_boolean.lock _welock mode: single

I add the lock on my Dashboard

I have an archi-simple screen dedicated to my smartphone that allows me to check that the lights are off and allows me to open the gate or the front door, I will add the Welock lock on this format.

I have several ways, either the button intervenes to launch the script and the script changes the state of the input _boolean.serrure _welock or it intervenes on the entity and I detect the change of state to launch the script, I will take the second option. I therefore add this automation:

alias: Launch the Unlock script when pressing the Welock description button: "" trigger: - platform: state entity _id: - input_boolean.lock_welock from: "off" to: "on" condition: [] action: - action: script.unlock metadata: {} data: {} mode: single

It’s over!! My integration of the Welock connected lock in Home assistant is therefore carried out.

To be perfect, you would have to have the lock status (locked or unlocked) but the Welock skill does not give this information. This would have allowed me to have a real-time lock state. Too bad.

I now have a button that can unlock the Welock lock from my Home Assistant home automation interface.

A few questions

The RJ45 cable and the connector on the box are not explained anywhere.

At the time of the configuration of the gateway, I did not see any configuration via ethernet, I did not find any explanation anywhere and obviously the wifibox2 did not have an ethernet port, it is a novelty of version 3 but I cannot say how it works.

I understand the evolution because in the field of home automation, we consider that wifi is not a reliable protocol and that if we want to work in tcp/ip, we remain in ethernet, even if for me a network protocol is a matter, zigbee, zwave or other and not wifi or ethernet.

Conclusions on this gateway

Cons

  • The instructions for use are drastically outrageous, but they should not be provided. For a user, this type of document is experienced as disrespect.
  • The link with Alexa works but the dry contact has been forgotten, only the lock is controllable. It should be noted that there has been no return of status, which is a pity.
  • Lack of explanation on RJ45 connector or dry contact
  • The Android Welock app is poorly translated and unintuitive
  • The public price: 99€ for a BT/Wifi link is expensive, the packs with the locks make it possible to lower this price.
  • The absence of an AC/USB charger, only one USB cable provided. It is understood that this is due to the international sale of the product.

Pros

  • Dry contact is a real plus and good news
  • Alexa integration
  • The box is small (but it could still be reduced)
  • Simplicity of configuration
  • The presence of USB type C (and not micro-B as on some locks)
  • Finally with the explanations above, a possible integration in Home Assistant

 

 

 

 

Next steps and other tests related to this lock