I’m looking for a smart lock for my house and I’ve seen these at a pretty interesting price on Aliexpress (https://a.aliexpress.com/_mMbQRZx), it says that it can be controlled with the tuya app and I have some old plugs integrated from that app, but I also have a lamp that connects to that app but not to the home assistant. Does anyone know if I will have problems integrating this lock into my system? Does anyone have this model or similar?
thanks for the help
Watch the “Lockpicking Lawyer” on YT and see how quickly he opens such locks. For many smart locks, you don’t even need picking skills. A lot open to combing or raking, Ort simply apply a strong magnet at the right place.
I think if you get a smart lock from AliExpress you’re basically inviting someone to rob your house.
Tuya devices are not known for being particularly secure
Tuya is the real issue, but yeah, for a house lock I’d only go with a reputable zigbee/zwave/wired solution.
I can’t see it but the only smart lock i would ever consider is a z wave/zigbee device. Never trust Wi-Fi devices with security. It’s just to open to attack.
No radio signal/standard/encryption will stay secure in the future. Use a cable whenever possible.
As long as those cables are secure. Can i just pull off your ipcam, plug in an rpi and pillage a network?
Yeah good luck with not getting caught. Climbing a ladder an trying to fiddle with a cable on a foreign house.
Oorrr sitting in a van around the corner and hacking the radio signal…
Jup there is no question (for me) what is more secure in the long run. And that’s the important question when choosing home automation equipment. In my opinion. Of course wifi/ZigBee etc is easier to setup (if you don’t build the house from scratch)
I would not want anything that requires a cloud connection to be responsible for securing my house. The security record of these smart locks also isn’t great.
The final question you need to ask yourself is how they fail safe? There have been Tesla owners trapped in burning cars. If, god forbid, your house caught fire can you get out of your door secured with a smart lock?
Yes, working through a third-party cloud is not ideal, but I have not seen anything that matches the price/simplicity and is self-hosted.
Regarding security, I don’t have it so I can’t confirm it 100%, but it’s not supposed to override the traditional key or block the handle, so you shouldn’t have that problem.
If you’re set on these devices, maybe have a look at the open-source projects meant to strip Tuya devices from their Cloud dependencies. There’s some aftermarket firmware available for some devices. And we have projects like TuyAPI, Local Tuya, tuya-mqtt… It involves some tinkering, but some of these devices work with new firmware or a fake version of the API. And there might be some information on specific devices in the HomeAssistant forum. With a bit of luck, someone already tried it. I generally don’t buy devices unless there’s some info in the forum.
I use a Nuki Smart Lock Pro for mine (US Version), With this one, it still allows you to unlock your door with your usual house key which is perfect for renters and those who share access. Before this, I used an August Lock. Both of which can interface easily with Home Assistant for example making them cloud free if you should decide to. The Nuki lock for me is better and much nicer than the August (I had the Model 2). It offers local control and also cloud if you want to be able to unlock your door from the office for example.
You have to be careful with Tuya. Tuya allows makers to build products and resell them under a white label system, this can often result in copy cat products. Some companies more secure than others. With the Tuya cloud cutter, this will work and permanently decouple your device from Tuya, but only if it’s supported. I use
the above Tuya controllers for some of my items and each supplements the other. I have a Tuya Dehumidifier, a CO2 detector, camera, light bulbs, panic alarm and a home alarm all of which I can control locally without the Tuya Cloud using thie local keys you can get from Tuya’s site.I keep the tuya plugin so I can log in and control some of those devices which don’t have a local key (there are a few), the Xtend Tuya can often provide more functions and then of course the local Tuya plugins for what I can control locally.
Avoid Tuya wifi devices. They’re nothing but trouble, requiring all kinds of hacks to get working locally, and even then can still be a headache.
If you really want the lock, try to see if you can run the Tuya cloud cutter on it, so it’ll be a truly local device. Then control it via HA, using a VPN or HA Cloud if you need remote access.
The only smart locks I’ve seen are expensive and can be defeated using simple methods.
