How To Set Up Apartment Buzzer

Automating My Apartment Door Buzzer

How I turned my dumb intercom smart, and made information technology accessible via my iPhone, the cyberspace and SMS using the Shelly platform.

Goal: control the buzzer that opens the main door to my apartment building using my smartphone without replacing any of the legacy hardware.

With under $20 in parts and another $20 in software I was able to gear up my erstwhile school apartment front door buzzer and so that I can command it via my iPhone, the net or SMS.

I tin even whitelist my guests' phone numbers so when they text our "Butler Number" the front door will open for them as well!

This took me a couple of days of hacking around to figure out, but following this guide, it should be an afternoon project or faster.

Setting Upwards the Shelly 1

Take the cover off the wall mounted intercom / buzzer.
Determine what contact points needed to exist closed to trigger the lock (for me this involved looking at the push button and visually post-obit the trace on the PCB, and so testing it by using a wire to jump the switch and listening through the apartment for the Buzz.) I also used my multimeter to make up one's mind the voltage (in my case information technology was ~ 12v).
Attach wires to the contact points in the intercom and run them into the
I / O pins on the Shelly i.
Attach the ability source to the Shelly i via the L/Due north pins.
Follow the ready-up instructions for the Shelly and get it connected to your local wifi network.
Gear up upwardly the Shelly 1 every bit a switch with an automatic 3 second turn off (If you lot don't do this, the door will proceed buzzing to let people in until you press the button to plough it off once again.)
Put the intercom dorsum together and clean upwardly your wires.

Congrats! At this point you lot should be able to command your door buzzer using the Shelly app on your phone or through the cloud interface!

In that location is a incredibly helpful official facebook back up group for the Shelly that tin can assistance you if you go stuck.

You could stop hither if yous want, but if you'd similar to larn how to access your Shelly via the cyberspace directly or to prepare a phone number you tin text to open your forepart door, read further!

Controlling the Shelly via the Internet.

Secure the Shelly 1 interface page via 'settings' in the the app and prepare a username and countersign (this prevents anyone from controlling your Shelly from the internet)
Ready port forwarding on your home router (this tutorial helped me!)
Gear up Noip.com for your router and then that y'all can have a static web address — there is a free and paid version.
Now you can admission the control page for the Shelly from whatsoever internet connection and yous tin too use the API functionality.

Now, anytime someone visits the post-obit link, the lock will automatically open for 3 seconds.

http://username:password@XXXXXX.ddns.net/relay/0?turn=on

You could but share this link with your guests or you could call this as a webhook from an app and open the door on command.

Decision-making the Shelly via SMS

Now that your Shelly is accessible via a webhook, there are many means y'all could implement a solution that allows you to open your door via SMS.

What follows is a unproblematic way I found to practise it using Twilio and Textit.in.

This is by no means the best /only / cheapest solution, but information technology works for me.

If you lot find a dissimilar way you prefer, please let me know in the comments section.

Setting up Twilio + Textit.in

Create a Twilio business relationship and buy a phone number. (At that place is a free demo bachelor!)
Create a Textit.in business relationship and connect your Twilio Account as a channel
Create a Textit.in Flow that calls a webhook to your Shelly.
Customize your Flow to your centre'southward content!

My flow is pretty complex and allows me to invite others via text and automatically grant their phone number admission, asking wifi password reminders, and has limited password protection and so non simply anyone tin text "door" to my number and open the door.

A Note on Security

Exposing your Shelly to the internet via port forwarding increases your risk as you are providing a way through your home firewall.

Additionally, providing an SMS access point to your Shelly is also creating a state of affairs in which people could gauge your telephone number and get access to your front door if you don't build in boosted password protection.

Further, if someone were to send lots of texts to my current system, they could run my bill up considerably!

Delight consult with experts and proceed at your own hazard!

Big thanks to the folks in the Shelly facebook group for answering my questions and helping me go this ready upwardly in record time!

If you similar hacking, DIY and otherwise creative projects, you may exist interesting in joining me at my new project, Isla Majagual — where I am creating an eco-visionary hamlet and collaborative inspirational gathering on a tropical island in Panama! Yes, we bought an Isle!