ControlThink Forums

http://consumer.schlage.com/link/ Very interested in coupling these with a program on the pc. Are they supported?

 Not yet, as we haven't gotten all the information required.  However, we are working on getting these locks working with our software. 

 Any news on adding support for these or any locks?

From another board, it seems that thse locks require new Z-Wave gear. From what I can gather:

 1) The extra security requires encryption. I think this requirs new dongles and/or dongle firmware.

2) Because these are battery devices and need to have decent battery life, they are asleep much of the time. The Z-Wave node closest to the lock must support the beaming feature so that it can wake up a sleeping lock. The plugin module sold by Schlage does this. Also, the software must configure the Z-Wave mesh topology to use this beaming node to control the lock.

 This is correct.  All of these new features require a later version of Z-Wave than is currently released.  When this version is a stable release, we will update TE and the SDK to support these new features.

Schlage has been running TV ads lately about why someone should buy their door locks and pay them $12.99 per month to use their system. One of their selling points is that I can unlock my door from anywhere in the world that has internet access.  Another feature is that their system will send me an email when the kids get home from school.

Maybe it's just me, but I can count the number of times I've needed to unlock my door from a remote location on one finger and still have one finger left over.  All their door locks have a numeric keypad, so if I ever did need to unlock my door for someone it seems like it would be easier for them to call me and I could give them a key sequence that was pre-programmed into the lock which would unlock the door.  Also it is not uncommon to have security storm doors these days.  So that would require having two Schlage locks...one for the wooden door and one for the security door.  And when I come home, I don't see how it would be more convenient to pull out my cell phone, access a website, and enter a code to unlock my door when I can simply walk up to the door, and push a few buttons to unlock the door. 

Secondly, I am more interested in being notified when someone kicks my door in while I'm not home and starts ransacking my house and hauling away all my stuff.  Let the kids call me on the phone when they get home like they have been doing for years.  From the research I've done, I don't believe that the Schlage door locks have any type of sensor to detect someone kicking my door in. 

Schlage advertizes that they support around 200 ZWave devices, but the reviews I have read suggest that their claim is greatly exaggerated.

Schlage and thier Link app may take-off and they may make a forture from it, but personally, I don't think it will.  For them to charge a $12.99 monthly fee to use their notification system is really crazy since I'm pretty sure they need access an app running on my computer using my internet service to be able to do anything.

Plato stated that necessity is the mother of invention, but in this case I don't see the necessity that spawned the invention.

Matt (CT):

 This is correct.  All of these new features require a later version of Z-Wave than is currently released.  When this version is a stable release, we will update TE and the SDK to support these new features.

So you actually believe they are actually using a z-wave standard rather than their own proprietary technology?

Vera has been supporting the Schlage locksets for quite some time now. My understanding is that there is another layer of encryption that is too much for the dongle itself to handle and requires a PC to pair-up/communicate. Hopefully support in the SDK comes soon as this has been personally holding me back from switching to ControlThink. I have absolutely no desire in learning Lua to customize my Vera.