Keyless Entry to your Condo
I live in a condo secured by incredibly expensive RFID Fobs. They cost ~$50 to replace, and ages to come. I have a tendency to leave my keys around, locking myself out. I would end up dialing my own door number, which would then ring my phone, to let myself in.
Instead, I wanted to have my doorbell require a password, and open if it passed. This way I could give the password to friends, who could let themselves in.
I needed to create a new telephone number, and hook that up to listen for a specific passcode. When it heard that passcode, it needed to reply with “9" to simulate me letting in my guest.
Using Twilio to Setup Passworded Entry to a Condo
- Register for Twilio
- Pick a number in your Condo’s Area Code
- When you’ve found a good number, buy it. It’s cheap at ~$1/mo. Incoming calls are $0.01c every call.
- Go to https://www.twilio.com/labs/twimlets/menu and enter in a message you want your guests to hear. I used “Hi, please enter the password.”
- We need to set the password. This is a simple menu generator, so we’ll make it so that when the user dials menu item “12345" they get redirected to the 9 dial tone. Change the Menu Item/Password to whatever you would like.
- In the “Go To” field, you need to find an audio file of the “nine” dialing sound. I found a really helpful page hosting them here: http://jetcityorange.com/dtmf/ Find the code you want (I used 9), right click, and “Copy Link Address” Paste that into the “Go To” field.
- In the next section, it should have built a long URL for you, such as http://twimlets.com/menu?Message=Hi%2C%20please%20enter%20the%20password&Options%5B12345%5D=http%3A%2F%2Fjetcityorange.com%2Fdtmf%2FDTMF-9.mp3& Copy that, and paste it into Twilio’s “Voice Request URL” field. Save it, and you’re done!
- To test, dial the number you generated. You should receive the message “Hi, please enter the password.” Dial 12345, and then you should hear the loud BEE” of a 9 dial tone. You’re in!
- Now, call your home management company and give them the new number for the door code. Don’t worry, they never dial the number to figure out that it’s a robot. When they’re done, go try it out!
I’ve been using this for months now, and it’s great when I want to go out and leave my keys at home (or I forget them!). Even better, if I’m hosting a party, I can have everyone let themselves in, rather than constantly buzzing people in. When the party’s over, I change the password — all secure again.