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

1. Register for Twilio
2. Pick a number in your Condo’s Area Code
3. When you’ve found a good number, buy it. It’s cheap at ~$1/mo. Incoming calls are $0.01c every call.
4. 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.”
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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!
8. 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!
9. 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.