INSTEON MorningLinc

Posted on
Wed Aug 07, 2013 10:19 am
jay (support) offline
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INSTEON MorningLinc

This topic is to discuss the INSTEON MorningLinc lock controller that controls locks from Morning Industries. There is a previous topic that may be useful as background.

Device Details
How to use with Indigo

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Sun Aug 18, 2013 7:06 am
kw123 offline
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Re: INSTEON MorningLinc

As the range of the morninglinc is limited I might need 2 of the devices for the front and back doors.

Any issue with using 2 morninglincs for 4 doors?

thx

Karl

Posted on
Mon Aug 19, 2013 1:37 am
nsheldon offline
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Re: INSTEON MorningLinc

I have 1 MorningLinc and 1 MiLocks (a.k.a. Morning Industries) deadbolt, so I can't say for sure if using 2 would be an issue, but based on the setup process to link the MorningLinc to the deadbolt, you'd pretty much need 2 separate MorningLincs if you want to control 2 separate locks individually. Basically, the MorningLinc acts like any other Morning Industries wireless key. It must be linked to a lock before it'll work. This requires physical access to both the lock and the key (MorningLinc). So installing a second MorningLinc won't work with any of the locks until you link it to the one you want to control.

Posted on
Mon Aug 19, 2013 9:53 am
Dewster35 offline
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Re: INSTEON MorningLinc

At one time I was using one morninglinc / key fobs for three locks. From what I recall, this did work fine for the morning lincs.

The problem for us was that if we were approaching or leaving from a distance and used the fob, obviously the strength is getting reduced on the key fob for the locks that were furthest away... sometimes locking some doors and leaving others unlocked.

I finally just got a morninglinc to control each door individually and now our key fobs only unlock one door, the main door we use as entry. I like having the finer grain control and also feel better about the reliability... although, as I said, I don't recall having trouble with the morninglincs themselves working with the three locks.

Posted on
Fri Aug 23, 2013 4:07 pm
kw123 offline
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installing 2 doors on one morninglinc

installing 2+ doors on one morninglinc

The special instructions work fine to sync indigo with morninglinc (especially the double tap method).

I have one door synced and can lock and unlock from my iphone.

Next are door 2..4. Before I start and do some unintended unlinking here my question:

- No additional steps anymore in Indigo, just one on + one off link between indigo and morninglinc ?
- Sync has to be done between the morninglinc and the 2,3,4th locks .. same procedure as for the first door?

any experience?

And also: there is no status info on successful open / close of lock fed back to Indigo?

Karl

Posted on
Fri Aug 23, 2013 4:26 pm
nsheldon offline
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Re: installing 2 doors on one morninglinc

kw123 wrote:
- No additional steps anymore in Indigo, just one on + one off link between indigo and morninglinc ?
- Sync has to be done between the morninglinc and the 2,3,4th locks .. same procedure as for the first door?

The last time I synced the 1 MorningLinc with Indigo was when I replaced the 2413U PowerLinc Modem a number of months ago. If I recall correctly, yes, just 2 links to Indigo (one for off, one for on). I do remember having a lot of trouble, at least until I read the procedure more carefully and found I was doing it wrong. ;-)

kww123 wrote:
And also: there is no status info on successful open / close of lock fed back to Indigo?

Indigo does update the "on" and "off" state of the MorningLinc device, but it's no guarantee that the lock is actually locked or unlocked. MiLocks locks don't support 2-way communication. They're receive-only devices, so there's no way to verify locking state or to query status.

Posted on
Fri Aug 23, 2013 5:06 pm
Dewster35 offline
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Re: installing 2 doors on one morninglinc

nsheldon wrote:
kww123 wrote:
And also: there is no status info on successful open / close of lock fed back to Indigo?

Indigo does update the "on" and "off" state of the MorningLinc device, but it's no guarantee that the lock is actually locked or unlocked. MiLocks locks don't support 2-way communication. They're receive-only devices, so there's no way to verify locking state or to query status.


If you're using the morninglinc locks that have a knob attached, they can be hacked with an open close sensor to send the signal of whether they are locked or unlocked based on the position of the lock button. If you have that style of morninglinc, let me know and I can walk you through how I did it.

Posted on
Fri Aug 23, 2013 8:31 pm
kw123 offline
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Re: INSTEON MorningLinc

Dewster,

I have the dead bolt with key on the outside (no number pad) and lever on the inside.

yes, would be interested in the hack.

have 2 working now, ordered 2 more for the rest of the doors.

karl

Posted on
Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:45 am
Dewster35 offline
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Re: INSTEON MorningLinc

kw123 wrote:
Dewster,

I have the dead bolt with key on the outside (no number pad) and lever on the inside.

yes, would be interested in the hack.

have 2 working now, ordered 2 more for the rest of the doors.

karl


The hack only works if you don't have a deadbolt and are using the lock that has a knob attached.

This style:
http://www.amazon.com/MORNING-INDUSTRY- ... tries+knob

I've read in other sites of people putting a sensor inside of the deadbolt hole that is in your door jamb. When the deadbolt end comes close or in contact with the sensor, it gives you a true lock state.

Posted on
Sat Aug 24, 2013 12:07 pm
kw123 offline
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Re: INSTEON MorningLinc

anyway could you share?

Posted on
Sun Aug 25, 2013 2:51 pm
kw123 offline
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Re: INSTEON MorningLinc & triggerlinc in the lock

MorningLinc does not return status of the actual lock position and a triggerLinc normally does not fit into a Milock door lock.

If you check out the triggerlinc circuit board you see that the long thin part only has external connector and the set button. They can be cut off - that saves 1 inch length. Then the board fits lengthwise into the back of the Lock (electronic part), that part behind battery that is against the door.

Before you cut off I suggest you sync with indigo first (the switch will be gone).
if you do it afterwards you have to connect R6 (the side with the wire soldered to it) to be connected to ground to do the set function (I did not sync first).

Cut off the jumper. Then solder both pins together if you want to have std config (Lock Closed = off, Open = on)

Next take off the antenna, the battery connector, the LED, and bent the big capacitor around the board (the silver cylinder on the right side of the bottom picture.

Reconnect the antenna as show in the picture.

Now the board fits in all dimensions into the MiLock box.

Ground can be soldered onto one of the big areas on the board.
1.5V+ stays where it is and connects directly in the battery compartment to the top right battery connector (red cable on the left part of the board in top picture). That will deliver 1.5 V to the triggerLinc.

Next connect a wire (as thin as possible) to the middle switch of the position indicator. That switch is behind the metal plate (left part of bottom picture and top picture) that wire gets soldered to the jumper switch (the copper wire in the middle of top picture).

This setup behaves now like a setup like with an external switch.

In order to do this you have to have
- calm hands
- can solder
- should be able to measure voltages ...

The triggerlinc now indicates lock and unlock to indigo.

If anyone wants to know more details let me know.

Karl
Attachments
lock switch connector.JPG
lock switch connector.JPG (427.64 KiB) Viewed 11650 times
MiLock-triggerlinc.JPG
MiLock-triggerlinc.JPG (464.58 KiB) Viewed 11650 times

Posted on
Sun Aug 25, 2013 5:30 pm
Dewster35 offline
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Re: INSTEON MorningLinc

Much more elegant than my setup! I don't have a deadbolt so I put a zwave sensor in wired in a similar way. I opened up the deadbolt mortise slightly to fit it and ran the wires through into that hole. Nice work! You should contact morning industries and convince their to make an insteon compatible door lock and deadbolt.

Posted on
Mon Aug 26, 2013 4:23 am
midd offline
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Re: INSTEON MorningLinc

Nice work kw. That's just for a door knob style lock?

Can you post a screen shot of Indigo showing that it's locked?

Indigo 7, Monterey (12.1) on a 2009 Mac Pro..

Posted on
Mon Aug 26, 2013 9:14 am
kw123 offline
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Re: INSTEON MorningLinc

I believe the back plane (inside, behind the batteries) is the same for all types. This is where the triggerlinc goes. So it should work for all MiLocks.- no guarantee though.

As you can see from the screen shots when morningLinc changes also the 2 triggerlinc change ( I have them installed on 2 doors with one moringLinc). The reaction time for the triggerLinc to update Indigo is about 1 second. Don't know if that is important, but there is an insteon dimmer installed next to each of the door, so that the signal does not have to travel far (there is a lot of metal around the MiLock.

Keep in mind that on = open and off = locked. Thats how this setup / switch works. connecting it to the other leg of the little switch would expose the triggerlinc to too much voltage: The switch now is just open or closed (connected to ground), if connected to the other leg it would be ground and ~+3V and it would connect the electronics of the 2 systems. now only ground is connected.

Karl
Attachments
screenshot2.tiff
screenshot2.tiff (43.28 KiB) Viewed 11547 times
screenshot.tiff
screenshot.tiff (42.79 KiB) Viewed 11547 times

Posted on
Mon Aug 26, 2013 10:29 pm
kw123 offline
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Re: INSTEON MorningLinc

update, In the previous setup triggerLinc was in OFF state while morningLinc was in ON state if locked and visa versa. AND a cable had to be pulled through the whole system ...

Here is how to keep triggerLinc and morningLinc both
on = locked
off = unlocked
and the cable connection is much simpler.

As the triggerLinc switches (on/off) if the sensor is connected to ground THROUG A DIODE, instead of directly connection to ground it opens up an opportunity to connect the systems differently:

This allows to connect the switch input of the triggerLinc directly to the same switch as the MiLock electronics. Only when the switch gets connected to ground any current flows. If the voltage on the MiLock side is positive the diode prevents any current to flow. Hence the 2 systems are not linked.

pics 1 and 2 show how to set this up.
-The anode side of the diode (eg 1N4001 $0.1 @ radio shack) gets soldered to the triggerLinc board as shown to the jumper pins.
-The cathode side (the one with the black ring) connects through the red cable to the MiLock board. It gets soldered to the left pin of the white 4 block connector (thats where the cable to the switch comes in)

Karl

so far this thing works astonishingly well, ho hick-ups.
Attachments
diode 2.JPG
diode 2.JPG (126.31 KiB) Viewed 11370 times
diode 1.JPG
diode 1.JPG (164.28 KiB) Viewed 11370 times

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