How can I automate: RFID, door lock, LCD and speaker?

Setup, Configuration and Use Beginners
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I’m looking for advice on the best way to automate the scenario below. I’m new to openHAB and home automation but am a software engineer and am willing to write custom code if needed, but would obviously prefer to not reinvent the wheel! :grinning:

Desired Automation Scenario

Devices: Door with lock, RFID reader & chips (or similar device), LCD display, speaker.

  1. User walks up to a locked door, and scans their RFID chip. (Ideally user has RFID chip simply within a small ~5 foot proximity, which automatically triggers the reader.)
  2. LCD display shows their picture (previously taken).
  3. Speaker plays a sound custom to them.
  4. Door unlocks.

User Management

  • Be able to manage a list of users, each with their own set of configurations.
  • Each user has their own:
    – RFID chip
    – Picture
    – Sound clip (mp3, wav, etc)
    – Movie clip (mp4, youtube link, etc)
    – Role (team 1, team 2, etc)

Thoughts/Questions

  1. Is there a user management solution available to openHAB that allows me to add custom attributes to every user (like role, picture, sound clip, etc)? Or would that require openHAB to make an external API call to a custom user management system that I’d build out?
    – If an external API is the recommended approach for this level of custom user management, then is there any openHAB API best practices to follow here?
  2. Most other automation scenarios I’d like to perform revolve around knowing who the person is who triggered the action, and based on attributes in their profile, perform some sort of action.
  3. Can you recommend any existing plugin or physical devices that would best fit my needs?
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subscribing to this thread :slight_smile:

I don’t have the answers that you are looking for but I am interested in this scenario (for the door lock device choice but also for the entire concept).

Recently, I scanned the market for the “best” smart lock that would fit my needs and I am focused on: Danalock v3. It doesn’t have RFID support (it’s a Z-Wave (Sep '17) lock with Bluetooth for user access). It is quite new and I haven’t seen anyone use it yet with OH2 but I am sure that it will work with the secure Z-Wave binding.

Back to the “bigger picture” (I don’t want to hijack your thread and convert it into a door lock discussion :slight_smile:)

I am almost sure that you can do most of the stuff that you are looking for with openHAB (and extra “tools”)

OH2 doesn’t have (yet) a user management solution embedded but you could build that with different methods.
The best way to interface to OH2 would be through the REST API.

I tend to think about OH2 primarily as a very strong events engine / middle-ware with a very large number of integration options for external devices. Of course, it has very robust set of User Interfaces as well as strong back-end/core components.

As long as you can get info about the external devices into OH2, then you can use the generated events to trigger other actions (automating tasks/actions)

For example: You could have a standalone RFID reader (in case the door lock doesn’t have native RFID support) connected to OH2 which would report the ID of the user.
Then, based on this event (and depending on the userID), execute the other actions: unlock door using the smart lock, display an image or video to an LCD display, play a sound, enable a lighting scene, etc, etc.

The challenge will be to get all these devices connected (physically & logically) to OH2. There are several options to interface to external endpoints/devices (from full blown bindings to more “standard” methods like mqtt, http, snmp, exec, etc). An external endpoint could also be a separate piece of software that executes some logic (e.g. user management).