Ubiquiti G4 Pro Doorbell New Features

With the new release of Unifi Protect, originally featured when this doorbell was release almost 2 years ago, it does came slightly late than never. This doorbell now support fingerprint and NFC.

To use this features, you will need to have some home automation or have a Unifi Access setup. I am not an office owner and only a simple home owner. So I do have my smart home setup using Homey Pro. Why I did not choose other platform, I will leave that to another article. I was able to refer to a video using Home Assistant and Ubiquiti G4 Pro and decide to try it on Homey Pro.

Back to our main topic. The registration of fingerprint and NFC is very simple, you can just add them easily and follow the screen procedure on the G4 Pro doorbell.

When you click on Add New (fingerprint), you will get a prompt and select a user. If the user is new, you can just add one. You do not need to assign any roles, it can be just a simple user with a name.

Press and register your fingerprint on the reader till you reach 100%. Tilt and turn your finger so it capture the bigger surface area.

Choose a user or add a new one.

Once that is done you will be able to just press the read and it will recognize the user and displaying the user name.

Unifi Protect with this update also include a new notification manager call Alarm Manager.

I created an alarm for known fingerprint and push out a Webhook. You can either push that to Slack or for my case, custom to my Homey Pro.

With my Smart Home integration with Homey Pro, I will then unlock my door and send a message to my user as a notification to my Homey mobile app.

I will not recommend any NFC card access, as it only register typical NFC card, those can be easily duplicated. It can register encrypted ones e.g. HID, but it cannot read from it after to use as an access. It is a bummer.

A video on how it looks like. A next article to show my Webhook integration into Homey Pro. 

p.s. my fingerprint sensor on my smart lock is no longer working so this feature comes just in time instead of number pad access which is very cumbersome.

Smart Home Part 1: Selecting a Smart Home Controller

It's been two years since I have moved into my new apartment. I took the effort to plan and design my home automation system. Saving big dollars from those that provide the services.

The total material I calculated, cost me about SGD$5,000. But it is worth it. Having to integrate it with Amazon Alexa and Google Home, everything is almost complete.

I have not been updating this blog much as I am busy with my life and having another technology blog going one as well.

Now I am going to start a series of Home Automation series articles to help those who are planning to start this journey decide on their own.

I am an IT professional and do not co-sell or own any Smart Home company. What I share here is my own journey and advice to those who intend to do it yourself. I can try to answer as many questions as I may but I do not guarantee you a solution. Some have asked me to provide my service, but it needs some help from your electrician or interior designer who you are working with. I, myself cannot complete without working with these people.

First stop, selecting a Smart Home controller. Before you start with your Smart Home planning, you need to choose a smart home controller. There are many controllers on the market and there are many pros and cons to the one you picked.

I started off with Vera Plus. This is what I call a cheap man solution. I didn't want to spend too much on my automation. Later on, I needed more to be work on. I started to write the LUP code which Vera use to program more complex logic. It didn't work that well. In the end, I switch out from Vera to Homey.

So what do you look for in a controller? It will depend on what device do you want to integrate with.

What are the things you want to control with your smart home? E.g. lights, switches, motors, aircon, etc.
You need to decide what are the items you like to control. As the controller that you choose must be able to work with all these devices or support these devices. Smart Home controller typically support a few protocols (just like your Wifi signal at home use to have B, G, and now N). The most popular ones will be Zwave and ZigBee. Some also support RF, Bluetooth, etc. The devices that support such protocols ranges. They may be available in Singapore or you would need to import them e.g. Amazon. Also, there is two frequency that these protocols runs on, mostly US and EU. The official one that is supported in Singapore is neither. Surprisingly Singapore uses Korean frequency. The among of device would be so limited. However, I started off with the UK so I just stayed with it. Choose the protocol that supports the devices you want to control then find the right controller.

Do you need to integrate with Voice systems like Google Home and Amazon Echo?
If the above is yes, make sure you check out the controller that support either one of them or both. I started with Vera Plus which only support when you run a bridge to integrate them. However, the bridge is no longer needed using the latest firmware from Vera for Amazon Echo and Google Home has also stopped allowing the bridge. In such, my voice command ended up with Amazon Echo and no more with Google Home.

Where do I start and which device manufacturer for devices I want to control do I look for?
This is a good question. I often ask my friends to start with On/Off switches to control lights. So I do not use expensive light bulbs such as Philips Hue but rather use the normal LED lights and have the switch to control it. But, do note that if your lights are dimmer lights, do get a switch that supports it. Also if you choose to use back your normal switch due to most reason as it looks good or fit your home, you can purchase a switch module to make those switches smart. E.g. are Fibaro Zwave modules. This includes motor roller switches for blinds or garage doors, dimmer lights, etc.

Where do I start?
Do your research. What devices do you want to control? Are those controlled by infrared (IR), Radio frequency (RF), Zwave, Zigbee, Wifi, etc.? Decide on one that can do the majority of your device and see if it can integrate to complement those that can't to start doing. Giving you an example, for my TV and Media player, I use Logitech Harmony Remote/Hub, this control all my IR device and it can integrate with Vera Plus as Vera wasn't able to do IR. Currently, have switched to Homey.