Published September 20, 2022 © CC BY

How to open a door from your smartphone

In this project you'll learn how to use a Shelly relay and the Arduino IoT Remote mobile app to open a door from a smartphone

BeginnerFull instructions provided6,499

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Shelly 1

USB-TTL serial adapter

I used the one by DSD-TECH, easily available. Any other option will work but make sure it works at 3.3V and it's advertised to be compatible with esp8266 or esp32 devices.

Software apps and online services

Arduino IoT Cloud

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Breadboard, 170 Pin

Not strictly necessary, but it simplifies wiring a bit while programming the board.

10 Pc. Jumper Wire Kit, 5 cm Long

Make sure you have a few jumper wires to program the board.

Story

Overview

I have a door with electric lock that I wanted to open also when I don't have the keys with me, or when I want to let someone in but I'm not there.

The lock, working at 24V.

The best candidate for the project was a Shelly 1 relay, because:

It's inexpensive and easily available on Amazon

It's small and comes with its little plastic enclosure (so it can be fitted in an existing electric box)

It can be powered at 110-240V AC or 12-60V DC without the need of any additional power supply

It provides a dry contact (so it can drive my 24V electric lock directly)

It's super easy to program with Arduino

For the software side of things I decided to use the IoT Remote mobile app from Arduino, which is available for free and allows you to create a simple interface without writing any code. This solution handles all the network part for me, so I don't have to worry about setting up a web server, exposing it to the public Internet, handling authentication, coding a remote communication protocol etc. Everything is already managed by Arduino Cloud and my code becomes very simple.

A few words about security

When it comes to opening a real-world door, we all should be a bit paranoid. The Arduino IoT Remote app requires authentication, and you can configure your Arduino account to require two-step authentication for additional security so this is already a good start. However, I wanted to do something more by implementing a simple One-Time Password (OTP) mechanism like the one you use to access your bank account. I do trust Arduino Cloud, but with this solution even if someone can somehow step into the communication channel between my phone and the device, they won't be able to open the door because they'd need an OTP to be generated by the Google Authenticator app configured on my phone.

Step 1: configure Arduino Cloud

This part is very simple, just follow these steps (in case of doubts have a look at the official tutorials):

1. Create a free account in Arduino Cloud

2. Create a new device, selecting "Generic 8266 Module" as board type. You'll get a secret key: copy-paste it somewhere.

3. Create a new thing, and configure it with your WiFi credentials as well as the secret key you just got.

4. Add one variable to the thing, called "access_code". Make it a string variable and leave all the defaults unchanged.

5. Create a new dashboard and add a "messenger" widget to it. Link the widget the the access_code variable.

That's it! Pretty easy, huh?

Step 2: connect the Shelly 1 to your PC

1. Get your USB-TTL serial adapter and make sure it's working at 3.3V.

2. Dismantle the Shelly 1 enclosure to access the programming pins.

3. See the pinout on the Shelly website and connect its pins as follows [Shelly -> USB-TTL adapter]:

GND -> GND

GPIO0 -> GND

3.3V -> VCC

RXD -> TXD

TXD -> RXD

In order to connect both GND and GPIO (on the Shelly) to GND (on the USB-TTL adapter) you may want to use a breadboard, but any other method is fine.

Now plug the USB-TTL adapter into your PC.

Step 3: configure Google Authenticator

In order to use the One-Time Password approach you'll need to set up Google Authenticator on your phone, which is very easy as it just requires a QR code and it will do everything.

To generate the QR code you can use this very convenient online page provided by Luca Dentella (author of the TOTP Arduino library). Configure the fields as follows:

Account name: empty (doesn't matter)

Issuer: the name you want to see in Google Authenticator (eg. "My Door")

Secret: a random series of characters, make sure it's very random and nobody knows it. You don't need to write it down elsewhere.

Algorithm: SHA256

Now press the "Go" button and you'll get a nice QR code: scan it with Google Authenticator and you're all set!

Finally, copy the values of the "Arduino HEX array" and "Key length" fields into the sketch code provided in this page. Your phone and your Arduino code are now paired.

Step 4: program the Shelly 1

Now follow these steps:

1. Take the sketch code and copy-paste it into the "Sketch" section of the thing you just created, in the web interface of Arduino IoT Cloud.

2. Click on "Open full editor"; then click on the three dots and select "Download sketch" to download the sketch locally.

3. Open the sketch with the Arduino IDE.

4. Fill the values in the arduino_secrets.h tab (your WiFi credentials and the secret key you got in step #1).

5. Install a recent esp8266 core:

Open Preferences

Add "https://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json" to the Additional Board Manager URLs field

Open Boards Manager from Tools > Board menu and find the "GenericESP8266Module" board

Click Install to install the latest core

6. Install the following libraries:

ArduinoIoTCloud by Arduino

TOTP library by Luca Dentella

7. Select the board serial port.

8. Hit "Compile & Upload"

At this point, your Shelly 1 device should be flashed and ready to be used!

NOTE: downloading the sketch and using the Arduino IDE is usually not necessary with Arduino Cloud as everything can be done from the web interface (which by the way has all cores and libraries preinstalled). However this project requires a recent esp8266 core which is not available yet on Arduino Cloud. As soon as the Arduino team upgrades the esp8266 core on the cloud, this paragraph can be replaced by a much easier web-based procedure.

Step 5: install your Shelly 1

At this point, you're ready to install everything:

1. Remove any wires from the Shelly 1.

2. Make sure you set the jumper on the Shelly according to the desired voltage (see the Shelly documentation, this is very important).

3. Wire the Shelly 1 to your electric lock and input power.

Step 6: test everything

At this point you should be able to generate an OTP code from Google Authenticator and write it in the dashboard widget you created earlier: your door will open!

If it doesn't seem to work, here are some troubleshooting hints:

Is the board replying "Invalid code" in the dashboard widget? If so, you need to redo more carefully the pairing with Google Authenticator. Make sure you copy the hex array into the sketch before flashing it to the Shelly.

If the messenger widget is totally silent after you send a code, it means the board is not connected to the cloud. Open the "thing" page in IoT Cloud and check if the board is marked online with a green dot. If it's not, double check the WiFi credentials you wrote in the sketch.

Also, double check the input power of your Shelly: the jumper should be set according to your desired input voltage (AC vs. DC), and polarity must be respected (L/N for AC, +/- for DC). If you set the jumper to the wrong position, good chances are you fried your Shelly!

Code

Arduino sketch for Shelly 1

#include "thingProperties.h"
#include <TOTP.h>
#include <NTPClient.h>
#include <WiFiUdp.h>

// OTP configuration
uint8_t hmacKey[] = {0x2, 0x63};
constexpr int keySize = 2;

TOTP totp = TOTP(hmacKey, keySize);
WiFiUDP ntpUDP;
NTPClient timeClient(ntpUDP, "time.ien.it");

constexpr int SHELLY_RELAY = 4;

void setup() {
  // Connect to Arduino IoT Cloud
  initProperties();
  ArduinoCloud.begin(ArduinoIoTPreferredConnection);
  
  // Initialize variables and pins
  access_code = "";
  pinMode(SHELLY_RELAY, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(SHELLY_RELAY, LOW);
}

void loop() {
  ArduinoCloud.update();
}

// Handle incoming messages
void onAccessCodeChange()  {
  if (access_code == "") return;
  
  timeClient.update();
  unsigned long now = timeClient.getEpochTime();
  String correct_code = totp.getCode(now);

  if (access_code == correct_code) {
    digitalWrite(SHELLY_RELAY, HIGH);
    delay(700);
    digitalWrite(SHELLY_RELAY, LOW);
    access_code = "Door open!";
  } else {
    access_code = "Invalid code";
  }
}

How to open a door from your smartphone

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Overview

A few words about security

Step 1: configure Arduino Cloud

Step 2: connect the Shelly 1 to your PC

Step 3: configure Google Authenticator

Step 4: program the Shelly 1

Step 5: install your Shelly 1

Step 6: test everything

Schematics

Wiring (only for programming)

Code

Arduino sketch for Shelly 1

Credits

alranel

Comments

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How to open a door from your smartphone

How to open a door from your smartphone

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Overview

A few words about security

Step 1: configure Arduino Cloud

Step 2: connect the Shelly 1 to your PC

Step 3: configure Google Authenticator

Step 4: program the Shelly 1

Step 5: install your Shelly 1

Step 6: test everything

Schematics

Wiring (only for programming)

Code

Arduino sketch for Shelly 1

Credits

alranel

Comments

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