I’m super excited about my recent purchase of the NUKI Smart Lock Pro Gen 4! It’s working really well so far, and I’ve started exploring its integration with Home Assistant and automation.
I was wondering if it would be possible to add an extra feature to the Matter integration for Nuki in Home Assistant. Specifically, I’m looking for a “half-unlock” option that would prepare the door for a complete unlock.
Here’s my idea:
When I’m in proximity to the house, the lock would perform a first turn (half-unlock), prepping the door.
Then, when I arrive at the door and scan my card on the reader, it would complete the final unlock and open the door fully.
This setup would streamline access and make the experience incredibly seamless. Could you guide me on how I might achieve this on my own, or if such a feature could be implemented in the Matter integration?
Thanks so much for your time and help—it would absolutely make my day and make me even more thrilled about my Nuki!
Half unlock as such does not exist, but what yields similar results is:
If you have a door with a latch, you can unlock it while you approach and unlatch it when you are right in front of it (e.g. in expert settings of Auto Unlock in Nuki App or with an automation in HA).
You can use 1x locking (activate in settings of the Nuki App), which will only “half lock” the door when you lock it. i.e. when you come back home it will open faster. It can be combined with 2x locking during night hours by turning on Night mode. Locking a “half locked” door will fully lock it.
Thank you for your detailed reply and for suggesting the options with the Auto Unlock expert settings and the 1x locking feature. These are very helpful ideas to explore!
That said, I must admit I’m a bit disappointed with the current feature set of the Matter integration. If it were to be ranked based on the Home Assistant Quality Scale, it might only qualify as a Bronze-quality integration at best.
I understand the intention to focus on your own ecosystem, but considering how premium the Nuki product is, I had higher expectations for this integration. Of course, this feedback comes in good faith — we all want these products to be the best they can be!
Building on this, I was wondering if the Nuki Web API supports the possibility of performing a single-turn action (equivalent to 1x locking or unlocking). Specifically, is it possible to use the API to send a command that performs only one turn instead of the full locking or unlocking process? that way i could achieve what i want to do without more involvement from the nuki dev team.
That’s defined by the Matter spec and what other ecosystems (e.g. Apple Home, HA, …) implement of it. The Lock cluster has only very few things that are mandatory (basically just the lock state and lock/unlock commands).
If you use Home Assistant you can use the MQTT API (also via Thread), which offers more features.
No. There is no specific lock action for it. If you want it, feel free to add a feature request and start collecting votes for it.
You can use 1x locking (activate in settings of the Nuki App), which will only “half lock” the door when you lock it. i.e. when you come back home it will open faster. It can be combined with 2x locking during night hours by turning on Night mode. Locking a “half locked” door will fully lock it.
@Juergen - thanks for the tip on this option. Question for you/potential enhancement - if the lock activates 2x locking when Night Mode starts, I see that there is a section called ‘Scheduling’ in the Night Mode screen. When you go into that screen I see that you can add one of 3 options as the Action (Unlock, Lock, Open door) - if we have 1x locking enabled, and choose Unlock as the Action, will that perform a full 2x unlock or will that option just perform a 1x unlock (effectively leaving the door locked but with only 1 full turn rather than 2)? If not, the enhancement suggestion is to add an additional Action option to effectively set the day up with the lock on 1x unlock (reserve of Night Mode) - hope that makes sense?
The motor drives the lock into unlocked position. i.e. the door is unlocked after executing an unlock action. This is similar to executing an unlock after the door was manually locked with a key or the thumb turn, it is never exactly at the same position and could be anywhere between 1x locked and 2x locked (or even more).
as a follow up question now that i’ve had my nuki for a bit longer, do you know if the Nuki Ultra will feature a stronger motor than the gen 4 pro ? mine will not unlock when the temperature drops below 0. do you know if the ultra will be the same 4nm or a bit more ?
This is offtopic here, anyhow: The motor of the ultra has about the same strength as the 4th gen. But this also depends on the motor speed setting and the setup of the door (e.g. where it exactly blocks when temps are low). It’s not possible to have a general rule here.
