Posted by on 5/2/2017
Everybody loves a nice simple home automation project. In this article, we're going to show you how to build a DIY remote control door lock for your home or office.
RC door locks have been around for several years now in various forms. The main problem with the commercially available options is that they're very expensive. It's typical for one of these units to cost $200 or more. You might be willing to shell out that much for a lock on your front door, but what if you want remote locks somewhere else in your home?
You might want to remote control a lock on a garage or bedroom door. In my home, the lock system I built below is going to be installed on my shop to keep the kids out.
Control system
For this project, I've used an Actuonix Wireless remote control. These units come ready to go out of the box and are a plug and play setup with any of our "S" series (2-wire) micro linear actuators. The remotes that come with the kit are fairly small and will look nice on your key chain. They feature a blue light that illuminates when one of the two buttons is depressed.
The wireless remote control wiring instructions can be found here.
The wireless remote control wiring instructions can be found here.
Hardware
You're going to need a standard sliding bolt lock for this project. I bought this particular one at my local hardware store but they're available at Home Depot or Amazon, probably for a little less money.For connecting the actuator to the lock I used a piece of wire that i had laying around. There's not much to this, you just need to use something that's solid enough to drive the lock yet flexible enough to not break if it binds up for some reason. You also need to think about how you will mount it to the clevis tip on the actuator. The wire I used already had a hole in the end so I didn't have to worry about this.
Actuator
I'm driving the lock with an L16-S actuator. These are a great deal at $70 and are a plug and play with our remote control kit. Two wires in, two wires out. It's that simple. You might need an actuator with a different stroke depending on the travel of the lock that you buy. Make sure to measure before ordering!
When you're installing the lock, make sure to put the sliding bolt portion on the wall rather than the door. The box needs to plug into the wall and you don't want to have extra wires hanging from your door.
It's also important to make sure that your bolt is perfectly aligned with the locking piece that mounts on your door. If it's not, your lock might bind up and ruin the actuator or possibly bend the connecting rod.
Check out the video below for full details on how we built this project.
That's all there is to building a DIY remote controlled door lock for your home or office. What are you going to use yours for? I'm thinking to build a smaller version in the future to lock the drawer on my bedside table to prevent my son from getting in there!