Managing Elk and Z-Wave Lock Users (Looking for Ideas)

[PLCGuy]

I have a half dozen Yale Z-Wave locks and an Elk M1 Alarm System which has been installed now for about  decade. While the system works well, one of my ongoing frustrations is trying to coordinate the Users and User Codes between these devices. Every time a new tradesperson needs access to our home, I spend at least a half hour manually loading in the new access code into the locks and the ELK. Plus, with a decade of adds, removes and changes, I'm sure the user numbers and codes are an inconsistent mess across these devices. 

So I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to programmatically manage users across these devices. Even a way to dump the list of user numbers and codes from all the Z-Wave locks would be nice. Bonus points for a way to assign user name strings in the EISY - I haven't noticed any options for assigning string variables in the EISY. 

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[dbwarner5]

what I do is have several categories of users... so if. block get unlocked by lets say a cat 1 user, the ISY disarms the Elk security, after noting what what state it was in. Then appropriate lights, water pump etc may turn on.

Then when this person leaves and locks the door, then the ISY re-arms the elk security based on the right setting. This way, I am only managing the user codes on the locks. 

I get a pushover notification  that the lock was unlocked by user x, along with the list of which users are which number so I can see immediately who unlocked the door. 

The different categories are basically three: one for me and wife, two for family members or those staying at the house, and three, short term visitors.

The whole house is set to respond to the appropriate category / season for heating etc. The pushover notification, also follows up in the instance of an exit with a status of the house so I know things got reset correctly for vacation modes etc. 

Hope that helps. 

As for users on your current locks, you can easily factory reset the locks to erase all the codes and start over. 

 

[PLCGuy]

On 10/29/2023 at 10:47 AM, dbwarner5 said:

As for users on your current locks, you can easily factory reset the locks to erase all the codes and start over. 

Thanks but that is exactly what I want to avoid. As I noted in my question, “every time a new tradesperson needs access to our home, I spend at least a half hour manually loading in the new access code into the locks and the ELK”.  So resetting my six locks and then having the approximately two dozen users re-enter their access codes in each lock would be a wonderful way to waste a few days of my time. I want to manage the various users, not start all over. 

[dbwarner5]

14 hours ago, PLCGuy said:

Thanks but that is exactly what I want to avoid. As I noted in my question, “every time a new tradesperson needs access to our home, I spend at least a half hour manually loading in the new access code into the locks and the ELK”.  So resetting my six locks and then having the approximately two dozen users re-enter their access codes in each lock would be a wonderful way to waste a few days of my time. I want to manage the various users, not start all over. 

got it.. i dont think there is a way to see the list of current users, unfortunately. Why do you have to give a tradesperson access to all locks? maybe just use one code, ie: 1234, on one door and one special user like 50, and then just delete that user after that tradesman had finished...and then just repeat the process each time you have a tradesperson....probably dont understand your situation fully..