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I had the U-Bolt Pro with a Wifi Bridge for over 3 years. My wife and I had the same fingerprint issues you did. While that is very bad problem, at least it was good everywhere else. Great battery life and very responsive unlocking, even over bluetooth. Even with the fingerprint issues, I was willing to overlook it and planned on getting one of their new locks. But I just can't deal with their price hikes. $250 for the fingerprint version when they sell a lock with the exact same features for 100 less? Yes the fingerprint reader is improved and I like the design, but fixing your problem and giving the lock a new coat of paint doesn't justify such a big price hike. And since I'm using Home Assistant, the one I really wanted was the Matter over Thread version. But that one is $300 and identical to this one in features. I ended up getting the Switchbot Lock instead. I like how feature rich it is and I have Matter support all for under $200. If this was $200 and the Matter version was $250, I think I would have stuck with U-Tec. But I didn't out of principal just because I felt they got too greedy with the pricing.

@michaelsleen

2 ай бұрын

The price point on smart locks can be tough, and those that are built to work with Apple Home seem to be at an even steeper price. I have a video on the SwitchBot lock with Matter coming soon. Thanks for sharing!

Yup. Send it back. That dodgy wifi connection *alone* should be enough to send it back, yet alone spinning apps etc.

@wscottfunk

2 ай бұрын

I agree, send it back with a thumbs down review. They should focus on Matter over WiFi and Matter over Thread connectivity. Lastly, if they're abandoning Home Assistant support, I'll do likewise and ignore them as well.

@michaelsleen

2 ай бұрын

Currently testing another that uses Matter over WiFi, so stay tuned.

15:52 - Honestly, if a lock can’t reliably lock and unlock, then it sounds like it’s a complete nonstarter?? It’s like, “You had ONE JOB, Ultraloq.”

@michaelsleen

2 ай бұрын

Yeah, it was disappointing. Put a lot of time into troubleshooting the connection, but to no avail.

@handcoding

2 ай бұрын

@@michaelsleen Other home-automation enthusiasts, like Smart Home solver, have cited very much the same issues. So I don’t think that it’s just you.

Seems like it's not ready for the market. Does the fingerprint sensor work if your fingers are moist, like after a run. A failing test for many fingerprint locks. What class is the lock - best is 1 (Schlage), 2 (Yale, Kiwiset), 3 (Aqara, many cheap locks). For me, HA and geofencing control, Apple Homekey would be nice for my wife's iphone. But absolutely no cloud, hubs or apps. My 2024 objective is to eliminate add-on hubs and apps. Except for HA Companion and Zigbee/Z-Wave cordinators. Local, Privacy, Chiice. No cloud.

@wscottfunk

2 ай бұрын

I've been eliminating cloud based devices and services over the past year. If it's cloud based, I won't even consider it. The last cloud-based device that I purchased was a Rheem ProTerra hybrid water heater but I've since eliminated their cloud dependence and control it locally. I use ESPHome Econet along with an M5Stack Atomic RS485 base and the Atom Lite C008 connected to the water heater via its RJ11 service port. 🚫☁️

@michaelsleen

2 ай бұрын

I also bias toward devices that do not depend on the cloud, though I have several still. As things need replacing, I look to local control. My Yale Assure 2 with Z-Wave has been 100% reliable.

I don't usually comment, but this is the worst smart lock I have ever used. They have a problem with their wifi connection and it prevented me from adding access codes even over Bluetooth. I worked with tech support and they told me this was a known bug and they plan to fix it in the future. They wouldn't let me return it because I was a few days past their return policy. I ended up removing the lock and throwing it away.

@michaelsleen

2 ай бұрын

Sorry to hear about the bad experience, though given the experience I documented in the video I’m not surprised.