Software User Guide

for HAUS Gatekeeper Home Premium




Introduction

HAUS Gatekeeper Home Premium runs a versatile custom software built on our advanced HAUS IoT firmware platform. This makes the operation and the user interface familiar for those who already use other HAUS products.

This guide describes the internal mechanisms and all details of the user interface, let you understand the use and effect of configuration options and precise operation of controls.

Boot sequence

HAUS Gatekeeper performs below steps during power-on or restart:

  1. Read configuration from flash memory

  2. Initialize peripherals

  3. Starting (enabled) services:

  1. Establish Wi-Fi AP (if enabled)

  2. Start WebUI

  3. Connect to Wi-Fi network (if configured)

  4. Connect to MQTT (if configured and connected to Wi-Fi)

  5. Sync system time with NTP

Initial configuration guide

You find a quick guide on initial configuration in the User Manual of your product. It is only an excerpt, but a good starting point. You may find more detailed information below in this document.

Interfaces

The main user interface of HAUS IoT controllers is a web-based configuration interface, called WebUI.

A fully featured remote configuration and control interface is also available via MQTT.

As Gatekeeper is is normally installed in an inaccessible location, so the physical user interfaces are limited to a push button and a status LED.

A fully featured mobile app comes in the near future.

WebUI

WebUI is the main user interface for configuration. It supports both mobile and desktop browsers and screen sizes.

Login and user account

You can login to WebUI with the web admin user account. At a time you may login from only one place. If you login from multiple devices simultaneously, the newest session remains active and invalidates the others. You may find the Log out option at the end of the main menu.

Layout

In desktop browsers WebUI renders an always visible left side menu and the rest of the screen is used for main content.

In mobile browsers WebUI utilizes the full screen for main content and main menu may be invoked and dismissed with the triple bar menu button.

Device status

Status page provides status information on configured device identity, connections, gate, lamp and sensor states and values, running time since last reboot and other useful information.

If the device is connected to your home Wi-Fi, then its IP address is also displayed. You can use this IP address to access this device from your home Wi-Fi network.

HAUS IoT controllers have LiquidConfigconfiguration technology built-in, which saves configuration changes in batches to non-volatile memory. Persistent configuration status shows whether recent changes are already saved. Changes are saved automatically in 10 minutes, but you can save manually with “Save now” button displayed here, if you intend to save changes and switch off or reboot the device sooner.

Security warnings section gives you useful hints to make your device more secure. Once you perform hardening steps (e.g. change passwords from default), the warnings are ceased. See Security Hardening Guide for further information and suggestions.

Device identity

Device name identifies your device and it is used as client ID on the MQTT interface, and as a hostname on your local network. It is also used to address the device in remote applications, like MQTT Dash.

Region name is used to subscribe to OwnTracks region events with given region name. Actions may be performed on events, like entering or leaving region. See details and how to configure actions at Location beacons section of this document.

Region location info is not used, yet, but will enable alternative and more advanced location based services in the future.

System time is used only for timestamping debug printouts, but will enable scheduled actions in the future. UTC and Central European Time can be selected.

WiFi settings

HAUS IoT controllers provide a Wi-Fi access point, to enable direct connection and initial configuration. This AP can enabled/disabled and its SSID be hide, if needed.

It is a good idea to keep this AP enabled, but we highly encourage you to change its password from the default Magic123 value! Please note that password must be at least 8 characters long (required by Wi-Fi standard), otherwise it is ignored and device is going to function as an open AP without encryption and authorization! You may find further information in Security Hardening Guide.

You can enter your home Wi-Fi network SSID and password in WiFi settings for internet access section. HAUS IoT controllers support 802.11b/g/n standards, and select the best choice your home Wi-Fi router supports. You may force 802.11b to get a better range in special circumstances. Please note that configuring different fix channels on your Wi-Fi router can also have a noticeable impact on coverage.

MQTT settings

You can configure your MQTT connection by entering MQTT broker access details.

You may select plain unencrypted or TLS secured connnections.

If you prefer secure connection, you have further options:

If you use OwnTracks location beacons, you must enter the MQTT username used by the beacons. For security reasons better to use different MQTT username for your beacons and the HAUS IoT controller, as described in Security Hardening Guide.

Some MQTT brokers restrict what topic names you may use. In that case, if you use OwnTracks beacons, you must enter topic prefix here to allow your HAUS IoT controller to subscribe to messages sent by your beacons.

Remote controllers

HAUS IoT controllers support MQTT Dash Android app. The app can be populated with pre-configured widgets by simply generating the configuration by the HAUS IoT controller and exporting it via MQTT to MQTT Dash. Normally you don’t need the advanced options, just hit “Publish” after your app subscribed to the topic.

See MQTT Dash Integration Guide for details.

Advanced option delivers widgets useful for troubleshooting.

Retained messages are kept by the broker till broker restart or cleanup, which enables populating multiple devices running the app one after the other, without the need to hit “Publish” button for each time.

Location beacons

You can add multiple location beacons. Hit the “+” button to add a new and hit “-” to delete the selected one.

Once you select a beacon, you can configure its details.

Currently HAUS IoT controllers support two kind of beacons:

Currently the only hard-coded action is opening the gate on OwnTracks “entering region” and Wi-Fi AP attach events. Multiple and configurable actions are coming in future releases.

For each beacon you also may check its “location”, which may be “in region” or “away”.

Gate & Light control

On this page you can trigger, open and close the “gate” and the “door”.

Gate is controlled by Relay 1, door may be a separate smaller gate or door, or the “partial open” feature of the same gate controlled by Relay 2.

Gate actions:

Door actions: Same as for gate, but currently no “door state” is sensed, so open/close command simply call trigger.

Open gate command also has two safety features:

Light control:

Lamp can be turned on/off or temporarly on. In latter case duration is controlled by AutoLightControl timer #2. See feature description later in this document for details.

Lamp state is displayed, which assumes lamp is controlled by COM and NO terminals of the Latching Relay.

If a gate sensor is installed, it can be enabled, and it can be configured for switch like sensors with “normal” or “inverted” signal levels.

Digital inputs

This page shows which digital input channel is assigned to what function. Assignment of functions is hard-coded, it cannot be changed, yet.

Environmental sensors

Currently a single temperature sensor is supported. The feature can be enabled/disabled.

This page shows the minimum/maximum values recorded since last device start up or since these values were cleared manually. They may be cleared manually with the “Clear min/max” button.

Passwords

Web interface login credentials are used for WebUI authentication. Please change it to something else than the default.

Device Master Password is used to further secure some commands and configuration changes via the MQTT interface. Please change it to something else than the default.

Firmware update

HAUS IoT controllers support Over-The-Air (OTA) software updates.

By default the Liminal Technology Software Gateway is configured as an update server.

You can check for suitable updates manually by hitting the “Check now” button.

If a suitable update is found, the button changes to “Update now”, and also you’ll get a link to a description of the new release.

If automatic update is enabled (by default), the device checks for an update once a day and updates itself automatically (involving a restart). Users may notice ~30 seconds unresponsiveness during, and re-established connections after upgrade.

Product info

This page shows basic product information and the MAC address of the Wi-Fi interface of the device.

Get support

From this page you can access the online product documentation, the FAQ and you may raise a support ticket in our Customer Support System. If you raise the ticket from this page, hitting the “Raise a support ticket” button, the device specific information gets pre-filled for your convenience.

MQTT interface

HAUS IoT controllers provide a remote configuration and command interface via MQTT. See MQTT Interface Description for technical details.

Physical interface

As Gatekeeper is is normally installed in an inaccessible location, so the physical user interfaces are limited to a push button and a status LED.

If you press the Factory reset button for at least 5 seconds (till blue LED lit), then factory defaults getting restored, all user settings get lost, then you can reconfigure your device.

Blue LED states:

Features

Main features of HAUS IoT controllers:

Main features of HAUS Gatekeeper:

HAUS IoT features

Below features applies to all HAUS IoT controllers.

Connectivity

HAUS IoT controllers are multi-function Wi-Fi enabled devices. They enable direct local connections via their own Wi-Fi AP or via the local Wi-Fi network, they are connected to, so they can be used in “island mode” without the need for Internet access.

Remote connections are possible via MQTT and if public IP or port forwarding or VPN is used, via HTTP protocol.

WebUI

Web-based user interface runs on a tiny local integrated webserver and is accessible via the default HTTP port.

LiquidConfig

HAUS IoT controllers have LiquidConfigconfiguration technology built-in, which ensures reboot-less flash memory friendly configuration.

The technology is outstanding as almost all competitors and vendors selling similar products, designs their systems to store the full config to flash memory even on a tiny change, then restart the system to apply changes.

HAUS IoT controllers apply configuration changes on the fly, ensuring a smooth user experience, also stores changes to non-volatile memory in batches, ensuring long life for integrated flash memory.

HCM2M™

HAUS IoT controllers are equipped with Human Compatible Machine-to-Machine remote access technology, which means, the format of data and commands sent over MQTT are easy to process and assemble for both humans and computers. See MQTT Interface Description for details.

OTA software updates

HAUS IoT controllers support Over-The-Air software updates from a defined update server. Normally the update server of the manufacturer is set, but if security is a concern, a local update server may be configured. Automatic updates are supported (check once in every 24 hours), but may be disabled.

HAUS Gatekeeper features

Below features are HAUS Gatekeeper specific.

Gate and Light control

Momentary relays controlled via HTTP on WebUI or via MQTT remotely used to control electric gates and doors. A latching relay can be used to control lights uninterrupted even during software updates or restarts.

Gate sensor

Switch like gate sensors are supported. It can be configured on WebUI. Using a sensor gives better user experience, as open and close commands are not blindly triggering the gate motor controller, but only if the gate is not in the desired state.

Environmental sensors (temperature)

Currently an external DS18B20 temperature sensor is supported. Gatekeeper discovers newly connected sensor, and keeps track of its unique id. If you replace the sensor, you need to force Gatekeeper to forget the id of the old one. Currently this can be done only by performing a factory reset. In the future additional sensors will be supported.

Doorbell button

Gatekeeper supports a doorbell button on one of its digital inputs. If the button is pushed, it sends out a message via MQTT. See MQTT Interface Description for details.

Auto Light Control

Auto Light Control feature utilizes 2 configurable timers to turn on the light for a specified duration.

Timer #1 controls, how long the lights are on if ALC is triggered by gate operation.

Timer #2 controls, how long the lights are on, if ALC is triggered manually.

Location based actions

Actions can be assigned to events defined based on location of beacons. Currently OwnTracks is supported as a location beacon. See OwnTracks Integration Guide for details. Also Gatekeeper supports detecting the presence of a Wi-Fi compatible device. See Location beacons sub-chapter of WebUI description above in this document for details.

Safety features for open gate command