Header banner
Revain logoHome Page
Jake Jones photo
Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek
1 Level
733 Review
53 Karma

Review on πŸ”‘ Hornbill G2 Gateway Wi-Fi Bridge: Unlock Your Smart Lock Remotely with Keyless Entry by Jake Jones

Revainrating 4 out of 5

OK, but needs some attention on installation

Let's start with what's in the box: - The gateway device, which is just a small white box (about the size of a wart on the wall) with an LED and two radios inside; and- USB-C charging cable. What's not in the box? AC->USB adapter. You must provide your own. From a functional point of view, the installation encountered several errors. First, the "TTLock" app is required, although it wasn't immediately obvious. Second, the initial pairing and setup requires a BlueTooth connection to the gateway (which is normal), but I kept getting annoying timeout messages after launch. initial Wi-Fi setup (I know my SSID and key). I looked at my access point's telemetry and found that the transmission range on these devices is rather weak. To the point that while in BlueTooth range I could try to connect it to my wireless network and it would confirm the connection, but any further attempt to interact with the gateway via the app would result in timeout errors. I ended up having to set up the access point to accept slower connections over a longer distance so that the gateway could keep the connection. After that everything worked fine. Here's what to take away from the above: If your phone or PC is picking up a strong signal, don't think it's a gateway. When pairing the gateway with locks, the locks must then already be registered. in TTLock via phone->Bluetooth connection so they are registered for gateway access. Again, the documentation would probably clarify this. The good news is that the gateway can communicate with more than one lock, but they must be within Bluetooth range. It would be nice to see two LEDs (one for Bluetooth, one for Wi-Fi) to let you know what activity is going on. It would also be nice to have a web app/interface. It's nice to have an audit trail, but being tied to my phone makes it a bit cumbersome. So 4 stars.

Pros
  • New
Cons
  • Modern