Espressif Systems has just released the SDK for Aliro, designed for smart Matter door locks and other access control solutions built around ESP32-C (WiFi) or ESP32-H (Thread) microcontroller and third-party NFC chips.
We recently wrote about the Aliro vendor-agnostic digital access control standard working over NFC, Bluetooth LE, or BLE+UWB. It’s basically the equivalent of Matter, but for smart locks, instead of the broader Smart Home ecosystem. The ultimate goal is to reduce fragmentation and allow users to use compliant wallets from Google, Apple, Samsung, and others to work with Aliro-compatible devices.
Espressif’s SDK for Aliro (ESP-Aliro) currently supports the following features of Aliro-over-NFC:
- Standard Expedited Phase
- Fast Expedited Phase
- Reader Certificate Sending via AUTH1/LoadCert Command
- Keyslot to Look up Access Credential Public Key
- Mailbox of Exchange command
- Step-up Phase
Espressif’s solution currently only works with Aliro NFC for tap-to-unlock applications, although Bluetooth LE and Bluetooth LE + UWB support is also planned. It’s meant to be used in smart lock products connecting over Matter using WiFi or Thread. The source code can be found on GitHub along with an Aliro Reader demo using the ST25R3916-based M5Stack Unit NFC and M5Stack NanoC6 or NanoH2.
On the other side of the equation, the company also wrote a reference demo in the ESP-Matter framework for an Aliro-enabled Matter door lock using the same M5Stack NanoH2 devkit and M5Stack NFC Universal Unit. It demonstrates Matter-over-Thread connectivity and Aliro NFC tap-to-unlock. The company tested it with an iPhone using the Apple Home app for commissioning, and adding a key to the Apple Wallet used to unlock the door.
Espressif Systems is far from being the first silicon vendor to support Aliro, and we previously found the new access control standard in Nordic’s nRF54LM20A and nRF54LM20B microcontrollers, Nordic nRF54L15 Tag, STMicro (ST64UWB) SoC, and Qualcomm (FastConnect 8800) wireless module. Being able to use ESP32-C6, ESP32-H21, ESP32-H4, and other ESP32-series microcontrollers just adds a few more (low-cost) options.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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