Advice on Series 700 Door/Window Sensors

Well, junk is a subjective term. For me, after the 4th or 5th time my Xiaomi devices dropped off the mesh they went in the trash - which by my definition is junk. :wink:

3 Likes

What materials are used in the walls and doors? Some materials like Metal doors have been known to interfere with signal, particularly for recessed sensors.

Another issue I used to have at my previous very old house was lead paint (somewhere down there under the layers) absorbing radio signals

1 Like

I don’t think it’s metal. I say that only because I was able to drill through it with a normal bit to enlarge the opening for a new smart lock to replace the deadbolt.

A few months back I made this transition from ST to Hubitat. I actually purchased both a Aeotec 7 door/window sensor along with a Ring Door/Window Gen2 sensor. In the end I chose the Ring Sensor for a few reasons. One of the biggest one is that it is a active device used with a alarm system and it fairly regularly reports home it's status with battery information. The seem to work well and are relatively affordable with $20 per sensor or $99 for a pack of 6. They also use SmartStart and will connect with S2 security to your new Hubitat C-7 hub.

So far they have been super reliable. Just remember a good mesh is always key and if you have any chance of issues it may not be a bad idea to pick up the new Ring extender as well since it is Gen 7. They have some pretty good functionality as I understand it with battery backup.

2 Likes

Thanks, I have some other ring devices and like them so this seems like a good option.

Does hubitat have good integration with Ring? Can you use the ring alarm keypad with hubitat?

"pointless" is in the eye of the beholder. I was planning to get the Aeotec sensors just for the tilt feature. I was planning to use them on garage doors where its easier to detect the tilt of the upper panel when it moves than it is to line up magnets on a metal side rail to detect the motion. Also, I think only the "pro" version has the tilt feature - there's a slightly less expensive version without it.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. :wink:

It’s a shame you made that choice instead of selling them or giving them to someone that knew their value.

1 Like

I was going based on this comment: Aeotec Door/Window Sensor 7 - Lounge - Hubitat

Which made it seem as though you’d still need the open event to register before it would also report tilt.

I tried to sell them (for pennies on the dollar nonetheless) - with full disclaimer that they were non-standwrd zigbee devices... no offers. So in the trash they went.

Too bad. I guess I missed that. Bought some from another member for my daughter’s apartment at a very good price. It’s great that so many people are finding ways to keep these stable. These are my primary sensors. They’re among the most stable devices I own with a compatible gateway.

Hopefully this will change here. I hate to hear that perfectly good devices are going to landfill. There’s definitely some devices that never should have been produced in the first place. And I apologize if it sounds like I’m criticizing. I might have given mine away or they would still be in my “junk” pile if I had never tried them with a Xiaomi hub. That proved to me they were actually really good devices, just not standard Zigbee as you point out. They just needed the compatible controller and a way to get them back to HE where I wanted them. That started out very convoluted, expensive for most and limited. Today it’s rather inexpensive and the only restriction is compatible repeaters must still be maintained, regardless of the controller.

Again, that is a matter of opinion. While that's great that they worked for you, I wouldn't call them perfectly good devices at all.

Maybe perfectly problematic non-standard compliant devices that really require a dedicated and/or proprietary hub to guarantee functionality. :slight_smile:

But whatever. No need to argue about their worth. It is what it is. I'm not telling others not to buy them or anything. :man_shrugging:

I really like the look of the Ring v2 sensors, and the price is right. Likely will go with those. Really wish these were available soon though! Z-Wave Door / Window Sensor | Project Home Alone - Projects - Inovelli Community @Eric_Inovelli any ETA on when these might hit market? Few months?

We should stop hijacking the thread, but I do not disagree that they have specific requirements. Doesn’t make them bad devices. As a Z-Wave user, that should be an obvious example you’re familiar with.

Eh, I've never had a zwave device that required a proprietary hub other than vivint thermostat - and even that is by design/per spec as part of the anti-theft zwave command class.

But you're right, this is OT. I concede. :slight_smile:

That does make the tilt feature seem pretty useless. Glad I hadn't ordered it yet.

Aeotec Door/Window Sensor 7 stopped updating states - #18 by krlaframboise goes into more detail.

FWIW, I just use a normal open/close sensor on my garage door and have it mounted right at the top on the inside around the midpoint of the door. There's a small ledge above the door that the body of the sensor (monoprice in this case) site on. The magnet part is attached to the garage door. It's actually been one of the most reliable parts of my system, and is very fast in reporting if the garage door opens. The downside is that it's pretty binary - slightest bit open reports open, and it has to be fully closed to report closed. That works for me, but I understand some people like the tilt so they have a bit more discretion on how and when it reports.

I don't have anything to control actually opening or closing the garage - that's my next thing to figure out.

1 Like

It was in a technical discussion between Markus & Mike, and with 2 years worth of posts I can't find it. I can say after pulling all but 2 Xiaomi devices(zigbee 3.0 devices only left) my zigbee has never been better. It was something to the effect of when the xiaomi devices "fall off" it has a negative effect.

1 Like

Funny story found the post, and you were speaking with Markus, what's a matter you can't remember all the 9000 posts you made :grin:
I'm not sure if Mike fixed it?

markusOwner

Jul '20

Sorry, this needs to be clarified, it is one of MY devices sending the incorrect Beacon packet, so far always one of the Xiaomi/Aqara sensors or buttons. It has been all different types of them doing this. In general they all get it right, but among all those 80000 beacon packets, one get to be wrong. This 1 incorrect packet is then interpreted by HE as a reason to change the PAN ID, which then starts the whole issue. However, the reason for all of these beacon packets to be sent, is because of how the controllers around me behave, that is a bit more of a complex issue, but suffice to say that it is according to specs.

You and me both, it is such an unnecessary reason to bring down the whole mesh.

2 Likes

So uhh, no Xiaomi is my takeaway from this compelling thread detour :smiley:

2 Likes