Does anyone use these sensors? I thought I'd upgrade my door / window sensors. I'm currently using Aerotec Door Window Sensor Gen5. Nothing wrong with them since I migrated to Hubitat, except I saw slow connection speed, ranging from 9.6 kbps to 40kbps on my zwave table. So I thought I'd upgrade to the Aerotec Door Window Sensor 7 Pro since it was using the new 7 series chip and supposedly had better range.
I finally went to add these to Hubitat the other day. Couldn't get them added, even close to the hub. Tried with a Zstick and from the hub directly. Created ghosts every time. Got stuck in initializing, the whole bit. Had to walk away for the day.
Today I decided on a whim to try to add again. The door I want to monitor is just downstairs from the hub, so I added the device next to the hub before putting it on the door (might not be the best thing to do).
I noticed immediately, that the sensor isn't responding to open / close requests. The Aerotec driver added right away but it did hang a bit on initializing for a moment and I'm wondering if I just need to exclude it and re-add? I noticed that there isn't many states to report compared to the Gen5, on the devices page there are more states that report.
Don't know what to say. I have several DWS7 (non-pro), and I just got and added a DWS7 Pro this week. All work fine. I tried to get a DWS7 non-pro, but no one seems to be selling them any more.
I was able to pair it in place, didn't have to get it close to the hub. Did not use SmartStart, instead used Classic Inclusion. C-7, 2.2.7.128. The DWS7 Pro is in a bathroom with tile walls, so I'm impressed that the speed is 100kbps.
I'm getting ready to go on a two week vacation in six weeks, and so I put this on the vanity door where the cat food is stored so that, by seeing the door for the cat food being opened and closed, I can verify that the cats are being fed every day by the pet sitter while I am gone.
Thanks for the reply @672southmain on a whim I decided to use the generic z wave drive, same as on the Gen5. Once I did that, I was getting open / close events. It's been sitting at 100kbps so that is really nice to see. I'll experiment a little more with the driver and see. Maybe I'll exclude it and re-add it just to play with it. These seem a little more sensitive. I'm not a fan of the little toggle switch to wake the device, etc.
Update: I did exclude it again and went to re-add it. After an hour of trying, factory resetting the device a few times and two hub reboots, I finally got it to pair in place. It was strange though because when it paired in place, there were no in / out clusters, so I thought it went to sleep half way through the pairing process. So I ran a few excludes, tried a replace and finally removed the device. After rebooting the hub reboot again, I noticed that the device re-appeared with all of it's cluster and started working with the correct Aerotec driver and speed is 100kbps. Z-wave is strange!
I do have a couple of Z-wave garage door tilt sensors and a couple of Z-wave contact sensors, but my experience has been that Zigbee sensors tend to respond much faster.
The Aeotec recessed door sensor is an interesting design.
I use one of these sensors in my mailbox. It took me about an hour to get it to pair. I had to go through the process multiple times and exclude it after each failed attempt,
It is the only device in my setup I had any difficulty with. I set it up inside the house near the front door. There are two mains powered devices very close to that area and the hub is only about 20 feet away. The mailbox is about a foot outside the door.
It has been fine since I got it paired but it does eat batteries. I get about 6 months out of a battery.
That may be partially because it is outside and probably has a weak signal.
Thanks @jimyouse at least I'm not the only one that had difficultly setting up this device. I was going to replace my old gen5 door sensors with these, but I think I'll find a different use for them, since they were such a pain. I've got two, only setup one. It by far gave me the most trouble out of anything I setup even the stuff all the way in the basement setup better, LOL.
The thing is you can pair them right next to the hub and then put them back in their sleeve in the door frame. Should make it relatively easy(ier) to pair. My Gen5's are not reporting battery status which is a bummer.
I just purchased a 7 Pro and I got it to pair with ease and it performs well but I cannot configure it for external contact. I have several 7 (Non-Pro) and I can configure them for external contact. I think they changed the parameter location for the Pro and the current Hubitat driver does not support the mode. I have tried @Maxwell Basic Z-Wave tool but the sensor does not respond. If anyone has figured this out, let me know.
@mikebourt I wasn't able to get the external contact working either a few weeks ago when I was playing with them. The way my door frame is where it's mounted I have a few inches and need to cut into the frame before these will pick up open/closed. Tried setting the opposite, open is close from the settings, but that also didn't register.
@s.butera I managed to get it to the work. The current S7 Hubitat driver does not seem to support sending any parameters (Except logging) when reviewing the logs when setting any of the preferences. ( I did wake the device)
If you change the driver to @Maxwell basic Z-Wave tool and set parameters as shown in the Aeotec data sheet (E.g. Parameter 1 =1 for external contact) and then change back to the S7 driver it works.
I just got this sensor. After a few attempts at pairing, I got it to join. The device didn't show any open close state just battery and tamper. When trying the maxwell driver, I saw that it wasn't communicating so I deleted it and tried to re-add it. At first, I would get device found and initializing. This would just hang. After number deletions, hub reboots, and hardware resets, I got it to bring up the dialog for S2 security. I chose no and it hung again. Now when I try to pair, it just times out. Is there anything else I could try?
Sure you didn’t end up with ghost nodes with all the unsuccessful pairings, or from earlier pairings of other devices? Also, sure your mesh is strong to this device? I have several of these, and they have worked well once the bugs were shaken out of the consolidated driver a year or so ago.
I did have some ghost nodes, but I've deleted them. I'm within a few feet of the hub and there's a functional Aeotec device right above me in the ceiling. I'm going to give it a day or two and try again.
After having problems with an Aeotec Smart Switch 7 that I just installed prior to the Door/Window sensor, I ran the Repair Z-Wave utility. Ten of my fifteen devices reported errors. All of them had been working fine. I then ran an update and another ghost appeared. I deleted it and decided to give installing the door/window sensor another try.
The first time it detected it, I chose the S2 security as the sensor was going on an outside door. The sensor's light continued to flash alternating red/green for several minutes and Hubitat said it was initializing. The process never finished. I deleted the ghost and tried a second time without S2 security. This time it completed and the contact status eventually appeared on the device page. Don't you just love setting up Z-Wave devices. lol
I know you've probably already done this but you have the latest and greatest HE updates and you did the hub Z-Wave Firmware update? The firmware update can make a big difference in how Z-Wave routing/mesh stuff is handled..
@erktrek Yes, I've done both updates. It used to be a lot worse. My Schlage door reported status, but I couldn't lock or unlock it. My garage door open didn't communicate at all. I let it go for a year or so. After doing updates and trying again, they work fine.
