I have been using an Aeotec Gen 5 doorbell/siren for many years. I recently obtained an a Ecolink siren that has similar capabilities. I can use Basic Rules with the Aeotec device to trigger custom message files by using Speak Notification. Although the Ecolink siren funtions in a similar manner it does not appear as a selectible device for such notifications. I figured out how to activate the Ecolink siren using Rule Machine, but doing so will require me to convert 45 Basic Rules over to Rule Machine. That is a lot of effort for something that should be as simple as adding another device to my existing basic rules since the Aeotec and Ecolink devices are so similar.
Is there any way to make the Ecolonk siren show up as a notification device?
I figured out how to do it in rule machine, but I was hoping the Ecolink siren would be recognized by Basic Rules. For every contact sensor and motion sensor in my home I have a simple automation set up in the format:
If the "back door contact sensor opens" trigger the sound file that says "The back door has opened". In Basic Rules, that is quite simple to accomplish. I have 45 messages programmed into my Aeotec and trigger each of them using that format. I would like to do the same thing with Ecolink, but Basic Rules does not acknowledge the Ecolink Siren as a device under any of the device categories.
The Ecolink Siren is accessible using Rule Machine, but I do not look forward to recreating all of my simple rules in the far more complex format that shoudl not be needed for such simple automations. I was hoping their might be some way of adding the Ecolink device to Basic Rules so I could just add it to my existing rules so the Aeotec and Ecolink devices would function in parallel.
Thanks, How do you like it? Mine, the version above, is so so lame, weak sauce, sonds like an alarm clock more than a siren, but is good as a repeater.
Are the z-wave stats good? connection speed, RSSI, neighbors, etc.
I love the form factor because we actually have a outlet installed directly above our front door that I put there for the Aeotec Siren 6 I like that this one sits right on top of the outlet much cleaner looking. Siren-wise it's insanely loud. The sounds that it comes with are okay but not great I honestly liked the siren 6 ones better but the fact that it takes custom sounds makes that a non-issue. Z-Wave wise I'm not sure on
I had no problem pairing the Ecolink siren with my Z-wave network. It was a few feet away from an Aeotec range repeater and it paired quickly. I took it from the kitchen to the basement and later back to the kitchen. It worked fine in both locations, although I probably threw the mesh into a tizzy doing that.
I was not impressed with the built-in sound files, but I had already created a set of 45 custom files for my Aeotec Gen 5 doorbell/siren, and was able to save them to a micro SD card. You can download wav files from various sources, create your own files using a microphone, or use software such as Zabaware Reader. Although Zabaware does charge for high quality voices, if you use the voices that come with the program, they are free. The free voices are not that great, so I purchased the CeraVoice Katherine voice which sounds much like the Amazon Alexa American English voice. There are other language choices should you prefer them.
You can type in your custom message and read it back. You can adjust the voice, the volume, and the playback speed. When you get it sounding the way you want, you can export it as a wav file. It will be in the 16 bit mono format needed. If you do not have an old MicroSD card in the drawer like I did, purchase the least expensive one you can find as it should be more than adequate.
The Gen 5 Aeotec doorbell/siren does have the capability of custom files. It has a USB port that allows you to download up to 99 custom audio files from your computer and store them in internal memory. I believe the Gen 5 siren is similar, but does not have the doorbell button.
The Gen 6 has 30 built-in chime tones, but I do not believe it has either a USB port or a SD card slot to add custom tones.
Yep can confirm - have both the 5 (taken from a doorbell/siren combo) & 6, still using the 5 thanks to custom tones. Just ordered the Ecolink Siren to check it out. Thanks for the heads up!
Edit: it is kind of pricey though and the Gen 5 works great.
The doorbell button itself was kind of useless - only paired directly to the siren not to the hub. Siren bit is great though and is fairly loud which is something I think that other gen 5 Siren model suffers from but not sure.
Earlier iterations of the Hubitat firmware had some quirks where the you'd get double tones sometimes. Haven't had any issues in a while.
For the “gen 5” devices, aeotec made a siren, and they made a doorbell with button. They were not interchangeable.
AFAIK the current gen 6 siren is the same device as the doorbell. Only difference is whether the user pairs wireless buttons to the plug-in device for use as a doorbell?
It appears to be a direct upgrade from standalone Gen 5 siren - you can't have custom sounds with the 6. The usb port in the back is power only. Also has flashing LED lights..
The Gen5 Doorbell "concept" was deprecated in favor of the more sensible approach of just pairing everything with a hub . Less internal stuff to deal with.
Both the Aeotec Gen 5 doorbell and the Ecolink are really chime devices, not text to speech devices. You cannot type a text string and have the device speak the string. Both of them allow storage of custom audio files that can be played back by referencing the number of the file.
In the case of the Aeotec driver, there is a "Speak Text" command, but you activate the chime by entering the file number as the text string and it plays back the corresponding audio file. It also has a "Play Sound" entry. The Aeotec doorbell does not have text to speech capability, although it is listed as a TTS device.
Although the Ecolink has essentially identical capability, the driver for the Ecolink only includes the "Play Sound" feature, not the "Speak Text" feature. Thus, it does not appear under any of the device categories in Basic Rules.
I wrote to @bcopeland whom I understand is the author of the Ecolink driver to see if there is some way to make the Ecolink function in Basic Rules like the Aeotec. So far, he has not responded, so I have started converting my Basic Rules over to Rule Machine. It took me about an hour to convert the most critical 1/3 of them. I will do the rest as time permits. It would have been easier to do them in Basic Rules, but at least Hubitat converted my existing Basic Rules easily. All I had to do was add actions to trigger the Ecolink. Thus, the incompatibility with Basic Rules was not a deal-breaker, just an inconvenience.
For those of you who pick up a Ecolink Chime Siren Model ISZW7-ECO, I just wanted to point out a "feature" of the device. In the built-in chime tones. When custom sounds are being used, there are some slots originally assigned to siren tones that will play continuously until turned off. Thus, when assigning custom tones, make sure you only assign those slots to sounds where continuous playing is appropriate. I tried installing sounds in the same order as I had configured my Aeotec Gen 5 doorbell, but found some assignments were inappropriate. When my wife went out the side door to the trashcan, I got the message "The side door has been opened playing continuously". I had to open the Hubitat interface, find the chime device and turn off the sound. Then I had to move the side door sound to a more appropriate slot. I knew the default sirens played continuously, but did not realize that that behavior also applied to custom sounds.
