I'm going to be adding a siren to my HE setup and I'm not sure whether to go with the gen 5 or the gen 6 Aeotec. Can anyone give the pros/cons of each?
Gen5 has AC plug built-in, vs 6 which uses a wall-wart. I prefer the Gen5 approach so I can just plug it in a wall outlet.
Gen5 is $45 on amazon vs $60 for 6.
It's important to me to be able to have granular control over siren sounds/volumes and chimes, so not sure how they compare on that front.
Replying to my own post, I see that Kevin's post here explains that the Gen5 is only a siren while the 6 supports chime & beep functionality.
I think I'll go with the Siren 6 unless there are other benefits with sticking to Gen5 model?
Does anyone know if the "doorbell button" version of the gen 6 allows the doorbell to be used as a generic z-wave button with HE? It's $10 more on amazon but I could use a $10 z-wave button for something, I'm sure.
Gen5 is quieter (not desirable in a siren). My recollection is that it was possible to upload your own sounds to the Gen5. Gen6 has 30 sounds, but you can't change them. It is loud and works great.
Thanks Ashok. Loudness is not really that big of a deal for me b/c I plan on sticking it in my bedroom. There seems to be some very mixed reviews on the gen 6 on amazon, but it sounds like your experience has been positive. I really don't like that it has a wall-wart though. Too bad they didn't design it with the AC plug integrated, which I think is much more aesthetically pleasing.
My gen6 works very well, and I like it. I wish it had the plug-in design on the gen5 though.
The gen5 had many bad reviews overall. Issues with repeated sounds/stuttering, etc. So who knows.
You could load your own mp3s onto the Aeotec gen 5 doorbell but i don't think you can with the siren and the gen 5 doorbell had issues with playing the sound or parts of it multiple times. I gave one to my parents since they don't have internet and we loaded a bunch of mp3s the say things like water detected at the water heater or check the sump pump or garage door left open, since we couldn't use the normal text to speech functions without internet access. I have the gen 5 siren that you can set a few different siren sounds and it works fine as a siren and it can beep too but that is about it.
See, this is one of the reasons I didn't like the Gen 5. I don't want to have a siren that accessible and out in the open. Right now I have the siren mounted in a place where you can't reach it without a later. So you couldn't just smash the device with a hammer to get it to stop. And yanking the cord won't stop it either since it's got a battery backup. That said, I hope I never have problems with it since I won't be able to get to it till I go get the ladder. LOL
I have the Gen5 and it only works as a siren using the Aeon Siren driver. Hubitat has the 6 as a native device handler.
I just received my Siren 6 and can confirm it works as both door chime and siren in HE. No issues so far.
I do have a Gen 5 connected previously to my old SmartThings hub. I'll see if I can dig that out and test the features tomorrow afterwork. I did work as a siren/chime in the old ST app.
The GEN 5 doesn't have a chime feature built into it so I'm assuming you were using my DTH and I implemented the feature by quickly turning it on and off.
I have a ported version of that handler on GitHub, but the timing is too inconsistent with Hubitat so I don't recommend attempting to use it as a chime. It will sometimes beep as expected, but a lot of the time it either turn on/off too quickly to hear or the siren will get stuck on for a few seconds.
Yes sir, and I truly appreciate all your efforts creating these DH for the community!
I have both.. I would say the Gen5 is plenty loud but does suffer from some stutter here and there. I have a few custom sounds I like so am keeping it in production for now. Use it for door open notification and ring doorbell chime.
The 6 is paired but not really doing anything yet.
It makes a good motion triggered night light...
I will give that a try thanks! Also maybe a late night tween sneaking around the house buster.
I recently purchased an Aeotec Siren 6, but I've found that the device on/off/stop commands lock up intermittently and become unresponsive, even though the volume and mute commands seem to work all the time.
Last night I also noticed that the siren light would come on every hour or so for a few seconds then turn off.
The image below shows that the Siren is using version 1.5 of the firmware, and I notice a strange pending scheduled job "logsOff".
Does anyone have a similar issue or resolution?
This is normal behavior for most drivers
This not so much.. Unless some automation is triggering it
Also not normal
Nice! I never thought of this but will make a good pathway light for my use 
Just discovered a new diagnostic use for the Gen 5 - as a Z-Wave network health indicator... 
Seems when things are going weird on my network that's when the Gen 5 (acting as a door chime) really starts to stutter. The more stuttering the worse it is..
OMG.. That's why I replaced the Gen 5 with the Gen 6.. I had it way back on ST and it stuttered all the time (randomly) was no different on HE.. The Gen 6 introduced a setting to prevent this..
For me it works most of the time - I use it for an Alexa/Ring doorbell chime (Cathedral Bell) and a door opened chime (Bicycle bell). When things start getting flaky is when I notice the stutter. WAF seems okay so am keeping it for now and I like the customizable tones..
Download the Hubitat app
