Hi All,
Anyone know if any Zigbee recessed door sensors out there? I saw the Aeotech z-wave sensors but would prefer to stay zigbee if possible. My entire home is 98% zigbee other than the door lock. So adding zwave door sensors to 5 outside doors over 2 floors and a hundred feet of distance and walls between, would definitely mean I would have to invest in repeaters as well. Ideas?
Thanks.
I've seen folks on Reddit who have recessed regular contact sensors into a door/window and also embed a neodymium magnet in the frame.
Here's an example done with an Aqara zigbee sensor:
Well that is a pretty interesting idea. Surprised to see that they did it with the Aqara door sensors. I thought those only work with Aqara hubs don't they? I think I remember reading that they were using a modified version of zigbee.
The individual from the Reddit post is using a CC2531 with zigbee2mqtt.
Aqara sensors can be integrated locally with Hubitat using the Xiaomi Mijia gateway. See this thread:
There are also people using them on a dedicated Hubitat with only Aqara compatible repeaters. @markus has written a whole slew of drivers for these devices that do a great job of keeping them paired.
Got it. That makes sense. So basically yes it is still true that you can't use Aqara sensors direct with HE, but you can make it work with their bridge.
Xiaomi sensors can be paired directly to hubitat, but can have issues falling off the network if you aren’t using repeaters that are known to work well with them.
Actually the xiaomi's that I have hooked up direct to the hub have rarely fallen off (thanks to @markus's drivers) so that shouldn't be an issue I think.
Looking at the video I personally would have routed the hole so the sensor dropped in sideways rather then flat on the top so it's a lower profile but it's really a personal preference thing. Just get some small round magnets you can then embed into the frame by drilling the same size hole.
I tried to use Aqara Xiaomi motion sensors and a button but I could not make these work. I read all the threads on how to get these to work and thought I was OK but they would not stay connected to the mesh. They would pair (and yes I paired them at their final position) but after a couple of hours they would drop off. I returned them. I would not suggest anyone use these.
The key thing to keeping these things connected is that ALL zigbee repeaters on the same network have to be Xiaomi-compatible. While I also don't recommend them, I do have ~40 connected to one of my Hubitat hubs that is dedicated to Xiaomi Mijia/Aqara devices.
You know if I was just starting out in Home Automation, this might be the way to go. The devices are very low cost (usually around the $15 area) and if they all work together and with HE it would be great. Amazon is really pushing these Aqara devices. I am finding it hard to find another type of Motion Sensor in that $15.00 area. It looks like Smartthings small Zigbee devices are getting rare. I liked the small motion sensor on the magnetic base. Worked very well.
If you are OK with buying them on Aliexpress they are even cheaper. Check it out.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32947297034.html
I personally think I am going to steer clear because Im not up for the project. I want devices that are dead simple solid on HE. I'm not interested in custom drivers or workarounds to make devices do what they are supposed to do out of the box. I'm sure they are a great option for others though. I will just keep looking.
That is a sound idea. Also, there are plenty of inexpensive zigbee 3.0 contact and motion sensors that work well with Hubitat and don't require specific zigbee repeaters. For example - Sonoff zigbee sensors.
The SNZB-04 work great and are quite compact when shed of their outer case.
A small slot (3/8" wide x 3/4" deep x 1 3/4" long) routed into the top of a door would hold them nicely in a vertical position to sense the magnet when closed.
Download the Hubitat app
