I bought three of them on Amazon for a great price. They apparently work fine in ST with the custom DTH. Haven't tried it yet here but thought I would ask before jumping in. The DTH has a reference to
Is this device fully supported now? I’m having inconsistent results. 1 of my 4 sensors seems to work fine. The other three start working, and then after a few hours stop reporting motion, and only report temperature, latching in the last motion state that registered.
Well, I got the sensors to work. It turns out that these devices are sensitive to how far away from the hub they are when you pair them. Pairing them when they are close to the hub works. Pairing them when they are a room or more away, and they seem to work for a few hours, but then start only reporting temperature and not motion. Is this normal for Zigbee devices? I’m curious what the technical explanation for this phenomenon is.
It’s an incomplete pair, I think. The pairing process is a low powered signal and if part of it is lost, the device will drop off. Using an extension cord, a long network cable, and a tablet or phone to pair your non portable devices is one option.
This depends entirely on your mesh.
In the case of mine that’s screwed to the fence out in the driveway, two walls and 50 feet from my hub, and one wall and 20 feet from the nearest repeater, I was able to pair it in place and it’s been reporting motion for the entire two weeks it’s been out there.
I also have a centralite contact on the gate, also outside, and a simular distance from the hub and repeater, this guys been out in the elements for almost a month now, also paired in place.
I'm not going to waste time researching it, but my suspicion is that Bosch probably came out with a new PIR sensor model and offered up the WP13 overstock at a very discounted wholesale price, which would explain why they can be bought for as low as $15 on sale from My Digital Discount. When I first learned of the WP13, I remember seeing them sold elsewhere for upwards of $50-60.
I think people's problems lie in that 1) these Bosch PIR sensors are part of Bosch Security Systems' ecosystem and not specifically intended for use with retail HA solutions such as SmartThings,etc. and 2) People have difficulty understanding / correctly following the pairing & installation instructions.
Personally I have had zero problems with all three WP13s connected to my ST hub, though I haven't yet moved them over to use with my Hubitat yet, so I can't comment on that right now.
I am not well versed in the finer details of the Zigbee pairing and rejoin process, but I have to wonder if another issue people are having is related to the WP13 not being able to rejoin the hub securely, which can be addressed on a SmartThings hub by turning on Insecure Rejoin (which of course comes with a security risk, as explained in more detail in this ST Community Forum post.)
@mike.maxwell Could you explain how the Hubitat handles secure rejoin attempts made by Zigbee devices?
One thing that is working against me is the signal environment I’m in. Its an urban setting with all kinds of WiFi and Bluetooth signals crowding the 2.4 GHz band. That plus an old house with plaster walls amounts to a pretty hostile signal environment.
I have one WP13 that is stuck on active. It has been stuck since 7:40AM on 4/18. It has been reporting temperature every hour or so, but it will not change back to inactive. I have rebooted the hub but that didn’t make a difference. Do I have to go and pull the battery on the device? This has made me wonder if I can rely on these devices for important things. I am currently using them to trigger Blue Iris to record.
edit: Also checked another one, and that sensor seems to be stuck got stuck for about 10 minutes. Sort of weird behavior. Typically they go active for a short period of time, and then back to inactive.
While I’m not a fan of this device, I do have one, and it’s been solid using our built in driver for a month now.
I would do a battery pull on it, what is it reporting battery wise?
What’s strange is that I walked right up to it, waved my hand in front of it (compared to just walking through my living room), and then it triggered and went back to inactive shortly thereafter. Very strange considering I know it triggers much further away. I will have to watch this unit and see if this happens again. Battery is reporting 100%, I purchased 5 of these sensors in the past week or so, so they’re all pretty “new”.
I’m curious why you’re not a fan of the device? They seem well built and they’re certainly a great deal at $14.99 on Amazon. I don’t care much for the three minute delay after triggering, but it works fine for triggering my blue iris cameras. I was hoping to use them outside in covered areas, but they seem too sensitive and are triggering from sunlight.
Aesthetics, I would be skinned alive if I placed one inside the house.
The imediate inactive after active, and no way to set it.
The 3 minute re-activation constraint.
The IKEA like instructions are annoying.
But I guess it's a bargain at 15 bucks!
Mines outside, virtually unprotected from the elements, so I'll be able to offer durability reports, and so far it seems very happy out there, ignored and unloved...
I have a few of these devices, and they as well stopped reporting motion and just reporting temperature. The way to clear it is to re-pair them which involves pulling just the top batteries out, then while holding the switch put back in the right battery, then the left, then releasing the switch. This forces it back into pairing mode. Two other things,
I couldn’t get mine to pair unless they were within feet of the hub.
This problem kept occurring until I re-positioned the sensors to be closer to the hub.
I didn’t have these problems with ST and suspect that part of the issue is that the Hubitat hub has a weaker Zigbee signal. Something that really matters in my house because the 2.4 GHz band is filled with many WiFi transmitters.
I have three currently stuck on active right now. I don’t have a strong zigbee mesh since I still have most of my devices on ST. Why would they still report temperature though? Is it possibly a bug in the device handler? Why would the messages for temperature go through but not the state change?