A few years ago I installed a C7 (2.3.4.127) and a couple of Zooz ZSE43 tilt sensors to monitor my garage doors status. Initially that's all I had, so the ZSE43's connected directly to the hub. They sort of worked, but weren't what I would call reliable. Later, I added a couple of Zooz SP wall switches to automate my outside lights. One of those switches is in the garage and I always thought I should exclude/include the ZSE43's and they would reconnect through the garage switch and be more reliable. Never got around to it. Then I bought a Zooz ZEN16, thinking that I would hardwire a couple of dry contact magnetic switches to the inputs, eliminating the ZSE43's and associated battery issues. I would also be able to remotely open/close the doors using the outputs. Never got around to that either. At some point, I removed the garage door sensors from my dashboard and excluded them, maybe. Yesterday I added a couple of Leviton DZPA1 plugin outlet modules for a couple of lamps. That's all working fine.
I'd like to get the garage door monitoring working again, but I recently read this on the Zooz site: The ZEN16 MultiRelay is NOT a reliable solution to track the open/close status of your garage door. I can't imagine why that would be. I'm also confused by what appears to be placeholders in the device list from the ZSE43's. Is that an indication that I didn't exclude them properly?
Any recommendations on where I should go from here would be appreciated.
I've been using the ZEN16 and Ecolink tilt sensors for years now.
I'm using the Zooz app.
I tried some new ZEN43 LR's and they were flakey. Ecolink is rock solid.
I think Zooz's statement is talking about using it only to control the relay (i.e. open/close), but then not involving anything else (contact sensor or tilt sensor) in the overall setup. In that case, the Z16/17 can of course open/close the door just fine, but you don't have any conclusive indication of the door's actual position.
The entries with the "Discover" button are ZW ghosts - you need to get rid of those, Those entries don't have any neighbor values >1, so you should be able to remove them without a z-wave stick. Check out this thread for more info.
I have been using Z16/17s for many years to operate my GDO -- I've wired dumb reed sensors into them for door-position information (instead of a tilt sensor), and it's always been a super reliable setup for me.
OP here, I was incorrect in stating ZEN16, I just checked and I have a ZEN17, so what I read about the ZEN16 is irrelevant. The ZEN17 is probably better suited for controlling and monitoring (2) garage doors.
With respect to controlling garage doors (relay setup, possibly wired reed sensors), the Z17 (all versions) and Z16 (2.0 and 800LR versions) are identical in capability -- the 16 just could do up to 3 doors, where the 17 can only do up to 2.
The same "warning" from Zooz you posted earlier would apply equally to the Z17 (for the very same reason I explained above).
I was able to successfully remove the ghosts using the Refresh/Remove buttons. Thanks for the help on that. I will move forward on getting some door switches and installing the ZEN17.
Bell wire should work fine for the wired dumb reed sensors, but since my garage is detached (unconditioned and unfinished interior), I'm partial to using 18-2 stat wire -- it's much burlier than bell wire, but it's still easy to work with and relatively comparably priced.
My intent is to display the opened/closed status of each door and have a button to open/close each door on the dashboard on my iPhone app. Do I just include the ZEN17 like I would any device? I recall reading something about a garage door app, do I need that?
Yes, you'll need a garage door app to tie all the pieces together for a dashboard tile. The Zooz garage door app is very good - that's what I use.
This Zooz support page is a good starting point. There have been a ton of posts over the years in the community here about configuring Z16/17s for garage doors, so you can search for additional ideas and help that way too.
It seems you have a couple of ghosts from the tilt sensors.
Sounds like you maybe just took the tilt sensors off and took out the batteries or something.
Maybe if you would put the batteries back it they would come back, you could discover them, and then exclude them.
I'd follow these instructions and use Ecolink sensors.
Worked for me.
Good Luck.
I've completed the installation of the ZEN17 and the magnetic door switches (had to wait for the 30°F heat wave). I've also installed the driver/parent/child apps. The ZEN17 is currently powered down, as I initially had a problem with one of the outputs turning on and screwing up the operation of the opener, even though I haven't added it to the C7 yet. I suspect that's due to some default settings in the ZEN17 that I'll be changing once I get it configured.
I am confused by something in the Zooz instructions however. After adding the ZEN17 to the C7 and changing a couple of R1/R2 settings, it says to click on "Create Garage Door". Do I have to do this for each of the (2) doors, or does this cover both channels of the ZEN17?
I now have the ZEN17 included, but things aren't going very well. If I click on Double (South) or Single (North) there are open & close buttons as well as an indication of the magnetic switch input status. Everything seems to be reversed (button operation and open/close status), and I don't see where you can reverse the state of the inputs. My ZEN17 is V1.02, which from what I've read, is very early and may be the problem. Any suggestions?
