I'm new here and coming from Lowe's Iris. I know I have to replace a lot of my motion sensors and door contacts. I know there's quite a few devices on the approved list but what is the general consensus on the best door contact, motion sensors and bulbs? I know there are some door contacts that also have temperature and motion sensors built in which would be a great Plus. I've already got many of my devices paired up and seem to work well. I have a month-and-a-half till Lowe's Iris shut down.
Start here..
I see you have mentioned bulbs.
From my personal point of view, I keep away from bulbs.
With bulbs you have to leave them powered up all the time to have full control over them. People have a habit of turning switches for bulbs off. When they do, no more automation.
I would always go for a switch or behind the switch module to control lights. Just my opinion but something to think about.
Good luck..........
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I already have several osram bulbs that are in use on my Lowe's Iris system. I understand where you're coming from about using Outlets but I like the fact that I can dim them and change the color temperature.
Best thing to do if you're going to use bulb, remove the switch. It's fairly simple to take a switch out and just tie the hot to the load. Then you can replace the switch with something like a Pico remote. But I'm with Bobbles. For any of my critical lights, they're all on wall units so I have the physical switch as a backup. But for non-critical stuff, I have used some bulbs for those, and only in Lamps. So, worse case scenario, I shut the lamp off and then on to get the light to come on in an emergency.
As far as sensors go... almost all of mine are Iris Gen 2 contact and motion sensors. So, if your Iris are Gen 2, you can definitely use them. If they're gen 1, you're out of luck. I do have to say, I have not been fond of my Zooz motion sensor. I find it slow to respond to motion detection.
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You should decide if you want to be a primarily zwave or zigabee network. You can mix the two, but its better to focus primarily in one direction. If you go zwave, aeotec seems to have a balanced set of decent sensors. Zooz makes good smart plugs.
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A few other thoughts:
Replacing batteries has gotten really old for me. I look for sensors that can be powered externally whenever possible (and whenever the location allows it).
I have had problems with the SmartThings sensors that use the Panasonic batteries that are about the size of a quarter. I won't buy any more of those - I have had to throw several of them away (and I buy the genuine batteries - I know the drill).
I am starting to get concerned about firmware updates. I would prefer a manufacturer that has some way of applying firmware updates that is really workable. Having to remove a device and pair it with another hub just to install a firmware update is not my idea of a workable solution.
I have not made a religious decision between Zigbee and Z-Wave. I find the Zigbee motion sensors seem to react a little faster but I have a Z-Wave one in the carport and it's plenty fast enough for most of the motion I want to detect there (typically a car moving). I have an Aeon (Z-Wave) motion sensor in the shop and I am always most of the way into the shop before the light comes on. I have a SmartThings (Zigbee) motion sensor in my office and I can't get a step in the office before the light is on.
For outlets, the Z-Wave ones seem plenty fast enough.
I am also avoiding smart bulbs and sticking to automating the switches but there is no other option (that I know of) if you want to change colors or color temperatures.
I am avoiding both Zigbee and Z-Wave for the light switches, I am going "all-in" with Lutron.
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i use a bunch of iris sensors without any problems - motion sensors, contact sensors. just change device type to either generic or something that's similar and odds are it'll work.
I doubt that you are using any of the Lowe's Iris gen 1 sensors for motion. I seriously hope you did and found some kind of a back door to use them but I'll hold off for now.
Iris Gen 1 sensors are not compatible with anything but Iris. They don't use Zigbee HA they use a proprietary zigbee that no one else uses. There is no back door.
But Gen 2 and 3 work great. Almost all my motion sensors are Gen 2 Iris.
you're right. they're more recent versions
I have done a dozen Aeon MultiSensor 6's, a Minimote and two Nanomotes using Aeon's tools on a virtual PC WITHOUT having to exclude or include.
Aeon distributes their updates embedded in customized Zensys Tools. Each update comes with it's own copy of Zensys Tools.
I have an Aeon ZStick that I've joined to Hubitat as a secondary controller. Easy to do because it has a big ol' button on the front to enter Include (or Exclude) mode. With the ZStick plugged into my Mac and it handed over to the Virtual PC (Windows) I can run the Update tool and see the whole network of ZWave devices. I pick the device to be updated and follow the instructions Aeon supplied (ignoring the part about Excluding) and it's worked great.
In other words, it's possible. I've done it 15 times, at least. I haven't tried other vendors because Aeon is the vendor for which I have the largest number of their devices. GE / Jasco would probably be next, but I've never seen them offer updates.
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But again, you had to buy other hardware to get the updates. They weren't natively supported by HE.
One of the better solutions to the problem, IMO.
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