Ecobee has door and window sensors now, and I was sent an offer for 2 free when doing a 1 month free trial of their new Haven service.
They just showed up today and I have them added to Ecobee, but looking at the ecobee integration, it doesn't seem like they show up, only the remote temperature sensors do.
Has anyone else had a chance to play with these yet?
I suspect they are giving them away because they are so overpriced and no one is buying them.
With them taking 7-15 seconds to alert that a door has opened, they are pretty useless as contact sensors - at least for me (from my Amazon review).
And they are not exposed in the API yet, so none of the integrations can see them.
Yeah i noticed the lag right away. I only got them because they were free, so it they didn't work out they just get added to the ever growing pile of sensors.
Four years after the original post, and I still can't see the Ecobee Contact Sensors in the Ecobee Integration or the Ecobee Suite Manager. I just installed 2 thinking I could use them but they don't show up. Are they just going to be ignored forever, or am I doing something wrong?
Thanks,
Mario
If the ecobee API doesn't expose them, there is nothing Hubitat can do to remedy the issue.
As mention above in multiple posts, Ecobee still doesn't expose them in their cloud API, so there is no way for a Hubitat-Ecobee cloud integration to see them.
However, there is a way to get them to work locally.
You need to set up a Home Assistent system (on a RaspPi), and using HomeKit emulation on HA import your Ecobee devices. (No Apple products or other HomeKit devices are required). All of Ecobee's devices operate locally using the HomeKit protocols. This gets all the sensors into HA, and then you use [RELEASE] Home Assistant Device Bridge (HADB) to bring the devices from HA into Hubitat.
Doing this makes the Ecobee sensors work better than they do using Ecobee's systems. There is no latency. Everything operates locally without any cloud service in the middle.
And Ecobee's sensors (both the Door/Window ones and the ones for their termostats) report better status - true motion and separate occupancy.
Apparently, Ecobee's approach is the opposite of Hubitat. We like open standards that make the user's lives easier. They hide their stuff. I just need to stop buying their stuff and go in a different direction.
I really appreciate your fast response!
John, Thanks for your fast reply and your solution. I will look into setting up the Home Assistant system as you suggest, but I'm not sure I can pull that off. I love the idea of doing it locally because like you said, it's obviously much better than a cloud solution.
I have 6 Ecobee thermostats, 4 remote sensors and 2 contact sensors I bought to play with. I am trying to figure out the best way to go for a security system that I can control, or at least monitor and do automations, within Hubitat, which is my favorite platform. The Ecobee thermostats and remote sensors work great with the Hubitat integration, and I was hoping I could buy the Ecobee sensors and make a complete alarm system. Why would I have access to the thermostats and remote sensors and not the contact sensors? It doesn’t make sense.
I also have a Ring doorbell and alarm hub so I may expand that by using Ring sensors (contact, smoke etc.) and the Unofficial Ring Integration by codahq and re-released by ardichoke They've done incredible work! The problem with Ring (other than the fact they were bought by Amazon) is that they use ZWave and most of their devices are battery powered, so it’s hard to build a solid mesh unless you have a bunch of extenders.
I have a pretty solid mesh with about 100 ZWave devices on my network and it seems pretty stupid to install a Ring system based on a bunch of battery powered devices that don’t act as repeaters. I also have everything integrated with Apple Home and the stuff works great but the Ecobee contact sensors are not accessible, so I can’t go in that direction either.
I also have the Alexa integration and the IFTTT stuff going on. It’s too much. There has to be a simpler way. Any ideas?
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