@didymus You stated above that it came in as a device. If that is the case did you change the driver to a "generic z-wave contact sensor"?
@didymus Unless you only had battery-powered devices on ST then you have no comparison. You NEED line powered devices before your Z-wave devices will get stable. The more devices you have the better. At some point, your Z-wave network will just work.
I had just a few battery sensors on Smartthings, and it was perfectly stable. I was expecting that HE would be just as good. So far, it's not.
Yes, it's set to "generic z-wave contact sensor."
Try joining it to ST to rule out a faulty device...
I finally got it working by adding a repeater. The thing is, with Smartthings, it worked perfectly without a repeater.
I saw a posting where the z-wave radio range of Hubitat was compared to Smartthings:
z-wave radio range
The post suggests that the z-wave radio range of Smartthings is greater than that of Hubitat. That's my (limited) experience, too.
Didymus, I'm the person referenced in your linked thread above. If you'd like an update, my experience is identical to yours. My first foray into home automation was with the Abode hub, which promised to be both an alarm system and home automation system. As I quickly found out, it is an alarm system with SOME home automation features. It wasn't adequate for what I wanted to do (but it's alarm features are better than any of the hubs I tried). Enter Smart Things, promised to do everything I wanted it to, but it didn't work as promised. Then enter Hubitat. I did a bake-off, not wanting to maintain 3 separate hubs. I'm now down to two. I have eliminated the SmartThings hub, and have Abode for the alarm features and Hubitat for the rest. I would love to integrate them someday to have one UI to deal with. However, just as you experienced, to make it work, I had to add 3 repeating nodes to my mesh network. SmartThings had the same sensors in the same locations with no repeating nodes and worked fine. My Abode system has sensors in much more remote locations, at least 3 times the distance, with no repeating nodes. However, I decided the repeating nodes were the price to pay, as aside from that gripe, I like the Hubitat platform much better than SmartThings. Let me know if I can add anything else, I still consider myself a novice at this.
Iām really surprised (and disappointed) that the Hubitat z-wave radio range is so poor compared to SmartThings. I wonder why there is such a difference? I wonder if the Hubitat company is aware of the issue?
If you have battery backup for your hub and router, with HE you now need to have it for your repeaters.
Hi, has anybody try to use Ecolink WST-212 in Hubitat, I can not find a driver for it. Thanks
Just bought (off amazon) the Ecolink Zigbee Contact Sensor(model: 4655BC0-R). It is detected by Zigbee discovery
- Installs a a motion sensor vice contact sensor
- Changed device-type to Generic Zigbee Contact Sensor.
- Appears to work great in this mode (three days).
Dave
Hey Dave, does this sensor report temperature?
I see a 10 pack on eBay for ~45 bucks
Yes, it reports battery, contact, and temperature using the Generic Zigbee Motion Sensor drier.
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I have two Ecolink Zigbee Contact Sensors (model: 4655BC0-R) on my Hubitat C5 Hub and they are working great for open/close event notifications, but the battery level is always reporting 100%. I'm using the Generic Zigbee Contact Sensor driver. Is there a better driver available that will report an accurate battery level reading?
Thanks.
I just received a set of these off Ebay.
Testing one after pairing it set up as a Generic Zigbee Contact Sensor. Fast pairing and quick response.
Shows Battery, Contact and Temperature.
I did notice the tamper sensor is not doing anything on my test device. I can pull the device out of the cover (with magnet close and showing Closed) and is has no effect on the Open/Close Status.
Is there a better driver that will show tamper switch state?
I have a number of these also. Two are outside on gates. One sensor, which is on a metal gate, for some reason dies after about 20 days. I have no idea why. I tried using a different ecolink sensor, and that too will die after about 20 days. I've tried adding closer zigbee repeaters (even put one outside) and rebuild the zigbee mesh, but it still dies.
My last troubleshooting step is to disable the temperature sensor. Maybe because it's outside and the temperature range is so great, it's killing the battery. Though the other sensor I have outside lasts a lot longer.
i am using their 2.5 zwave plus version of the ecolink on metal gate .. no issues.. only thing i did was put a bigger neodenium magnet on the gate, and mount it inside an upside down ziploc bag.
battery lasts about 6 months.
Is it possible the metal gate is interfering with the radio communications forcing it to "work harder" to get the message through?
That's actually what I was suspecting.
I know that it is difficult for zigbee to communicate through metal structures, but this sensor is on the inside of the gate where it faces the hub and an outside zigbee repeater. I kind of think the zigbee repeater made it worse. This time the battery lasted about 10 days.
Is the battery life what you normally get for contact sensors? Or is it because it's outside?
The one sensor I have on my vinyl gate died two weeks ago (didn't even realize until today!), so it lasted about 5-6 months.
outside .. they last over a year indoors. the cold and alternating heat i think do a number on the batteries..
