Fibaro motion (vibration) as Earthquake detector

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1

Does anyone here use the Fibaro Motion ZW5 (the "Eyeball Sensor") as an earthquake detector as suggested by Fibaro documentation? Curious how it works and if anyone has recommended tweaks for the settings.

Thanks!
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2

I would imagine testing it would be an issue :slight_smile:

I worked with someone who lived in LA. Long story short, one thing they learned was to keep the liquor in the bottom cabinet.

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3

I was hoping maybe one of our Kiwi members might have recent experience.
Where I live I think I'm more likely to get an alert when my next door neighbor's band is practicing . . .

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4

Wouldn't the ground shaking give you a clue without a sensor? :grinning:

5

If I were at home at the time, yes it would!

:upside_down_face:

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6

I was wondering if you could attach one of those piezo electric vibration sensors to something like an EcoLink contact sensor that have internal connectors.

https://www.amazon.com/piezoelectric-sensor/s?k=piezoelectric+sensor

I've done this with mercury switches and it works great.

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7

I have a Fibaro ZW5 in the living room as the second motion sensor to control the lights. It also has a vibration sensor. Fibaro indicates you can use it as an earthquake detector (if you are away from home) . . . I just wondered if anyone has tested that theory out?

8

Put it on your washer/dryer as a test?

9

I love it! I will give that a try.

I can even calibrate it so I can determine the earthquake severity on the wash-rinse-spin scale . . .

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10

Don't laugh, but I have a ZW5 on my dryer to sense when the laundry is done. Works great, although I had to develop a custom driver because the Hubitat driver doesn't seem to tell you when vibration stopped.

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11

@WindowWasher Would you mind sharing your driver?

12

Sure, here you go:

Note that vibration is reported through a new attribute - vibration (active, inactive) and I have the vibration sensitivity parameter set to 2 where I use it.

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Thanks, I will give it a shot.

14

Cool. Thank you for sharing that.

15

Even a mercury switch or metal ball switch going back and forth rapidly between open/closed would give a good indication of an earthquake.

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