Mmmmmm now were talking a reasonable "check-in" rate 
Hope the battery life is still good!!!
Yea briefly looking at the ELK stuff it seemed like $750 starter kit + $400 for sensors so maybe $1150 for a "kit" that has 5 wireless door sensors and an indoor PIR motion which would be comparable in devices to a Ring 10 piece kit for $200. Now the questions is, is the underlying tech and performance 6x as good, or is it just slightly less vulnerable for a large price increase?
Unless battery-powered device radios are always-on, polling can't be initiated from a hub. A battery-powered device with an always-on radio would go through batteries in time measured in hours not months. Battery-powered devices can have a "call home" time set in the device where once a minute, every 10 minutes, or whatever, the radios power up and check-in. If there is a check-in interval, it would need to be built into the device. The check-in time, if available, may or not be settable.
Here is the question I posed to ELK:
" If a sensor goes offline for any reason (signal loss, device issue, tampering or blocking of signal), what is the maximum amount of time that can pass before the base station notices that the sensor is gone and is no longer able to report its state back to the base station."
And here is the information I received from ELK about their wireless sensors:
"The “Supervisory Check-in Time Interval” is hardcoded at ~64 minutes. For NON-Fire sensors we’d recommend the Time Window be set to 24 hours meaning the sensor has 24 hours to check in a certain number of times (proprietary settings) before the M1 assumes the sensor has good missing. "
Honestly, this is after 2 emails explaining what I was looking for and that response is no more clear than the first one to say the least. It looks like the sensors try to check-in every 64 minutes but if they can't check-in, oh well, we will try again later, no big deal, its not like you were depending on that sensor to do something right? LOL
Can you please provide sources? Brad from ELK tech support did not give me the same answer.
Currently, it looks like ELK is 6x as expensive for a "Professional System" that seems to have equal or worse supervisory check-in rates to that of a $200 Ring system.
What product are you specifically looking for supervisory check-in times for? You can do a search for "elk m1 supervisory check-in" to find the same information. I can also reach out to ELK if you need more info.
Here's some reading. Search for "check-in" in the docs:
Option R03 is the time value for zones programmed as Supervisory Type 1 or "Non-Fire" transmitters (see Xmit Transmitter Opt 02 below). The range is 001 to 255 hours. If a Type 1 sensor fails to check-in prior to the expiration of this time it is considered "missing". Factory default setting is 024 hours. NOTE: A value less than 4 hours is NOT RECOMMENDED! Rec. Option R04 is the time value for zones programmed as Supervisory Type 2 or "Fire" transmitters (see Xmit Transmitter Opt 02 below). The range is 001 to 255 hours. If a Type 2 sensor fails to check-in prior to the expiration of this time it is considered "missing". Factory default setting is 004 hours. NOTE: A value less than 4 hours is NOT RECOMMENDED!
Supervisor Check-in Intervals: Factory set at ~61 seconds
The Ring solution sounds good and is cheap. Call your insurance company and make sure they qualify it as an "Alarm System". If they do that's GREAT!
I have not read the Zigbee standard documents (yet),
This security discussion is very important and indicates that the Zigbee standard is missing home security considerations.
I would consider the following sensors home security devices: 1) smoke and gas, 2) water, 3) window, door, and gate, 4) locks, 5) motion, 6) thermometers,
If they have batteries these should provide periodic status broadcasts
If they have external power they should always respond to standard network requests.
I see no reason why the HE should not have reasonable Zigbee polling and last activity timeout settings.
Zigbee network security continues to improve: https://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.857/2017/project/17.pdf
Zigbee home security appears to be missing (still researching).
Comcast uses zigbee in their Xfinity security systems and are UL rated. The sensors check in every 27 mins and batteries usually last in the 12-24 month range depending on type of sensor and battery type.
There are also what id call hybrid systems like qolsys that use dsc/ge or Honeywell's wireless radios and then add zwave and wifi capability.
As has been said in the thread already I'd recommend a dedicated system with a bridge to include the sensors into HE.
Download the Hubitat app
