Is there a better DH for Fibaro FGMS-001, built in support is disappointing

[cstory777]

Does your FGMS-001 ZW5 go through batteries like they are candy? Mine seemed to kill a battery in ~3 days, until I stopped putting new batteries in.

[mike.maxwell]

We're going to review and update this driver, as well as consolidating the older device fingerprint into it if feasible.

[Ron]

@cstory777

Does your FGMS-001 ZW5 go through batteries like they are candy? Mine seemed to kill a battery in ~3 days, until I stopped putting new batteries in.

No, my batteries last 6 months up to a year depending on the settings. That is why the parameters were so important to me.
Here are some tips

1. turn off the LED flash on motion. It may look cool but it will use battery and really doesn't provide a feature. Perhaps an outdoor motion I might want to flash for an approaching person to let them know they are being monitored for security but otherwise shut them off. Funny note: I had to turn mine off because my dog loves to play with Sphero (a remote control ball that lights up) and she thought the fibaro was her sphero when the light flashed so she pulled it off the wall and started playing with it.
2. only turn on features you need. Do you need the lumination reporting? If not turn it off. Do you need vibration reporting, if not turn it off (doesn't use much battery unless you have it on a dryer but then maybe that is what you are sensing)
3. set the reporting to a level you need. If using lumination don't report on small changes, that will drain the battery crazy. If all you really want is to detect day or night then set the reporting a number closest to the minimum differential range. (cloudy day vs moon light night). Do you need temp change every 1 degree or is 3-5 OK
4. read the manual and understand every setting. Some of them even warn that they will drain battery if set certain ways.

[cstory777]

@Ron

@cstory777

Does your FGMS-001 ZW5 go through batteries like they are candy? Mine seemed to kill a battery in ~3 days, until I stopped putting new batteries in.

No, my batteries last 6 months up to a year depending on the settings. That is why the parameters were so important to me.
Here are some tips

1. turn off the LED flash on motion. It may look cool but it will use battery and really doesn't provide a feature. Perhaps an outdoor motion I might want to flash for an approaching person to let them know they are being monitored for security but otherwise shut them off. Funny note: I had to turn mine off because my dog loves to play with Sphero (a remote control ball that lights up) and she thought the fibaro was her sphero when the light flashed so she pulled it off the wall and started playing with it.
2. only turn on features you need. Do you need the lumination reporting? If not turn it off. Do you need vibration reporting, if not turn it off (doesn't use much battery unless you have it on a dryer but then maybe that is what you are sensing)
3. set the reporting to a level you need. If using lumination don't report on small changes, that will drain the battery crazy. If all you really want is to detect day or night then set the reporting a number closest to the minimum differential range. (cloudy day vs moon light night). Do you need temp change every 1 degree or is 3-5 OK
4. read the manual and understand every setting. Some of them even warn that they will drain battery if set certain ways.

I'll have to try tweaking it. I have to admit though the LED Flash looking like an eyeball is the reason I bought this motion detector. lol

[Ron]

@cstory777

Here are my settings so you can compare battery results, This is taken from the log of my DH on ST
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting Param 89 to 0
6:48:06 AM: debug LED Brightness 50
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting Param 80 to 0
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting Param 81 to 50
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting LED off
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting Tamper LED off
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting Param 42 to [0, 0]
6:48:06 AM: debug Illum Interval Preference illumReportInt=0
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting Param 40 to [0, 200]
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting Param 60 to value of 5 - HARD CODED
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting Param 24 to value of 4 - HARD CODED
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting Param 9 to [0, 200]
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting Night/Day threshold 200
6:48:06 AM: debug Illum Report Threshole Preference illumReportThresh=200
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting pir operating mode Both
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting Param 8 to 0
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting Param 2 to 15
6:48:06 AM: debug Setting blind time 15

Sorry you have to compare setting numbers to the names in Hubitat by looking in the manual

[cstory777]

Thanks, much appreciated!

[CrisD]

@krlaframboise

I still need to port my ZXT-310 IR Extender, but Remotec devices can sometimes be challenging so I'm saving that one for last.

Did you ever port this?