Howdy all!
I originally was using Zigbee with Wink and then Openhab, and ran into a host of issues with that particular protocol (wifi interference among other things). Finding z-wave is working best, but at 20 bucks a pop roughly, it's expensive for door/window sensors.
I have the Hubitat Elevation C-5, and am trying to figure out the most cost effective sensor for windows that will work with the Hubitat. I need 15 of the window sensors in total.
I bought, for my new house here, the monoprice z-wave sensors, but again, they are pricey at 20 bucks roughly a pop. Would be nice if that was a two pack...
Anyways, any thoughts? I'd rather stay away from Zigbee, unless the Hubitat Elevation's Zigbee radio is going to perform better than what I had (and thus far the z-wave radio sure has!!!).
I have actually played with changing zigbee channels. I ensured that the zigbee channel was as far away from wifi as possible, but with 3 wifi aps (ubiquiti) dispersed throughout the house, it was hard for communications to occur. This may also be largely a wink and hubitat issue, but the sensors would often fall off the grid, needing to be re-paired and such. Battery drain was also a huge issue.
Even though they were meshed around the first floor of the house, with the hub(s) being right in the dining room not too far away, it just never worked well.
In terms of the hub now, the elevation is in the basement at one corner of the house because that's where the network access is. Moving it one floor up would be doable but not pretty and frankly it seems to reach to the other sides of my house just fine as is.
I'm just not sure if I really trust zigbee at this point...maybe it would work ok in this house I guess. What's the cheapest Zigbee sensor that works on the market these days? I was using the vizsonic or whatever it was called before.
I have 3 unifi APs in my house (so am using all 2.4ghz wifi channels), and have no issues with zigbee reliability/stability as long as I use the in-between channels (15, 20).
Good to know!
I don't think I was able to move the channel past 11 last time (which was a huge problem) but that may have been a limiting factor of Wink and Hubitat (and the hardware I was using).
I could definitely give Zigbee another go then. Just trying to figure out what the lowest cost price is. 15 sensors is no easy purchase
You can get third-generation Iris contact sensors on eBay as ~$45 for a lot of 10. A lot of us have purchased Iris equipment from this particular ebay seller (alex_sari).
Edit - those sensors are standard ZHA 1.2 and work fine with Hubitat. Avoid the generation 1 Iris stuff. It is non-standard zigbee, and while it works with Hubitat, there have been occasional reports of sensors dropping off.
If you definitely want z-wave, then the cheapest I know off is the first generation Ring contact sensor, which is about $30 for a 2-pack (so $15 for each)
I would recommend getting professionally installed wired sensors. They are typically small and can be concealed. And then, use a Konnected alarm panel, which integrates nicely into Hubitat:
Definitely! Konnected is a nice packaged system, and is very convenient for most, so user code doesn't have to be written, lightning protection considered, etc etc.
Rolling your own takes some consideration in this space, which makes Konnected attractive (this is an area where you are actually getting something for the higher cost).
