I have never gotten false from this. But my door is solid and heavy not one.of those thin.plasticky ones.
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I use mostly hardwired alarm sensors for all my exterior stuff. Was cheaper to just buy an Envisalink and bring those over. Came out to about $1.56 per device instead of adding a bunch of other sensors.
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ya i have hard wired on first flioor from older alarm system pre-dating home automation ... no way to work with them when i started.. now they are hooked up via konnect but i had already put in my own sensors by the time this was avail.
interestingly the garage doors were not hooked up that way.. probably because no way to put a contact switch on them like they did with external doors and windows.
Plus they only had 2 motion detectors.. which was fine for someone breaking in the house and walking around for alerts. But not enough for home automation of lights and other stuff.
I originally purchased a Konnected board but the delay getting through manufacturing put me off. Came across the Envisalink which ended up being nicer for my use since I only needed one board and could bring in all 64 zones and not need all the extra stuff I would have needed for the Konnected. Also let me bring in wireless sensors too if I wanted to add more motion sensors or whatever later. Each sensor is it's own zone so I can trigger off a specific device.
konnected (non pro) i have 3 boards and battery backup.. no wireless but each sensor is also its own device in devices.. been working fine..
I just would have needed so many boards I would have needed a third cabinet. I have 1 and a half cabinets full as is. I have 3 10 ah batteries backing up all the alarm stuff. I haven't tested the runtime but it's at least a couple of days. Also room to throw in some more batteries later if I want or a bunch more if I convert them over to Li-Ion battery packs.
I have three of the econolink sensor. Its been so-so in terms of connecting to my hub.
I find it routes zwave to the far end of the house, about as far away as it can go, makes no sense since i have powered zwave devices in the garage that speaks to repeaters much closer to the hub.
but with hub-mesh i'm thinking putting a hub locally in the garage. i have 10 devices there so it may be for the best.
There's a bug in 2.2.4 in the drivers for those Ecolink sensors. On the sensors switch them to the Ring Alarm Contact Sensor driver until it gets fixed with 2.2.5 hit save and then go wake them up by popping the cover off and then click configure.
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Is 2.2.5 weeks rather than months away?
If its weeks then i can wait, i don't have any automation that depends on this and until covid and the lockdown i'm under goes away i can live with them as is.
if its months away then i'll change the driver.
You advice?
I'd just change the driver it takes about 15 seconds per device. They don't ever give us timelines on it but I'd guess a few weeks.
My worry is more that i'll set and forget... )
But yeah, i can change it. Have a couple of con-calls today so i can't go to the garage until late in th evening.
@Brandon if you ever recall the process I'd be interested to know it. I once attempted to reflash one and all I managed to do was brick the stick.
I'd just leave the uzb3 for dedicated zniffing and grab a UZB-7 or Z-Stick+. I still kinda prefer the Z-Stick+ thanks to the internal battery - I can walk around excluding things directly. Still nice to know you could flash it back if needed I guess.
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I followed the zniffer guide by @codahq to create a zniffer. I needed to use the UZB3 (ACC-UZB3-U-STA) as a Secondary Controller to include my Zooz 4-in-1 without S0 security and used the following steps to successfully convert from a zniffer back to a Zwave Controller:
The following procedure is to be done at your own risk:
- Open the "Z-Wave Programmer" software.
- Under the "View" menu make sure "ZW050x" is checked
- Under the "Tools" menu click "Detect Target"
- Under the "Settings" menu make sure to select the COM port with the UZB3
- Flash the Zniffer firmware to convert the UZB3 stick from a controller to a Zniffer.
- This is done by clicking the "ZW050x" tab
- In the HEX File field select the serialapi_controller_static_OTW_SD3503_USBVCP_US_WITH_BOOTLOADER.hex file from the SDK_v6_82_01\SD3503\ProductPlus\Bin\SerialAPI_Controller_Static folder.
- Click "Program and Verify". This step took aprox 35 minutes for me. Don't panic.
- If it says successful you're done!
Edit: (6/26/2021)I only flashed a few times between firmware versions. Mine died today trying to flash back to use as a zniffer. I would recommend a second stick and not flashing multiple times.
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Thank you ever so much for the information. I have printed the instructions and put in the folder with all the other bits of information I've learned from the community that I don't want to risk losing.
When I bricked mine, I don't think I used the same hex file the 3503 part isn't familiar but then again that was at least 7 months back. I certainly don't recall waiting 35 minutes for any step so maybe another possibility for where I went wrong!
I've started my migration using Hub Mesh and sharing out from the C5 the devices that I thought I would need the controller for to bring over to the C7 so if this continues to go well I may not need a 500 series PC controller but it's nice to know how to recreate one should things prove I need it.
Again, much appreciated!
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The price of the Iris V1 sensors that I used was $3 each in quantity 12, so the cost savings can be large if you are willing to shop around. As for mercury switches, if I had one laying around, I'd use one, but again, a hinge was laying around, and the magnetic sensor was cheap, so my out-of-pocket cost was $3 all told. Hard to beat $3 in "home automation".
The mercury switches were about 2 bucks for a bag of 10 of them. Shipping takes a while though. I also like to play with solder any chance I get.
Yeah, I still mourn the "good old days" when Lafayette, Radio Shack, Allied Radio, and Heathkit all had nearly everything one needed for any prototype. These days, I order by mail, and I have to solder with a &^%$ microscope! 
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Had a power surge take out a tv. I pulled it off the wall and started digging around inside. Replaced some components and was back up and running in about 30 minutes. My wife was in awe that I knew what I was doing... I didn't tell her it was quicker for me to fix it than to drive over to Best Buy and pick up another.
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