How accurate and reliable are these sensors? I'm trying to come up with a solution for my parents when they visit or look after our house while we are gone.
They work well but range is not very good. You should have a zigbee repeater near the front of the house or door like an Xbee3.
Battery life is not great either I modded mine some with 2 AA batteries in my son's backpack and others to 5 volts in my cars.
I also use life360 app on our phones.
Think about what it is, and you can calculate the answer.
They are Zigbee devices joined to your Zigbee network. Therefore it's access to your Zigbee network is almost 100% of the answer. Yes, battery is a factor.. those 2032 batteries are small relative to the job of pinging your Zigbee network every few seconds. If space permits, an external battery upgrade is a great idea.
Let me say the same thing another way... If you're Zigbee network is weak in the direction you're expecting the Fob to be using, then your accuracy and reliability plummet. Add Zigbee repeaters to extend the strong part of your network, and accuracy and reliability improve.
I have one, unmodified, in each car. I'm on the 2nd battery (factory + a brand new) and they are 90% and working into month 2. They tell me when the car is inside the garage or on the driveway, that's it.
Okay, how about battery life? I'm thinking of giving one to my father.
I’ve only had my set for 6-7 weeks. I think the battery kinda sucks going by others needing to add AA packs externally
If you find an Iris key fob, the 4 buttons, the battery last better than the ST, and it has 4 buttons so you can try.
My ST sensors has been very stable, I have 3 with the 2 AA mod(in the cars), and one stock, the battery last like 3 months, depending how long it spends time in home. I have 2 Iris fobs.
Does anyone have a lead on a decent price for a pack of batteries for these?
Care to point me in the way of this mod?
Thank you. Looking for it right now. Just received the fob last night and out of the box it was at 87% 24 hours later it's at 67% but it was cold here last night so that can be a factor but im leaving this in the truck all the time.
You can click on the post I made above and it will take you to the Smartthings community where Cobra made the post.
Was a pain before I modded them dealing with batteries. I have one placed in each of my 3 cars. Be sure to place them where they do not get direct sunlight.
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I'm not and electronics guy but im sure someone can make something with a 18650 rechargeable battery and a stepdown thing for the voltage and it could be plugged into a usb battery charger and you can forget about it.
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You can't believe the battery reporting. Both of ours have been at 0% for a while now. Been going almost a month and a half now.
Same here, many moons ago I asked @mike.maxwell to look into it but my fobs are like yours. I guess there's some comfort in knowing I'm not alone. -Joel
!
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Just to get some ideas. What things you have your presence do? what automation's go on?
Right now i only have some lights to go on or off depending on the time and such.
You can also modify the SmartThings by removing the battery and cutting an old usb cable then soldering the red and black to the positive and negative of the sensor. Then plugging it into a usb outlet on the car. Most car usb outlets only have power (5 volts) when the car is running.
This will make it more secure for triggering your garage door to open when you arrive home or start your car. Prevents your car from running (from say a remote command start) and having the garage doors closed. Helps prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.
I actually use an Xbee3 for this but I have done it with a SmartThings arrival sensor before.
I the have a second SmartThings arrival sensor with the battery pack mod just sitting in the glove box to show when the car is home on my Hubitat dashboard.
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This is the 4th time i hear Xbee3 or the Xbee3 PRO. what are these? and what did you do with them?
Everything Xbee
Pretty much everything you need is in the first post. I try to keep it up to date.
They can be used as routers and to map your ZigBee network or as end devices (no mapping) arrival/presence sensors same as SmartThings arrival sensors
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It opens the garage door when we roll up. Closes them all when we leave, but we don't depend on that. Big deal, right? They stay with the cars.
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