Please forgive me....
I am on a road trip, and won't be home to give you all an update for another 10 days or so...
Stay tuned....
In the last couple of weeks I've installed three Aqara WSDCGQ11LM temp/humidity sensors. One in a fridge & two in freezers.
They've proved to be fairly accurate - calibrated against other temp sensors & probes they were off by less than +/- 1 degree Celsius.
They're not buried right inside the appliances, they're stuck to the inside of the doors and have maintained a stable connection to the mesh.
After a week the battery levels have dropped to about 90%. This seemed alarming but since then, over the last week, the battery levels have remained at about 90%.
Not quite the same as fridge/ Freezer, but today i put a
Zooz Z-Wave Plus 700 Series XS Temperature | Humidity Sensor ZSE44
in my Gun safe, so far seems to be working correctly, albeit may be a tad on the slow side. Currently I also have an AccuRite temp/ humidity sensor inside as well (but not connected to anything) , and at last check there seemed to be about a 3% difference in Humidity.
What are you monitoring for? Moisture vs powder? Also impressive you are getting signal through a safe
This is what I did; I have two Sonoff SNZB-02 sensors (1 for the fridge and 1 for the freezer) and I hot glued AA battery holders to them so I could use Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA Batteries which work in cold weather. Signal from both sensors has been going strong for the last year unlike the OEM button batteries that would die in a few months.
Just humidity. I figured I would try it, just to see if it would work. If it didn't i could always use it somewhere else. Now what battery life will look like remains to be seen. It's only been a few days. When I included it, i left the safe open for about an hour just to give it time to find a route to the hub. I have others of these XS devices that the first few weeks the battery levels were all over the place before they stabilize.
This reminds me of the popular conversion of battery holders for ST presence sensors.
Exactly where I got the idea from! It's a good hack for sure.
Interesting. I have 2 Vivint sensors inside safes that both alarm and notify me when the doors are opened. Both have been there for almost 10 years. I think one is now getting a low battery.
I never thought about monitoring for humidity. I think this is worthy of a dedicated thread.
@lcw731's post got me thinking about monitoring for humidity. I just started using an ecowitt temp/hum sensor inside my safe to monitor humidity. For years I have been vacuum sealing ammo because I get to use it so infrequently these days, but I figure this is a good idea to make sure it never goes much higher than 50-55% RH in there at 72F.
If you can keep the RH in that range and temps at 72F, you obviously do NOT live in Texas.
No - much worse, I live in New Orleans (or right by it - Metairie). My safe is in my closet, and I have a dehumidifier running 24/7 in there
If you need a bunch of what seem to be super-reliable sensors, I do recommend the ecowitt indoor sensors and their gateway. The whole thing integrates locally with Hubitat.
I know Metairie. I am south of Houston. I have been using desiccant and just drying it out. The heat rods die over time. Your post made me think we could set up RH/Motion/Lux monitor that:
Turns on the heat rods at specific RH levels
Notifies us of light or motion when the door opens.
2 months ago I tossed a $5 Ebay - Visonic XHS2-TY MCT-350 SMA ZigBee Door Window Sensor (with thermometer) into the freezer. So far, it works great. I did install a Zigbee smart plug in the garage for a relay.
I'm in Justin (NW of Ft. Worth in Denton Cunty) That is exactly where my safe usually is. 50- 51% and 71-73 degrees.
This is what I have in there to control humidity:
I have an Accurite Hygrometer inside that I periodically compare against. It took it a couple days to stabilize, but its been steady for a good couple weeks now.
I thought about that at the time as well. I'm also experimenting with that line of toys as well. I went with the Zooz because i wanted to see if a z-wave sensor would even work in it. Now that I know it will, Ill probably pick up a XS Door window sensor to put in there (especially since they are on sale right now!). I may still put an Ecowitt sensor in there, I haven't really decided yet.
If this one dies, my next experiment with be this Peet Air Circulating Dehumidifier. I threw a desiccant tin in there to see if I could shave a little more off, but it doesn't seem to be having much if any effect. I just leave it in there because I figure it cant hurt anything .
I curious how this turned out? Which sensor won?
Konnected // dht22
Is that D1 & D2 from your original list.
So, in my results, I found a few interesting points:
(Please note that these are my observations, and your mileage may vary!)
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I found that almost all zigbee contact sensors that report temperature, "freeze up" in a chest freezer where the average temperature is between minus 5 and minus 10 (Centigrade).
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No issues whatsoever, for some sensors in a standard fridge (Visonic MCT-370, Ecolink 4655BC0-R).
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For all other freezers (e.g. stand up models), covering the sensor with scotch tape increases its lifespan by an incredible amount. I still have an Ecolink going strong 6 months after placing it in a busy fridge. (The scotch tape covers the sides of the sensor, not allowing the cold air to get inside into the inside of the sensor).
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I have found that the (relatively new) Sonoff USB Dongle Plus (P version) is an incredible repeater. Positioning it as close as possible to the sensors has made a huge difference to dropout. My theory is that the transmission from these sensors is relatively weak, so this has to be placed close to the sensors, not the Hub. (Others may disagree as to positioning of these devices. In general, 5 sensors = 1 repeater).
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I'm not sure if it made a difference, but for all sensors, after initially pairing them, I used the "zigbee reporting configuration driver" from @kkossev (Thank you!) to set the reporting interval. Your mileage may vary, but at least its an attempt to get the sensors to report back regularly.
View and Change Zigbee Device Settings - #7 by arnb -
To small commercial owners, reporting "open" AND reporting "temperature" is key to their success, so the generic zigbee contact sensor is the preferred type of device.
Hue motion sensor, untouched since Feb '21
This is true in any situation. My zigbee mesh has multiple strong repeaters, and I’ve seen sensors stay connected for 3+ years without a battery change. My ratio is 4:1.