I have this mailbox sensor (https://amzn.to/3GCBr6k) and it just works every time. It’s not Z-Wave or Zigbee, but it’s just rock solid. I’d like to get mailbox notifications into Hubitat. I recently installed an Ecolink Tilt Sensor in the mailbox and although it works great, 75% of the time, the mail lady is too quick to put the mail in and it doesn’t fire in Hubitat as open.
Thinking about it more, is there a device I can buy that I could add a wire from the existing mailbox notification receiver into some other device that has Zigbee or Z-Wave so I can access that through Hubitat?
my nguess is signal issues..
if usng zwave put a extender or zwave switch on the ouside wall of your house and onther right inside the same wall.
same for zigbee.. I have had better luck with zigbee sensors going the distance to our mailbox for reliability about 80 feet.
i put a small zigbee switch inside and outdoor outlet box..
namely this one..
and another switch ge build in in an inside outlet on the same wall.
i have had best luck with smatthings m,ulti sensors for range if you can still get them.. benefit also shows mailbox temp. i just use a normal contact sensor and mounted the sensor inside with double stick 3m tape and the magnet on the door. and i tried a lot of differnt sensors.
The signal is great, it’s just a timing thing. She opens the mailbox puts in the mail and closes it again within 2 secs and that’s just too quick. I don’t wanna bug her with “please leave it open longer” lol.
All my tests work great, but it needs to be open for at least 3 secs for it to work.
maybe try a contact sensor than instead of a tilt..
but have you checked the logs.. taking too long to trigger could be a sign of bad signal where the device has to constantly retry till the signal gets through. my tilt sensor on my garage door same ecolink does not take 3 secs to trigger. within 1 sec it trigger.s
it could also be an issue he/she doesnot open the mailbox door wide enough. to trigger the sensor .. not a timing issue.. i think you can oper the door just slightly to slide in envelopes without triggering the tilt sensor in my tests.
i have a couple of those .. one on my steam humidifier to tell me when the service light comes on and one on my dog fence perimeter wire transmitter for broken wire
they work well with one caveat.. i had to stop using usb power as it would spam my network with temp reports every 30- secs and apparently ignored the setting about how often to report when on usb. Support was uncoroperative in resolving the issue.
I just moved them to battery power which hard codes the batter/temp report time to 1 hr.
