Aeon Labs Aeotec (Gen 5) Siren Not Working

I have an Aeotec (Gen 5) Siren that was continually going offline for no apparent reason. I removed it from smartthings. Then when I tried to exclude it, I pressed the button on the bottom of the siren and nothing came up on the app for me to exclude.

Since then, when I press the button on the siren, nothing happens. None of the lights come on and all I hear is a weird buzzing noise. I tried to see if I could factory reset the siren, but that proved unsuccessful as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

If the device is really dropping offline it could be a signal issue, but it’s possible that SmartThings thinks the device is offline when it’s really not.

The Aeon Labs Multifunction Siren DTH should prevent the device from being falsely reported as offline.

Am I correct to assume that you went into that device’s settings in the mobile app, tapped Remove, and then pressed the button on the device and it didn’t display the message stating it was successfully removed.

If that’s not correct, how did you attempt to remove the device?

I’m pretty sure the button on the device cancels the siren, but it can’t be used to turn the siren on.

Lots of users have reported a buzzing sound that can be heard within a few feet of the device so it’s most likely not related to your issue.

You can factory reset the siren by holding the action button for 20 seconds. If successfully reset the siren will sound for 3 seconds.

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Hi Kevin. I appreciate the response.

  1. You are correct to assume that I went to the device’s settings in the mobile app, tapped remove, and then pressed the remove button.

  2. I tried to factory reset the device, but nothing happened.

  3. Right now the siren is useless. I can’t add it to smart things because it isn’t be recognized. I can’t exclude it from smarttgfins because it isn’t being recognized. All of my attempts to reset it to factory settings have be unsuccessful. The only thing that happens when I plug it into the outlet is that I hear a buzzing noise. It has become useless and I have no idea how to fix it. I don’t want to spend money on a new siren, but it seems as though I may be left with no other choice.

Hi there,

I am facing the same issue while the Siren worked like a charm for almost a year. I already share this with ST support who don’t think they have a problem with Z-wave devices but frankly my Z-wave devices started to act oddly 2 o 3 hub updates ago. Previously I had only ZigBee guys going offline, now it also affect the Z-Wave ones.

On my side I removed/excluded the siren and added back but it went off again after. So like every sensors I have now, I am logging in an excel worksheet the offline events per sensor and note the reset/battery changes actions. Of course as this siren is not battery powered, only exclusion/re-add can be done.

So you’ve tried holding the action button for at least 20 seconds while the device was plugged into an outlet?

Just in case it helps, here is the Aeotec support comments after I sent a ticket yesterday:

We’ve contacted SmartThings hub on a few occasions unfortunately have not been able to find the issue so far. We have been testing, while we have not yet come across the same issues others are facing so its hard for us to debug directly as well.

Some possible solutions i came up with while troubleshooting with other users may or may not help, but it has definitely helped a few.

Test the Siren sound

  1. Press and hold the Siren Gen5 button for 10 seconds
  2. At around 8 seconds, the LED should blink wildly, and ring its siren.
  3. Release the Button

If it is working, continue to do an exclusion then inclusion using the ST hub.

Disable Health detection on SmartThings as a test to see when you re-include if the Siren goes back offline:

  1. Tap the menu (Android) / More (iOS)
  2. Tap Device Health
  3. Toggle the Device Health switch to the OFF state
  4. Tap Done

Full Factory Reset Manually

  1. Press and hold the Siren Gen5 button for 20 seconds
  2. At around 8 seconds, the LED should blink wildly, and ring its siren.
  3. The sound will stop after 1 second, and then continue to blink wildly
  4. The LED will become solid, then turn off.
  5. Once there is no more reaction, continue to step 6.
  6. Release the Button
  7. Now try the general exclusion process.

General Exclusion
To factory reset your device follow the steps below:

  1. Put your ST hub into General Exclusion mode from the steps followed in this link: https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/200878314-How-to-exclude-Z-Wave-devices
    • Tap the Menu Button
    • Tap the “Hub is Online”
    • Go to Z-Wave Utilities
    • Go to General Device Exclusion
    • When you see the message"Please follow manufacturer’s instructions to remove the Z-Wave device from my SmartThings" (For most cases you just tap the button on your Z-Wave device that is used for pairing, some other devices may have a special way for the exclusion process).

  2. Tap the button on the Siren Gen5 that you want to factory reset

  3. Put your ST hub into Pair Device Mode: https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/205956950
    • Tap Marketplace
    • Under Things, tap Connect New Device
    • Your app will say “I’m looking for your new Things” and display a spinning circle

  4. Tap the button on the Siren Gen5 that you want to pair into your network.

If this isn’t working, continue onto trying the custom DTH if Siren Gen5 is still a part of your network.

Installing a custom DTH after pairing it back:
If you are having issues triggering the Siren Gen5, or if it is show as a generic device, we advise using a custom device handler Smart Alarm, a custom device handler by krlaframboise.

Custom Device handler by krlaframboise SmartThings forum: [OBSOLETE] Aeon Labs Multifunction Siren

Direct Github link can be found here: https://github.com/krlaframboise/SmartThings/blob/master/devicetypes/krlaframboise/aeon-labs-multifunction-siren.src/aeon-labs-multifunction-siren.groovy

Find the Github code, and copy all of the device handler code (all of it), then follow the instructions below to install the custom device handler:

  1. Login to Web IDE and click on the “My Device Types” link on the top menu (login here: https://graph.api.smartthings.com/)
  2. Click on “my location”
  3. Click on the name of your SmartThings hub to select the location that you are in
  4. Click on “My Device Handlers”
  5. Create a new Device Handler by clicking on “+ Create a new Device Handler” button in the upper-right corner.
  6. Click on “From Code.”
  7. Copy statusbits code from Github, and paste it into the code section.
  8. Install it on your Siren Gen5 by going to “My Devices” page in the IDE
  9. Find your Siren Gen5.
  10. Go to the bottom of the page for the current Siren Gen5 and click on “Edit.”
  11. Find the “Type” field and select your device handler. (should be located at the bottom of the list as ‘Smart Alarm’).
  12. Click on “Update”
  13. Save Changes

Power Cycle Siren Gen5
This one is a bit interesting and may take a full night to power cycle due to the internal backup battery in the unit.

  1. At night before bed, unplug the Siren Gen5 and leave it in its area of installation.
  2. Once you wake up, tap its button to confirm if the battery has completely run dry
  3. Now plug it back into your wall outlet, and unpair and pair back the Siren Gen5.

Power Cycle SmartThings Hub
Sometimes power cycling the Smartthings hub will solve this issue:

  1. Unplug and unpower SmartThings hub
  2. Wait 30 seconds
  3. Power up SmartThings hub
  4. When fully initiated, test Siren Gen5.

I am going to disable the Health check feature as I kind of remember my ZWave devices started to behave strangely around the Health check deployment in ST hub.

SmartThings marks the device “unavailable” when it thinks the device is offline, but that doesn’t mean the device is actually offline.

If the siren appears “unavailable” and you open it in the mobile app you’ll see that unavailable message, but there’s an x in the top right corner of that screen that allows you to close that message and see the tiles like normal.

Usually, if you tap one of the tiles you’ll find that the device is really still online and that will cause SmartThings to change it back to online.

Since you’re running into this problem with multiple devices it might be worth disabling the Health Check feature, but I don’t recommend it if the siren is the only device you’re having problems with.

Disabling it will prevent devices from getting marked unavailable, but it won’t have any effect on whether or not devices are actually going offline. The only way you’ll be able to tell if is device is really offline is by using a device monitoring SmartApp like my Simple Device Viewer or Device Monitor.

If you’re using my DTH for the siren, which is apparently approved by Aeotec based on that response you received, try setting the checkin interval setting to 24 Hours.

When it’s set to 24 hours it will internally ping the device every 24 hours and SmartThings won’t mark it unavailable unless it doesn’t respond to 2 consecutive internal pings and the ping SmartThings sends shortly before marking it offline.

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Thanks Kevin!

I’ll monitor for a while the siren before disabling the health check.

I just set the 24h setting per your recommandation. Thanks a lot and have a good one.

Yes, nothing happens when I tried this. I am going to try some of the other suggestions that people have posted. Hopefully it works. Thank you!

Update! So, I left the siren unplugged for about 3 days. Then I went plugged it back in and was able to pair it smart things with no problem. I don’t know what happened, but everything is working now.

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I’m having your original problem, exactly.
Only I didn’t get nearly the helpful responses from Aeotec as I see shared here. I’ll unplug it and give it a try in a few days, as suggested.

It’s possible the device shutting off after the battery died is what fixed the problem for that other user so waiting a few days is worth trying.

I forgot about this thread. Just popping back in to report that leaving the siren unplugged a few days was the solution for me. It allowed me to pair the device to my system just as readily as when it was new.

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