Aeon Labs Recessed Door Sensor reporting Open when not

I emailed Aeon support, and they advised me to try the sensor closer to my hub. Which was a pain, since I’ve obviously screwed it into my door/frame. But they were right-- it worked if I got it closer to the hub. Seems weird that it worked without fail for a week, and suddenly the range is more limited. It’s not far, really-- the door is about 30 feet from the hub. If I bring it back to about 20 feet, it works. They advised me to get a Z-Wave outlet to extend the range.

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I too am having the same issue with these. 4 out of 5 have been stuck in the open position at one point or another. Seems the only way to clear it is to open the door and closed again. One of the devices that is currently stuck in the open position is 15 feet away from the hub maybe less.

Could anyone suggest other brands of similar device. I’m in the process of building up my arsenal of smart devices and would prefer to use recessed door sensors. Are their other such devices that work more reliably. Anyone try the Ion Digital MICRA-2G or Ion Digital PLUNGER-2G?

It may be worth running through this checklist:

I have 3 of these same sensor and one of them has the same problem of randomly showing open. This is the one closest to the hub so that is not an issue. Also this problem started mid November.** HERE IS THE MAJOR PROBLEM**. If you tie it to a door with a lock, such as the Kwikset Z-wave, it will unlock the door and leave it unlocked. When my wife re locked the door it again unlocked itself. You need to open and close the door as noted earlier to reset it. If you carry the thought through then clearly you can defeat a lock by defeating the sensor. The lock should only unlock when sent an unlock command or the lock itself is manipulated. The problem is not only with Aeon I think SmartThings also as has a problem with the logic in the coding.

If you tie it to a door with a lock, such as the Kwikset Z-wave, it will unlock the door and leave it unlocked. When my wife re locked the door it again unlocked itself. You need to open and close the door as noted earlier to reset it. If you carry the thought through then clearly you can defeat a lock by defeating the sensor.

Would polling the device fix this, or does it only power up when there is a state change?

I’ve had the same issue as @rcovert since my door lock is tied to the sensor. As a work around, I disable the auto lock/unlock during “critical” times, like when I’m away or sleeping.

I think ST needs to make the auto unlock when closed optional while not allowing it to auto lock when open. This way a manual door lock by the user will not be overridden by the system. Additionally, there should be a door open alert integrated into the auto lock SmartApp. I’m working on getting up to speed on Groovy, otherwise I’d just do it myself.

edit: sentence fragment.

You guys all read the FAQ right?

I have a bunch of these sensors on order. I have mostly wood door frames but the exterior ones are metal. I’ll be watching this carefully…

  1. the following problem is specific to magnetic devices. If there is a piece of metal nearby, including a metal window frame, a metal door, sometimes even a metal switch plate, the magnet can magnetize that piece of metal, and then The sensor gets very confused. there are a couple of forum topics on this. If this is the problem, it will take a while to fix because it takes a week or two for the other metal to lose its charge. But this is one of the first things the field tech will look for if a sensor works just fine for a few days or a week and then gets stuck.

Ecolink door sensor won’t work around metal

This is interesting regarding the magnetizing the nearby metal. What is confusing is that mine worked for 2 months and then started exhibiting the above behavior. Sometimes open/close the door will work and sometimes slightly turning the sensor will do it (I did not screw it in yet for obvious reasons). What’s more is that I have the same door/sensor in the front and it works fine. I’m going to explore the weak battery issue.

Another thought if it is signal - has anyone experimented with creating a small extension to the antenna to help with potential interference?

Anyone have any experience with the Ion door plunger? I have 5 set up and enrolled on my 2Gig GoControl panel and am looking to exclude them and enroll them with my ST hub. Will these work with the ST hub and if so, does anyone recall how to exclude them from the prior controller? Thanks.

I’ve had one that has worked beautifully for 6 months. I noticed it reported 62% battery power then 2 days later, it’s dead. Walmart didn’t have the needed battery so I’m waiting for Amazon to deliver it. I really hope the next battery lasts longer and gives me a little more warning.

Mine just started doing this 3 days ago. Im currently at work now, but my first step was to try and ‘repair my zwave network.’ My sensor is still showing open, but im hoping that my zwave signal may be stronger now and after i open and close the door again all will be perfect. However i know thats probably not going to happen. Lol. I havent seen any comments of success on this issue yet?! Surely someone should have fixed this issue since Sept 2015??? Lol

This was my experience too. I deleted the switch from all SmartApps then deleted the device from the z-wave network. I then added the switch back and reprogrammed into all SmartApps. It has now worked for over 48 hours without a hiccup after being broken for over a week. Fingers are crossed.

I’m have the exact same problem as Direwolf20 and like rcovert, one of the sensors is closest to the hub that fails, whereas one farther away works no problem, so it is not a proximity issue. Two of the three I have are outside, one inside. Only one displays a battery level - one of the ones that is outside that has never failed yet.

This occurs it seems mostly on a spring loaded gate that opens and closes before the LED turns out. I assume it is in the middle of sending an open command when it closes and then Hub gets stuck on open.

Aeon Tech support said they have no idea why two are not registering battery levels and suggest I exclude and reinstall them, Of course one is installed outside, so all silicon-ed up. Not an easy task.

It is most annoying when I go to bed whereas the system can’t arm because a gate or door is falsely open and I have to get up to fix, or if I’ve left the area, and the system can’t arm because of the falsely open sensors.

My question, at least until I can determine the issues, would be, is there any way I can force the hub to register the sensor closed when it has a false open registered? This way I can fix things without having to get up or remotely while away from the building?

OK, fingers crossed I think I figured out the problem. I was shipped three sensors, and I think two were different.

I had added all three by using the generic “+ Connect New Device” and let the hub determine the device type. One worked as expected, the other two failed to show battery and failed to update accurately and consistently per the above.

Instead I performed a General Z-Device exclude in the hub and quickly clicked the pinhole button which successfully excluded the device. Then I re-added the devices by going to Safety & Security > Open/Closed Sensors > Aeon Labs > Aeon Labs Recessed Door Sensor (Gen 5)

My guess is two of the sensors were Gen 5.

Now all batteries are reporting accurately and fingers crossed, I have had no false reports of sensors being open when closed.

Hope this helps someone else.

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I have five of these sensors that I installed about 9 months ago. My problem is that some of them stopped working (reporting the doors are closed even when open). And all of them say battery level is 100% (which is impossible after 9 months). I replace batteries and voila the sensors work again. So my question is why do they report 100% charge all the time? Any suggestions? I really want low battery warnings so I can replace the batteries before they fail and I don’t notice the lack of alerts.

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I have the same problem. Batteries are still showing 100% after 6 months.

so I am having issues with these as well. I had them working fine for 6 months. All of a sudden 2 are reporting stuck as opened. I even removed them and re-added them and they still won’t update. I even tried the different device types and handlers. I have 2 working correctly and now 2 not. What troubles me is how does the device state stay the same after removing and re-adding?

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Add me to this list too

Actually measure the battery voltage as it may be low even if the DTH shows 100%. I’ve had the sensor get stuck ‘open’ and even though it was reporting a full battery, it was too low to work right. A new battery fixed the issue.

What DTH are you using that gives you battery percentage? I can’t get one to show me that.