The pairing process with the custum data handler provided by Aeotec helpdesk is not clean right now. Here’s how I remember it worked for me:
Log into Graph IDE, create new data handler, publish, this will show up later as “Z-Wave Temperature/Humidty Sensor”
Factory reset your AerQ by holding it down for 10 seconds. First 5 seconds nothing, then it starts blink green for 5 seconds, and after 10 seconds total, the green light stays solid for a little while and then goes blank.
This is unscientific, but wait for 30 seconds before the next step (I dont’ know how long factory reset takes)
Start Inclusion Mode on Your phone > add device > scan
Turn AerQ in pairing mode. This is kludgy. It says press it 3 times, but speed matters. So It seems you can’t press super quick, but if you press 1 per second, that’s too slow. So press 3 times then see if the light on AerQ flashes Red-Green which indicates its pairing. After this the lights will go blank.
Z-Wave pairing is slow (compare to Zigbee), so give it up to 1 min to see your phone, and just wait.
It’ll eventually say fail to connect Secure Mode - here I don’t remember exactly, but do not abort, but find whatever on the screen that sort of go forward or skip secure mode (I can’t remember exactly, but don’t click X and abort)
Eventually AerQ will pair in non-secure mode. You’ll get a success message. At this point, it’ll show up as a device that’s unassociated with a room, but with the custom data handler type.
Thanks again! Unfortunately, still no joy - it always joins initially as a darn Open/Closed Contact sensor no matter what I do.
I had previously been joining it securely, so I thought your idea of just doing an unsecure join might do the trick, but it made no difference for me… I’ve now tried every variation of factory reset, exclude, secure/insecure I can think of.
Well - on the plus side - it’s not as if the device doesn’t work at all - it does, so that’s cool.
I’m guessing Aeotec may work some magic soon (since holidays distraction is over) to address all of this - there’s clearly some confusion on their end with the documentation, published DH etc, so maybe they’ll get all this sorted out better in the next week or so.
Decided to try one more time with the 2018 DH (the “Temp/Humidity” one, not the"Water/Temp/Humidity" one), and it worked!
It joined with that desired DH, and now only shows Temp, Humidity, and Battery statuses, so much winning.
As an experiment, I tried joining both unsecurely and securely - it worked both ways. I’ve left it joined secured since I recall hearing that S2 is better for battery life.
But I can’t quite escape that darn Open/Closed gremlin… Now its sensor icon (in the app) displays as an open-closed sensor (???). But I can live with that since only the desired data fields are showing up finally.
Ack, just noticed my temp values in app say they’re in C, but are F values.
And the the time between polling updates is forever. That seemed better using the other DH (that had the not useful contact and water sensor attributes), but who knows.
So far, everything with this device seems to be one step forward, one step back… I’m gonna shelf this thing till Aeotec gets their act together.
First, thanks to all who posted the DTHs in this thread, I was able to get the sensor working, but as others noted, the polling time seems long. Aeotec manual says that it defaults to 15 mins.
Apologies if this is a dumb question, but is there a parameter in the DTH that allows us to set the polling interval? I know it would drain the battery faster, but I’d like to set it to something shorter than 15 mins (or whatever it’s set to in the DTHs so far).
Thanks to all who posted answers so far. I also got it to work but polling varies somewhere between 3 hours and a few days for all 3 of the devices I have. I hope there is a fix for this at some point.
Aeotec Field Engineer Chris has been good at following up via their helpdesk ticket. Looks like they are still working on it. The the device driver was posted on 2020-12-31, and subsequently on 2021-01-08. The 2nd update added settings to customize three things: (1) Temperature change update threshold, (2) Moisture change update Threshold, and (3) Regular update interval (will update at a fixed interval IN ADDITION to what’s set in 1 and 2).
The setting explanation is abit vague first time setting them, so heres what worked for me:
Temperature Threshold - You can set value between 1 and 100. This value is then divided by 10 which equals degrees. So if you want temperature change update to be 2 degrees, you set value to 20 (20 / 10 = 2 degrees.
Moisture Threshold - Set value between 1 and 20. This one is straight % change. So a value of 2 equals 2% moisture change will send an update.
Regular Update Interval - value is in seconds. so 60 seconds * 60 minutes * 3 hours = 10800; update every 3 hours.
I copied the new version dated 2021-01-08 and and republished it through web graph ide.
Aeotec engineer confirmed the main tile value is still not yet work.
@Hydro - F and C units shown in SmartThings is determined by the backend code. If for example your sensor is showing value of 20 F (but it is 20 C instead), then the scale selection isn’t working correctly. If you are experiencing this, then I could modify the code to only show C units within the device handler code. If you need assistance with this, feel free to drop me a private message, or reach out to us through our ticket system. I can modify a device handler quickly to display C units only.
As for the polling times, refer to my response below under ashcomds answer (points number 1 and 2)
The fastest report time is 15 minutes, but you’ll need to set these settings after pairing aerQ Sensor. (These settings are described in the preference/setting page of these units in SmartThings).
@ashcomd - The minimum most report time is once every 15 minutes.
Threshold settings are checked every 15 minutes, if there isn’t enough change to the temperature or humidity value, they won’t report. Then it will again check again in another 15 minutes. (This is related to the first 2 parameter settings #1, and #2 )
Parameter 4 has a minimum most setting of 900 seconds or 15 minutes, this determines how often this sensor reports, while this setting does not care about threshold values, it will determine how often these are reported regardless of temperature or humidity value changes.
@travistyofjustice - Adjust Parameter 4, it is the 3rd setting in the preference/settings page of the aerQ Sensor. You can set this to a minimum of 900 seconds / 15 minutes. (point #2 above)
Thanks to @lichungliu for posting up my updates to the device handler and giving me some awareness to this thread.
Next items I’m going to update before publishing the device handler to SmartThings:
Setting/Preference for software humidity and temperature offsets (should be done by the end of the week when i get the chance)
Looking at the battery sensor reports to see how this one can be resolved.
If at all possible, learn to program custom capabilities to add dewpoint to display and allow for use over automation (This will take longer, but i hope by the end of the month or by earlier next week).
If it takes too much time, I may publish as is to the SmartThings team so that a custom device handler to streamline the installation then attempt adding dewpoint later and re-publish again.
I will update when the next update of the device handler happens.
(Edit - 1/28/2021) - Code has been updated:
Added Parameter 64 for F/C scale internal setting of aerQ in preference/setting
I just tested it out. My lazy way doesn’t work this time I had to actually follow instruction (for once). Here’s what did worked:
Login into Graph IDE > My Devices (You may need to goto My location first. Weird UI Bug)
Switch all paired AerQ Devices to type ‘Z-Wave Sensor’ (I prefer this one since it does not introduce any other UI attributes that just uselessly hang around later)
(Remove previous AerQ Type code) From My Device Handlers > Aeotec AerQ Sensor type > Device Type Settings > Delete
(Create new AerQ Type code) From My Device Handlers > Create New Device Handler > From Code > Copy and Paste new code in textarea > Save > Publish > For Me
From My Devices > Switch all paired AerQ Devices back to type ‘Aeotec aerQ Sensor’
Login into Mobile Smartthings App > click on AerQ Device > Dew Point now shows.
Thanks for making this available. I think Dew Point will be very helpful for SmartThing Forum Users that are interested in learning/monitoring their local micro Weather pattern/changes. I plan to wrap a AerQ unit in mesh (prevent bugs from settling in there) and put it it outdoor under a sheltered place. Dew Point data along with data from my Netatmo weather units will allow us to create useful Automations.
Got this great reply from support, thought I would share it:
The aerQ may not be good for real time notifications, but I can recommend some settings to use the humidity sensor more frequently. Having this sensor report too often can quickly drain the battery life since the battery used does not have a large capacity.
I would recommend stunting the temperature report to help reduce battery use in this case since the most important aspect is humidity.
Parameter 1 (report temperature on change) = 50 //require +/- 5.0 degree change to induce temperature report.
Parameter 2 (report humidity on change) = 3 //require +/- 3% RH change to induce humidity report
Parameter 3 (check interval for sensor change on parameter 1 + 2) = 1 //set check time to check once every minute.
Parameter 4 (report sensors regardless of change of report set in seconds) = 86420 //set sensor to report all sensors once per day regardless of sensor change
I just got into this world and I’m a little lost to say the least. I installed the driver but I do not see any new option to change or configure parameters (on the App or the IDE). Where can I update the parameters?
SOLVED: I installed the Aeotec Edge Drivers and after a while (+hour) the Settings option showed up in the device’s options menu in SmartThings. Before I had Edit, Driver and Information and now I have Edit, Settings, Driver and Information. I did not do anything on the device but maybe if I had forced and update (push the button on the device) I would have seen the option immediately after installing the driver.
Just wondering how these settings are working out for you? Hows the battery life after a few months? I’m trying to get mine to report more frequently if there are changes to humidity. Trying to automate something so that if someone were to use the hot water in the Bathroom for too long I can trigger some automations. I did change it to what you have but i’m not sure whether the settings have applied as it seems to take long to report when checking the history of the aerq in the smartthings app. A short press to do a wake up report shows that humidity has gone up.
Just wondering did you apply all those settings at once and then did a short press after or before? Or did you apply it one at a time? Meaning you changed a setting, did a short press after or before and then waited a minute or 2 for the next setting. Hope that made sense.
currently using the same settings as @Dominic_Leelodharry for the past week or so. seems to be working ok. the only odd thing is that sometimes within the app it shows the battery as 0%. I dont think its a z-wave signal issue as it seems to be showing data in the history app for humidity, temperature and dew point fine. I manually press the button once and it goes green hence why i assume its got a good connection to my smartthings hub.
i’m using the Aeotec Edge Drivers for the Aerq. Anyone come across this issue?
I had to actually follow instruction (for once). Here’s what did worked: