I’m a newcomer. I’ve set up a bunch of Z-wave devices (U.S version) to work with Smartthings v3 Hub, mostly is Aeotec devices.
Currently, I got a headache issue that I couldn’t find a solution yet. The situation is, I got:
1 x 2 swing gate
1 x rolling door
I control the gate and rolling doors by remotes and wires. Now I want to integrate both into the Smartthings app, with Momentary press buttons, too good if it has a confirmation window (‘yes/no’ to open or close).
There are usually two different approaches for this kind of situation, although I’m a little uncomfortable from a safety aspect about trying option one with a garage door. It should be fine for the gate, though.
add a relay with a momentary capability and essentially just hotwire the device. You didn’t say what country you are in, but if you are in North America the smartest House makes a good Z wave one on that frequency.
Their customer service is very good, so you can contact them with questions.
Some people will hotwire the button remote, which is probably the safest approach, although it may also be possible to hotwire the controller unit itself.
Use a battery powered actuator, essentially a “robot finger,” to literally push a button on the remote. This has the advantage of not requiring any wiring and maintaining all of the existing safety features on the system. I use these for several applications in my own home.
Switchbot is a readily available Japanese brand that you can get from Amazon in either the US or the UK. It has an official integration with smartthings which works pretty well. You do need to also get one of the “mini hubs“ which is how you get the integration.
The biggest drawback on these is the cost. You will need one button pusher for each button, so if you have four or five buttons that can add up. But it is a good way to solve the “last Mile“ issue when retrofitting many devices
Also, you can see the project reports that other people have posted on gates by going to the Quick browse lists in the community – created wiki, going down near the bottom of that page for the project reports section, and then then choosing the list on “gates.“ There’s a lot of very creative ideas there.
However, since your gates already have a button remote, one of the two methods I described in my previous post will probably be the easiest for you.
Do I need to install the following DTH to use this switch? Is this switch configurable to be a pulse/momentary switch? For example, turn on 1 second and then off.
@tberty, yes, you’ll need to install the custom handler before you add the ZEN16 to your hub and you can either change the Switch Type in the advanced settings to Garage Door Mode for it to act as a momentary relay and automatically turn off or you could use a custom SmartApp for the ZEN16 to display as a garage door opener.
Feel free to get in touch with our support if you have any questions specific to your installation.
How can I add ZEN16 as a secured device? Currently, I pair it by scanning a nearby device and pressing the button three times. But it shows as ‘ZWAVE_S2_UNAUTHENTICATED’.
S2 Unauthenticated means the device is added with S2 security already, it’s just a different type of S2 where you don’t have SmartStart (the QR code / unique SDK code for the device). So you don’t need to do anything else at the moment, the MultiRelay is already added securely.
