Any way to make older wireless sensors work with SmartThings?

Wiki Projects & Stories
1

I posted recently about hooking up an older security system to SmartThings via Konnected (or something similar). I was having a lot of trouble figuring out how the door sensors were wired to the panel, and I think I’ve figured it out: They aren’t. They appear to be old NX-450 sensors, which are wireless. The signal goes to an antenna on the control panel in my garage, which would explain why the “zone” terminals in the panel were empty.

Since there are no wires connecting the sensors to the control panel, it seems it would be impossible to use the Konnected system since (from what I understand) that requires wires.

My question is, should I throw them all in the trash and just buy modern sensors that work with SmartThings out of the box ? Or is there still a way to salvage these old sensors? The NX-450 does have a terminal that can be wired to “external switches”, which makes me think it might be possible to buy a small Zigbee/Z-wave module that I could attach the sensor to. Is that possible?

2

Not worth the effort or the money to try and salvage them in that case. Just start with new ones. Since the Main Cost most of these devices is the radio, by the time you add a device with the radio to the old sensor, You might as well have just bought a new sensor that will have more features and work better anyway. :sunglasses:

2 Likes
3

All I needed to hear. Thanks! :slight_smile:

1 Like