Central power for all battery powered sensors

Wiki Projects & Stories
#1

First off I would like to say that I am brand new new Z-wave and smart things. However I have been coding computers, tinkering with electronics, and working on home projects for over 20 years.

I am still in the planning phase and am trying to do my homework before I invest a bunch of money. So far my setup consists of

  1. An old 1U rack mount server that will either Ubuntu or CentOS with home assistant.
  2. a Homeseer smartstick+ USB Z-wave interface.
  3. A collection of Homeseer HS-WD100+ And HS-WA100+ (Companion) dimmer switches.
  4. a collection of Kidde KN-COPE-IC hardwired combination Smoke\CO detectors with one sm120x relay and one co120x relay each connected to a dry sensor (looking at the ecolink dwzwave2.5-eco).
  5. a Honeywell lyric T6 pro wifi enabled thermostat (not z-wave enabled but thinking that home assistant can handle the cross protocol communication)

I am still researching motion sensors and door/sensors, and other varies devices including a self monitored security system and IP based surveillance system (also not Z-wave but controlled by home assistant.

Now that background information is provided my question revolves around the use of a computer power supply to provided the various voltage necessary (3.3V, 5V and 12V)

https://makezine.com/projects/computer-power-supply-to-bench-power-supply-adapter/

I would like to setup a distribution block for each voltage, then run a pair of wires from the corespondimg distro block to the sensor. The power supply would then be attached to a UPS to provide power in the event of a power outage.

I’d love to hear people’s thoughts, questions, concerns and criticisms.

Thank you!

#2

Welcome! :sunglasses:

Some people like hardwired sensors, some people like battery powered ones. Some people have both depending on the specific use case for each device.

Battery powered sensors have two advantages: you can put them anywhere you want to, and a potential intruder can’t disable your barrier detection sensors just by cutting their wires.

Hardwired sensors obviously don’t have to have the batteries changed.

There are many people in the community who have added mains power for a specific individual sensor because they had a particular need for that. You can see those project reports in the community – created wiki Quick browse lists by looking in the project reports section and choosing the power management list.

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=How_to_Quick_Browse_the_Community-Created_SmartApps_Forum_Section#Quick_Browse_Links_for_Project_Reports.2FQuestions

I haven’t heard of anyone trying to do entire banks like you are. I think most people would just buy hardwired sensors to begin with as they are much less expensive than the battery powered ones.

In particular, you might take a look at the following project in that regard:

3 Likes
#3

As (nearly) always, JD is brilliant, 'cuz the first thing I thought of posting was exactly his recommendation (including @heythisisnate’s Konnected.io system)! :blush:

3 Likes
#4

What are the best motion sensors for Konnected? My current ones…you have to dance in front of them for it to trip

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