CoinGuard - Kickstarter

Just saw this little device:

Looks like they want to be part of the Zigbee network.

I do this now (and more) with Wireless Sensor Tags, and thanks to @swanny, we already have an integration.

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Bump.

These appear to be shipping. Anyone tried using them?

It’d be nice to have a simple (cheap) vibration sensor.

Coin guard appears to be using a proprietary Zigbee:

Important note! All our smart devices only work with Pilot Labs Gateway. Compatibility with other Zigbee products not guaranteed.

Sure, any time a startup wants to ‘capture’ the market they make statements like that. Meanwhile plenty of devices work just fine with other interfaces.

Of course, then there’s Philips, pulling dick moves like removing 3rd party support (and only half-reimplementing it).

Zigbee, however, being a special beast with 3 different profiles… who knows.

Still, it’d be handy to have a small sensor like that. Sure, I could use a multi-sensor, but they’re beastly large in comparison.

If it was a $50 kit I’d be tempted to just roll the dice. $150+ not so much…

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Did I miss something? How is Philips’ rollback of excluding third party device support half baked?

If you just want a small sensor, there are a couple of options from established companies.

There are two NYCE devices on the official compatibility list. These are zigbee, and are very small. (Note that only the specific models on the compatibility list work with SmartThings, the others use a different profile.)

http://nycesensors.com/products/ncz3014/

Also, kumostat sensor tags have been around for a while and work very well. Smartthings communicates with the cloud, not directly with the tags. There are two ways to integrate them with SmartThings. First, they have an IFTTT channel. And second there is a community built cloud to cloud integration. You do have to buy one base station as well as the tags, so they’re not cheap, but you get excellent range and very small size.

Customer service on this brand has been patchy, and if you do get a bad device it can be hard to get a return unless you have your credit card deny payment. But most of the devices work fine, and the engineering quality is good enough that people tend to overlook the customer service issue.

http://wirelesstag.net/index.html

In older firmware there was better support for adding non-Hue bulbs. They resumed supporting ones already added to a Hub, but not for adding any new ones again. Meanwhile they’re trying to sell off that group but can’t get regulatory approval. But that’s fodder for another thread, not this one.

Back to coinguard, it appears to use Zigbee HA (which is not what Hue uses). It’s also something designed by Pilot Labs but manufactured by a chinese company. So I’d venture support would be likewise spotty and potential future development… perhaps inconsistent.

Yes, I’ve seen tags (and passing mention of NYCE).

I’m mainly interested in detection machine/motor activity. This without having to interfere with the wiring of the machines. Specifically sump pumps and ventilation fans. I’ve love to be able to just strap or otherwise attach a sensor to that kind of gear and have it ping out when activity is detected and when it ceases.

I’m always interested in using as few numbers of ‘moving parts’ as possible. Lashing together spit-and-bailing wire through the cloud is less than ideal. The latency for IFTTT can be wretchedly bad at times. While I understand the ST setup depends quite a lot on the cloud, I’d rather avoid using more layers of cloud services, when possible.

Then I would look into the NYCE 3031 vibration detector. It’s one of their newest generations, it’s supposed to be Zigbee HA 1.2, and they say it’s compatible with SmartThings. It might need a custom device type. That company has reportedly pretty good customer service, so get them to say it’s compatible with SmartThings before you buy it and then you should be able to return it if it doesn’t work.

http://nycesensors.com/products/ncz3031/

Yes, saw that and noted the ‘Summer 2015’ release statement on the website (that had not been updated now that it’s two seasons later…) That and it’s not for sale via their store on Amazon. I didn’t take that as a good sign.

It would appear that http://ihomeware.net/en/ is their website and @Alice930010224 is their twitter account. I’ve inquired as to whether the sensors can be paired to other than their own hubs.

My bad, then, I thought it was released as part of the new Iris 2nd generation.

No worries, I’m not expecting anything perfect. I’ve been noodling around with home automation since the 80’s. Lots of ‘potential’ over the decades but not a lot actually got ‘delivered’.

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I’ve sent an e-mail to the Nyce folks inquiring about availability of the 3031. That and compatibility. I’ll report back if/when I hear more.

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Just for the record, I had one of my 8 bit tags go bad (false motion trigger’s). Sent a single email, and after trying their trouble shooting suggestions, was asked to return the tag for which which I received a very prompt replacement.

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I e-mailed the Pilot Labs folks and received this reply:

Thanks for your email. At this moment, we have a little bit compatibility problem with SmartThings, for which we are trying to resolve. I will let someone to keep you updated.

So, good to know you can get a reply from a real person that understands the question.

All too often vendor responses don’t address the actual question or the answers are white-washed through marketing-speak.

I’m follow up as I learn more.

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Anyone found an inexpensive vibration sensor that works with Smartthings? I’d like to do a couple of vibration projects but I can’t see spending $40 on a multisensor with a bunch of stuff I don’t need.