First Alert Smoke and CO Combo Alarm

Devices & Integrations
1

I attempted to add a second First Alert Smoke and CO Alarm to my SmartThings network and cannot get it to appear properly. Does anyone know if there is a unique process or special driver that has been released now that the migration from the old Groovy to new Edge / Matter architecture.

Oddly, my existing Alarm which was installed before Samsung’s change appears perfect and made the migration without issue. I wrongfully assumed since that one is showing up perfect on my network, adding an identical piece of hardware would also pair and appear correctly. I was wrong.

As an additional detail, the existing alarm does not have any option to select an alternate driver whereas the new one has the driver option.

I haven’t figured out yet why some devices give the driver option while others do not. Perhaps for devices that are known and approved per SmartThings standards, they don’t need any special drivers?

I tried removing the device completely and then re-adding it using the manual select by brand and model. This Smoke and CO Alarm is one of the choices in the list SmartThings has, so seemingly should work perfect, but it does not. It selects a generic sensor profile and then has a bunch of parameters that are meaningless for the device and does not show any status for CO, only smoke. Again, the existing one that was on my network works perfect and shows status for both Smoke and CO without displaying all the extraneous parameters on the status screen.

2

I have the zcombo as well but a different problem. First of all, my hub is still on 45.xx. I also tried removing and adding the device but have been unable to get it to accept the edge driver. I am still on the groovy driver. I guess I am going to have to wait. I am not a programmer so I easily could have done something wrong without knowing it.

3

Try excluding it before adding it?

And don’t use add by brand that is Groovy and WiFi devices. Us scan QR code or scan nearby.

4

I have 3 of these using the stock beta Zwave Smoke Alarm edge driver. They included fine using Scan Nearby, then I scanned the QR code for S2 security.

5

That seemed to do the trick. Thank you.

6

@csstup thank you for the suggestion; I will give that a try. Can you point me to the Edge Beta Smoke Alarm Driver you reference I haven’t located that one yet and isn’t one of the choices I have when I try to select a different driver in SmartThings. Thanks!

7

I have several of these as well. I am using Mariano’s zwave smoke alarm driver for them and it’s working well:

If that link doesn’t work I’ll find the thread on here and link that instead. Let me know.

8

Hello Sam,

I installed the Mariano’s smoke alarm Z-wave driver and it appears to work fine for the smoke detector. However, unlink my other unit (which was installed and working before the Edge migration by Samsung, there is no status appearing for the CO detector. It’s simply not visible in the SmartThings display for the device. When you look at your system, does your view show status for both Smoke and CO?

Thanks again for the information and suggestion.
Jeff

9

The smart things beta driver works with my First Alert zcombo well. I am getting a status for both the smoke and CO detectors.

10

I have 6 of them connected to the driver I mentioned and they each display like this:

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11

I have been eyeing these to add to my system and replace some old dumb devices. Amazon reviews are hit or miss on battery life. What’s the battery life been for those of you using them on here?

12

Battery life is good. I don’t know exactly but I would say at least a year.

Keep in mind that because they are a life safety device they shart chirping when the battery % is in the 70’s. I believe they are required to chirp for at least 30 days. Therefore I have an automatic that notifies me at 80%, so I can change the batteries before they start chirping in the middle of the night.

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13

For clarity, that’s about a year from 100% to ~80% when you replace the batteries?

14

Yes, about a year from 100 to 80%

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15

Crazy, I guess there’s a lag in the system fully updating to the new drivers. When I installed last night, CO status did not appear. I just checked and magically it’s fixed overnight, both status boxes for Smoke and CO now appear.

I guess I just needed to be patient. :wink:

Thank you!
Jeff

16

Its not the system, being a sleepy (battery powered) device, its up to it when it wants to send updates for sensor status outside of a change in condition. I believe for the ZCOMBO its every 8 or 12 hours, I can’t recall and its not documented.

What likely happened is that during pairing, your initial CO sensor update failed to make it back to the hub and you needed to wait for the next report from the device.

You can also force it to wake up, and it should send updates for things like battery during that time. It may do smoke/CO state as well.

From the manual:
PROCEDURE TO MANUALLY WAKE-UP THE DEVICE
To manual wake-up the device, slide the battery door open wait for ~5 seconds and then slide
the battery drawer closed. Upon power-up, the device will send the wake-up notification.

17

Hello, I have been thinking and I have some questions. Can an alarm test be added to the driver so the zcombo can be used as a security/intruder alarm?