Another item that carries a lot of liability and difficulty playing around with? Elevators. SUPER regulated.
I suppose you’re going to blame this for the delay in the release of the SmartThings Elevator then aren’t you? That was really the most important part of my home automation setup.
We’re currently taking steps to look into them and I’ll say there a major legal requirements to meet.
Have you looked at this first alert at all? From what others have said the Hub can at least see this devices but I not sure what, if anything, ST can do with it. I think I mentioned it earlier in this thread but what I’d like to see is:
A. for the Hub to know when the detector is going off because of smoke or CO2. I’d like to have an app that Turns on all my lights to make it easier to see to get out of the house and to send a text message in case I’m away from home when it happens.
B. for the Hub to be able to turn the siren in the detector on/off. If I’ve got a connected siren I’d love to be able to use it for things other than just if smoke/CO2 is detected. (For example, if the house is broken into or a water leak is detected or even as an alarm clock for really important times I have to get up early.)
@urman is right - a fire could burn up the hub or whatever back end equipment you ave for connectivity but everyone (hopefully) has some standalone smoke detectors so I viewed adding a ZigBee as an extra level of protection/notification. If it fails, it fails but the same is true on a commercial UL monitored alarm system (which is what I have -Simplisafe) but the receiver is standalone, has batter backup if the power goes out and a cell radio to contact the monitoring company. It’s not foolproof but its better than nothing especially if I’m not home and it tests out fine. The liability issues for manufacturers…well that’s a whole other issue. And. Was also waiting for the ST elevator.
@llcanada - could you provide the make/model number for the z-wave smoke detector? I’m definitely in for a few. I hacked up a standalone with a. ZigBee radio but ST requires the HA stack which the radios I’m using don’t have (I have another radio hooked to a SimpliSafe door/window contact but I like the idea of turning on the lights and tripping the ST siren. Thanks.
@chrisb I haven’t had hands on with that device specifically, but I know we are compatible with the alarm class of Z-Wave device. I’ll have to go on down to Lowe’s and get one.
I should point out that it pairs as a “z-wave sensor”. I also tried changing the device type to “particulate sensor” and had the same results. In both cases when tested, the status on the interface didn’t change, but I can see from the logs that ST is receiving data from the smoke alarm.
I think I jumped the gun on this one. I bought the First Alert smoke detector today. It shows up in my ST app. However, there are no rules that allow you to use it! Am I missing something here? I assumed it would just be a simple switch must like a light that is binary on or off, with the exception of a dimmer. But I was wrong I cannot find a ST app that will allow me to talk to it!
Smart Things needs a new device type set up before it will function. I put in a support ticket to request the needed device type. There is another thread on this topic and it sounds like they are already working on adding support.
how long does it take to pair the wireless siren? I’ve been stuck on “Identifying” for at least a half hour. Am I doing something wrong? This is my first “non” smartthing that I’m using. I bought a few things at lowes. I figured since it has the Z-Wave and someone said on this thread that it would work… hopefully it does. I would LOVE to replace my current alarm system. I know the “iris” only logo’d items don’t work but I would hope the GE and Utilitech items with z-wave do. (sorry, I’m only 24 hours new to the world of SmartThings… I have high hopes lol)
I’m adding my comment in this thread to keep tabs on it. I bought a First Alert ZCOMBO connected smoke and CO2 detector from Lowes for $40 the other day. I’ve been waiting for smart smoke detectors since I first backed SmartThings on Kickstarter and I thought I finally had what I wanted. I was disappointed to see that when it paired to my ST hub, there was not full support for the device.
Ideally, I’d like to see full access to input triggers and outputs, ie
Input triggers: Smoke / CO2 detected
Output: Sound Alarm
I’d love to have independent access to the output to be able to trigger it from other inputs, such as:
If smoke is detected, sound the alarm and flash the lights (on/off switches)
or
If the front door opens (open closed sensor) and no one is home (presence sensors), sound all alarms
or
If the doorbell rings (doorbot), double chirp the 1st floor alarm (100ms on, 100 ms off, 100ms on, 100ms off)
This is my ideal scenario where the inputs and outputs of the devices are independently accessible.
Well I had to start some fires, but I got this thing working.
The device type isn’t on the server yet. Hopefully we can add it tomorrow, but it might not be until next Thursday that you can add one of these and it will show up as the correct type right away.
In the meantime, here’s the device type handler code if you want to make your own device type in the IDE. You can enable capabilities: battery and custom: smoke, but there aren’t any SmartApps that notify on smoke detection yet.
We only have the ZSMOKE, our ZCOMBO hasn’t arrived yet, but I’m hopeful the smoke part of the functionality is the same. If anyone finds or knows how to get a full technical description of what Z-Wave parameters these things send, let us know.
Have you been able to determine yet if you can access the siren outside of tripping the whole thing? So that we might be able to do some of the things that Matt was talking about?
No, it won’t be possible to sound the siren. It’s a sleepy device to preserve battery, and it’s not beamable like a lock, so there’s no way to send it a message outside of its brief wake-up period.
Well that’s kind of a bummer… so no way to do a “software” interconnect on them either then? If Alarm A in my basement goes off I can’t send a command to Alarm B on the main floor and Alarm C upstairs to go off?
I have the ZCOMBO is there anything I can provide you to help?
I installed the device handle you pointed to to see if it would work - I’m not home so I can’t press the test button. I’m hoping it does a battery/status report at some point so I can see it in the logs.
