Frient Zigbee Devices ? (UK)

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
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@Andrew_Bartlett mentioned a Frient relay in another thread and I was curious if anyone in the UK has tried these. Zigbee 3.0 , look nicely engineered, decent prices in the middle range.

In addition to the usual models, they also have a heat alarm (something often requested for garages since smoke sensors often get false alarms from car exhaust)

They also offer two models of door sensors, one with a temperature sensor and a less expensive one without. And what looks like a nice humidity sensor.

These all promise multi year battery life with standard AA batteries. They are larger than the aqara sensors, but may be better at staying connected to the network.

Most models have a “works with smartthings“ logo.

Anyway, I just wondered if anyone has tried them. They don’t seem to be available in the US at present.

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Heat sensor doesnt currently work with Smarthings, as I found out to my cost - it for a garage for that very reason which does have a car in.
It loud though so Ill keep it with hope they add it soon, all other devices look like they work.

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I have a couple of the smoke alarms on the way from amazon so I will post how they are. Frient Amazon UK Shop Amazon.co.uk: frient
I sent Frient an email asking why the heat detector is not supported in ST.

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Because @RBoy hasn’t wrote the DH for Develco yet.

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Many more products in the works :wink:

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Hi Andrew,

Thanks for your email.

We are waiting for the approval from SmartThings, in order to have the device supported.

We hope to get this solved soon.

Best regards

Christoffer

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Smoke alarms were easy to set up in ST, same as a ST device. They are now working in ST Home Monitor. Hardest part was screwing the backplates onto the wall/ceiling.

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After reading about Frient in this post, and a need for replacing my Aqara Door Sensors, I ordered a Frient Entry Sensor from Amazon to test it.

At first you notice it’s pretty large as compared to other brands, but that’s due to the fact it takes 2x AAA batteries, but hopefully they will last a decent amount of time. It has a tiny LED on it which flashes when the Sensor opens and closes which I like as it gives feedback and considering it takes AAA batteries, I think it can afford a couple of tiny flashes a day :slight_smile:

If all goes well with this, I may eventually replace all my Aqara Sensors with this one.

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Ive installed 4 of the Frient smoke alarms. They paired with ST (UK) quickly and easily and i get notifications if they are triggered. Ive had some issues with them triggering correctly - they should have a loud siren however mine have only beeped.
Frient are helping me sort this

However ive learnt that when one goes off the others wont trigger. Frient say its because I need my hub to support IAS in order for them to trigger one another.
Does anyone know if this works in ST? If so how?
Or can device handler be made to allow it or something?
@Andrew_Bartlett do you know??

Thanks

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Sorry I do not know

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This isn’t supported in the current SmartThings architecture, users cannot create association groups at this time. Instead use the Automations tool or Scenes to trigger a group of alarms. Many automations and device handler (including the Frient ones) run local, so they will trigger even if there isn’t any internet which should replicate the association/groups behavior. The beeping means that the device handler hasn’t recognized your device correctly (it’s sending the wrong command as a consequence), what’s your model number?

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I know you know this, but just to clear up any confusion…

Both Zwave and Zigbee use the term “association“ but they use it in different ways.

ZWAVE ASSOCIATION: ONE TRIGGER DEVICE TO ONE OR MORE TARGET DEVICES

In Zwave, you set up an “association group“ so that a trigger device can send a message to one or more target devices without having to go through the hub. You can currently set these up in smartthings by using the Z wave Tweaker tool that was developed by the community.

Once the commands are sent, they look like any other network commands. The trigger device is the sender and the target device is the destination address.

The trigger device has to get permission from the hub to be able to do this, and it specifies the specific targets it wants to be able to talk to. So that is called setting up an association.

Note that one Z wave device might be in different groups for different trigger devices. So the hall light switch might be in association group 2 for an auxiliary light switch at the other end of the hall and then association group 3 for a handheld remote. Or it might be in two different association group 2’s used for two different trigger devices.

The point is that the zwave association group is specific to each trigger device. It’s just the list of device IDs that that trigger device is allowed to send messages to.

ZIGBEE ASSOCIATION: ANOTHER WORD FOR JOIN

In Zigbee, the term “association“ refers to joining the network for the first time. The new device gets associated to a parent device. But that doesn’t have anything to do with groups.

ZIGBEE GROUPS: GROUPCASTING

In Zigbee, groups are used for “groupcast“ commands. Once the device is in a group, it’s in that group no matter who the trigger device is. A trigger device which is capable of groupcasting Can then send a a single command to group 1 (instead of to individual device IDs) and every device on the network will check to see if it is in group one and if it is, it will then perform the requested action. So this is a very different mechanism than zwave direct association.

At the present time there is no way in a smartthings set up that I know of to set or change the Zigbee groups that individual devices belong to.

ZIGBEE END DEVICE BIND

Zigbee has another function called “end device bind“ that you can do in smartthings with custom code which allows a Zigbee trigger device to send a message directly to one specific endpoint on one specific Zigbee target device. So there’s no group involved. But it is similar to zwave direct association if you were only looking at two devices, the trigger and the target.

Here’s an old discussion of how to do that in smartthings, which I believe is still applicable for now. But I don’t know if you’ll be able to do it once the new platform is fully in place and the groovy IDE goes away. They have yet to publish the details on hub connected devices and custom code.

SUMMARY

I haven’t looked at the specs, but it sounds like the Frient Alarms are depending on groupcasting, and as you noted that is not currently supported in smartthings.

You might be able to individually bind one frient alarm to another, again I haven’t checked the specs, but it would be a lot of work. :thinking:

And Again, I know you know all of that, but I wanted to spell out the details for people who are less familiar with the protocols. Just to avoid any confusion. :sunglasses:

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Yep JD, you’re right. When we built the Frient (and other) integrations this is something we looked into but wasn’t an easy solution for the end user. The Automation / rule is the best solution in the current architecture. This may change in future as SmartThings is aware of the current limitation.

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Hi. I have the Frient 20209600 Intelligent Smoke Alarm.
I cant use an automation to trigger another alarm - or at least not that ive seen or figured out
So is it a plan to add this support?

Thanks

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I need more info about your model, open the IDE, click on My Devices, Click on your Frient alarm and send me the model and manufacturer.

Nothing special is required in the device handler to trigger the alarms using the Automation tool. If it’s using the correct device handler it should automatically show up in the Automation tool to be used as an Alarm (verified it’s working here with the model that was certified by SmartThings)

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Hi.

  • manufacturer: frient A/S
  • model: SMSZB-120

I got the one that said its certified with SmartThings

Are you saying the beeping instead of a siren is also wrong then?
Should i delete and re-pair?

Thanks for help

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The smoke alarm doesn’t support the Siren feature at this time which is why you can’t trigger it from SmartThings. That will need a custom device handler for it… You can request frient to add support for it, once they approve it we can work on it.

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Ask who to add support sorry?

So to get this straight the smoke alarm cant not due to SmartThings trigger another alarm if one goes off. So they are basically bloody useless in a large building with several floors. Great! I will probably send them Back to amazon then :weary:

Frient said it was a ST issue so is it someone in ST i need ro ask for support or Frient?

Thanks

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OEM’s are responsible for creating integrations for their products, not SmartThings. In this case Frient would need to create a custom device handler which can utilize all the features of the device (currently it only utilizes the smoke sensor feature but not the alarm feature which is why it’s unavailable). It’s true that the Group feature as JD pointed out isn’t possible in SmartThings at this time, however if Frient created a custom device handler to utilize the built in alarm then you can use the Automation tool to create a simple rule to trigger the other alarms in the building when any one alarm is triggered.

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Well i can confidently say they wont do that. They have just released a siren and range extender. Id imagine they will point us in that direction.

So i might be being dumb here (sorry!) do any fire alarms currently work with ST where they can trigger one another or is it the same issue across the board?

I take it the group feature that JD pointed out is this IAS thing?

Thanks