It’s very customizable for which alerts you want and there are a ton of options. Mine has only gone off once since I purchased it.
Matt
The device handler includes a button to turn the NOAA radio on and off manually. It will only turn on automatically when it receives a weather alert from the list of the ones you checked and it flashes blue until the full broadcast is done then turns off (you can hush it too). It’s actually really neat, I had it happen once so far to warn me of a huge thunderstorm coming about 2 hrs beforehand. Wouldn’t have known about it otherwise.
Only weird thing is i was only getting it to happen on one of the Halo+ and not both. Need to stop being lazy and double check the config on the upstairs one.
Sorry just looked a the manual (page 11) and realized whoever wrote “NWS” on the product info page of the halo site must have not known what they were talking about. The manual makes it clear it’s a NOAA-based service for broadcasting alerts. But as noted by @Oendaril, you can customize which weather and other emergency conditions.
Thanks for the info and link to the manual (should have looked there first 
). Couple more questions that came to me after I posted this:
- Is there any ability to turn the NOAA alerts on/off during certain times of the day? For example only turn it on during the night. Has anyone used CoRE to try to do this?
- Is there a volume setting for weather alerts vs smoke/CO alerts?
- Can you filter the warning level withing an alert category? For example only get weather alerts that are a Warning or higher?
- Are all of the NOAA settings available via the SmartThings app?
So this is odd. Finally physically installed the Halo, test went just fine with it hardwired and I’ve sent the other error messages to Halo support. Now I’ve removed it from the Halo app and connected it to ST but now ST shows it with the same previous state when I removed it last time “Test in Progress” … I’ve tried removing resetting and readding with no luck
anyone got any ideas
Tap on the Refresh tile? When you removed the device did you also delete the device from ST via the IDE, or at least made sure it wasn’t still showing up in My Devices?
Done, Done, and done… did it multiple times… still no joy.
@gtgrieco
Sounds like something remembering something.
I’d say add it to the Halo app for them to troubleshoot or ask them for a replacement.
@mjarends
All the NOAA alerts available for the Halo are under Preferences. There is no sound control but there is station control. Since they are in the preferences I’m not sure if you can turn them on/off depending on the time of day. Most of the alerts don’t come in after a certain time, I think. It’s pretty vague in the NWR site.
“An operational guideline is that messages are alerted only for hazards urgent enough to warrant waking people up in the “middle of the night” or otherwise interrupting someone’s activities at any time.” - https://www.weather.gov/nwr/warning
@Oendaril The other one might be on another station. I know mine scared me the other day due to this. 
Yeah that’s exactly what they said. I’m going to try their steps once more, delete it from ST, factory reset the Halo then add it back to ST Then they asked me to re add it to the Halo app so they could troubleshoot.
Gotta say wasn’t expecting a response on a Saturday night so bonus points for Halo SmartLabs.
Yeah, that’s good that they’re reaching to you like that. Hopefully you can get this working, or get a replacement. Sorry to hear you’re having so many problems with that one.
Is there anyway to get the Halo detector to work with both SmartThings and the Amazon Echo? I don’t care about not using the Halo app, but I do not see a way to get the smoke detector paired with the amazon echo without using that app, which will kill the smartthings integration.
Thanks!
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Good news… Got it working knocks on wood. Smart labs had to reset the zigbee radio seems to be ok for now…
Note to all… Dont attempt a test while not having it hooked to the AC.
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You can probably enable the SmartThings app & control it as a switch.
Mine work with both. Basically my Amazon echo picks the Halo up as a device in my ST setup. I can turn the lights on with the echo but cannot change colors. It works okay. Not sure what use I will find for it.
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I have set up all of my Halo and Halo+ alarms. 8 in total. Set them up in ST and it works great. However I do have an issue with the Halo chirping. It is not a constant chirp but it did chirp twice about 1-2 minutes apart about last night around midnight. Reached out to Smart Labs on the issue. I was told that a firmware update will need to be sent through to the devices. Apparently this can only happen by having the alarms setup in the Halo app and not ST. So I have to remove them from ST and set them up again in the Halo app for firmware to be updated. They indicated that this occurs automatically in the Halo app daily. So any chances for OTA updates on these devices in ST? Would love to hear from ST on this to see if they are working on providing a fix for this. I cannot see having to do this every time a firmware update is needed. Hopefully not many will be necessary but I am sure that there will be firmware updates occasionally.
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Well… hopefully don’t get to test the weather portion of my Halo+ tonight but, I was curious the NWS station is mute, will it still alarm or go unmuted if my area is triggered for one of the watches or warnings I have setup?
Thanks.
Here is an addendum to my previous posts about Halo and my experience. I have been reviewing some of my Halo’s in ST and others in the Halo app. So my impressions so far with ST is the device in ST app is on par with the Halo app in all areas except one. If the Halo is attached with the Halo app and it alarms it will announce which Halo detected the alarm. However In ST when the Halo alarms it only announces what the trigger was (smoke or carbon monoxide) but does not give the location of the Halo that originated the alarm. This may not matter to many but smoke detectors are from my perspective designed to save lives. Announcing which alarm the issue originated from such as “smoke detected in the kitchen” is a very valuable feature when trying to evacuate due to an emergency. I don’t think it is a deal breaker in any way as the Halo is a great device but I would like ST to see about trying to include that feature in future device handlers but Smart Labs may not allow access to that as it is probably proprietary to Halo.
I would go to Halo and suggest that they allow the device to operate on ST & the Halo app at the same time. I just submitted that feature request. If they get enough it should push them for it.
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Is that something that Smart Labs indicated? I thought it was a limitation of the device and it could not be in two apps simultaneously just like the Osram bulbs.
From Halo Labs website:
I’ve added my Halo to ST, How can I add it to the Halo app?
At this time, You can connect via ZigBee (ST) or Wi-Fi (Halo App) but not both. We worked closely with SmartThings where you wouldn’t miss much functionality. If you believe this feature is beneficial, we would love to hear why! Let us know here.https://support.halosmartlabs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Philips Hue works on both. Ecobee works on both (well there is some linking here). Harmony remotes (same linking) There are multiple devices that work on both wifi and Zigbee/Zwave… its just a question of time/effort/firmware to make it happen.
To me for a device like a smoke detector… redundancy is critical, power goes out, battery backup. Smartthings goes down, wifi backup. Wifi goes down smartthings backup.