They are ZigBee and sourced by AlertMe.com, made for the Iris system for Lowes. I have one and have tried to pair it with no luck. I have seen several posts on the internet discussing getting it working with other systems, but nothing seems to be conclusive yet.
It would be great if these could be supported because they are so cheap and small. I am going to hang on to mine for now in the event that support comes around.
There were rumblings that they would update their devices to be compatible with any ZigBee HA controller. It doesn’t seem that they have rolled out this functionality yet. Until the, while they still use ZigBee, they remain proprietary.
I found a GE/Jasco Open / Closed Sensor on Amazon for $17.99 and had the same issue of not being able to pair it to the Smart Hub. My understanding was that “if it’s Zigbee or Z-Wave, it can work”, but I suppose that’s a little over simplified.
I love the open paradigm, but it looks like it’s not quite as open as I’d like it to be quite yet. For most of what I want to roll these sensors out to, I don’t want/need the full functionailty of the SmarttSense Multi for $50. A “dumb” open/closed sensor for $18 is much more logical to me.
Does anyone know if any developers have an “unofficial” way to get these currently incompatible, cheap Zigbee sensors working in the SmartThings environment yet?
Do you know if these are even Zigbee? I havent been able to find anything, but I wonder if they even are. My guess is this might be something similar to X10/Insteon.
Also - Sad to hear about the Iris sensors. With SmartThings arriving on the market, I doubt Lowes will choose to open their infrastructure due to the competition. I am not sure how much the SmartSense Multi’s are going to cost, (and I know you can get the Schlage sensors) but I too would like to see some cheaper/smaller contact sensor only alternatives to the Multi.
I think with less on board sensors we could expect better battery life, and they would be more compact for fitting on windows and doors, and most of all CHEAP.
don’t hold your breath! Iris have mixed devices: some are Z-wave based and some are Zigbee. The Z-Wave devices should work with ST with no problems (as long as they have the Z-Wave logo). The Zigbee based devices, however, are very proprietary and closed (like these sensors) getting them to work with anything other than Iris is a challenge. One reason for the low price of these sensors is that they are almost useless if you don’t subscribe to the Iris service, so that’s how they can afford to make some components cheaper :-/
My understanding was that “if it’s Zigbee or Z-Wave, it can work”, but I suppose that’s a little over simplified.
I believe if a device is Z-Wave it can almost certainly be made to work. Zigbee however is an open standard which means manufacturers can mess with it and make it proprietary to their system.
AH- I’m learning here. I didn’t realize Zigbee could be squirrley like that. Moving forward, I’ll be sure not to put so much confidence in untested Zigbee devices, but it’s good to know I can rely on Z-Wave compatibility.
@mattgarfield No problem. Just keep in mind just because there isn’t a technical reason a Z-Wave device can’t work doesn’t mean it will. There are tons of exotic devices out there that support hasn’t been added for just yet.
Has anyone found a cheap open/close z-wave sensor that works? I’d like to get some for windows I frequently open but don’t need all the multi-sensor stuff for.
They’re supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Unfortunately it looks like they’re out of stock now, but at $25/sensor it’s the cheapest I was able to find.
Has there been any progress regarding SmartThings supporting the $20 Lowes contact sensors? I’m still struggling to find compatible sensors that compete in terms of cost and compact size.
