Multiple Sensors Same Door

(Christopher) #1

I searched the forums but didn’t really see anything about multiple sensors on the same door. I currently have TW Cable’s intelligent home which uses proprietary zigbee devices for motion and contact sensors. My front door has a contact sensor from TW, but I’m wanting to put my own sensor (Iris v2) for SmartThings purposes. Will I have any issues having two sensors on the same door?

#2

Should be fine, like putting two TV sets next to each other. Each sensor will be reporting to its own Coordinator. Zigbee is a very low energy profile, so as long as traffic on each one is pretty low, which is typical of home automation, it shouldn’t matter. If you wanted to get into intensive micromanagement you could try to make sure each one is using a different channel, but honestly it shouldn’t matter. Now if you’re going to try and run three or four different zigbee networks in the same physical space, that’s a different issue.

Another alternative would be to use Z wave sensors for the smart things network wherever they’re going to be fairly close to a zigbee sensor from the other network. zigbee and zwave use very different bands. :sunglasses:

(Christopher) #3

Thanks for the response! Seeing as how I picked up my contact sensors for less than $10 each, I think I’ll stick with my zigbees. Haha

I should only ever have the two zigbee networks, so hopefully I won’t have a “congestion” issue.

#4

FWIW, the GoControl zwave sensor “essential” kits are marked down at many Home Depot’s right now so that you get three sensors for $25 (although one of them is a motion sensor). They’re still $45 on the website, you have to look for local in-store clearance.

They’re probably on markdown because gocontrol is intending to come out with a new Z wave plus model, or maybe just because they’re boxes that have the wink logo on them. But if you are interested in zwave classic sensors, there are good deals to be had right now.

But again, I think if you just have two zigbee networks you’ll probably be OK.

(Pizzinini) #5

I use ATT Digital life open/close sensors (proprietary protocol) and Smartthings Multis together right next to each other on multiple doors. Never had an issue in over 2 years.

(Christopher) #6

Awesome. That’s what I was looking for.