New idea maybe? Zigbee/Z-Wave enabled Battery UPS?

Devices & Integrations
1

I have a family cabin and we are not there very often in the winter. Recently the internet stopped working, but the Spectrum rep said that the modem is pinging just fine.

I would love to figure out how to get notified if the power is out while simultaneously providing continuous power (albeit for a short period of time) for all of the network to ensure I could see my SmartThings status for a while and do something about it.

Does anyone know if there is a Zigbee or Z-Wave enabled UPS? Of course, with a DTH of some sort that provides a “on/off” type function for when it is running on its own battery power. It would be great to get notified (via WebCore or something) if the power is out and the UPS is providing the power. At least I would be able to see it because the network would still be up for a short while.

I am 3+ hours away from the cabin, and if I knew I could have someone I trust come over and check things out (like the furnace not working causing great concern of pipes freezing and bursting).

I looked on Amazon and Google but didn’t find anything. Maybe there is another way perhaps that I might not be thinking of though?

2

OK - maybe I just thought of a simpler solution…plug a zigbee outlet into the wall and then plus a UPS into that outlet. Then I can get notified if the power is cut :slight_smile:

But I still like the smart enabled battery UPS…

3

I’m a little confused about what you’re imagining, but there are certainly people who get to the same end result, which is a notification that the power is out. You just have a regular UPS and you have your smartthings hub and router on that. and then you have another device which would notify you that the mains power was out and it had switched over to battery power. There are devices you can buy, or you can make your own.

There are about a dozen threads on this already, here’s one example:

4

I own this UPS

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B000FBK3QK/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I creates an xml file on a regular interval with all the parameters of this unit. i.e total wattage drawn, voltage, battery or Utility, battery remaining, etc.

I have a python script that reads this file and sends this info to a ST app/device. Basically, my UPS is a virtual device within ST.

I had the same idea as you did and setup a event notification if my UPS switched from Utility to Battery. I assumed in such case my power was off. Big fail :frowning: When my power is off, so is my modem not connected to any ups. I never get the message

2 Likes
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Yea - I was focused on a connected UPS so I didn’t search for the “use case” which would have turned up the threads you mentioned. There were a few different reasons, but the primary use case was the loss of internet connectivity. Power outage could be one, but there could be others (power surge or brownout, which the UPS was solving) that I haven’t thought of. So the primary goal was to prevent the loss of internet connectivity to maintain visibility to ST enabled monitors and any cameras that I might have installed.

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6

That’s the UPS that I was looking at (except in the USA).

Can’t you have the modem also on the UPS so that everything is powered if the power goes out?

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I could but it is in a different room quite aways from where I am. It would need a seperate ups :frowning:

8

Yes yes yes, why is this not a thing? So I learned the hard way that there are two ways a command could work with home automation. Like most people would do, I simply trusted that that the Samsung magical sorcery made it all go, and, had no idea about any of these clouds or local words being used. I’m just a simple southern boy, ya see?

So here’s what I did, where I live in Southern Maryland, the fine folks at Comcast like to switch off the broadcast from time to time. So when it goes down, I’m going to be faced with one of two scenarios (neither acceptable).

  1. I’m outside the house, usually out of town for the day, and because of this nonsense, I have no ability to monitor, adjust, or the most significant, look at my dog Savannah on the couch. Or…

  2. I’m forced to either stand up and walk over (without a Segue!) do I can recycle the modem and router.

9 out 10 times we’re good to go after that, but I really feel I’m entitled to not have to get up and walk, stuff… Plus, who am I kidding, what a cool opportunity to rock the automation skills!!! So I created a plan.

I purchased a smart power strip from Meros, which was a little fickle when pairing to the hub, but we eventually got there. And that was it for hardware. And enter now, the most powerful app in the Android domain Tasker. So here’s the load out:

  1. After pairing, I plugged the power for the Cable Modem, Wireless Router, and Samsung Smartthings Hub v3 into their own plug, each which is controllable independent of the others.
  2. I created a Tasker Context which had me scratching my head for a few. I wanted the trigger to be the loud of Wifi network connectivity and all the obvious variables didn’t see that. They saw that they were connected to the appropriate network.
  3. I won’t bore you with each step, but once that context was triggered, Tasker went through an couple of cycles of turning the power off of each component, pausing 30 seconds, and then powering them all back up. At that point it raffia a while, and checks the connectivity again. If yes, task terminated, if not, recycle one more time.

Take a guess how far I got!! Yeah, so lesson learned, new Zooz Powerstrip is being teleported from Amazon as we speak.

During this entire time, I kept noting about how handy a UPS would be. Of yeah, we lose power a lot too. So why? Because when the power takes a poo, guns cable internet still works, if you have. power for the equipment. If I’m out, i can tho no of a lot of reasons I’d want the ability to monitor conditions inside the house during a blackout. Hell, Savannah the dog!!

So I second it and I’m pretty sure that awesome story wasn’t as germane to my mind point as I thought it would be. Hope ya liked it!!

Pete

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9

I’m intrigued by your innovation here. Any interest in building me 1 or 2 of these??

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Not my idea, and I don’t have use of my hands much anymore, so I don’t build anything these days. :wink:

Fortunately, other people do offer various versions of these. Here’s one which is currently available for the US version of zwave and works well with smartthings:

https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/products/diy-smart-power-outage-monitoring-kit

If you are in a different country, the device selection will vary somewhat, so follow the link from my previous post for DIY projects.

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11

I have a couple of these modules on various branch circuits. they work quite well and let me know when the power is out/tripped/ups died after main power outage. I did purchase just the modules as they were only about $8 each and I could purchase the ecolink open/close (with secondary terminals) contact sensors much cheaper.

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