[RELEASE] Nexia Doorbell Sensor (DB100Z) Device Handler

I would guess not, unless this wireless doorbell also supports a conventional wired option and includes terminals that toggle the required 14-40 VAC. I didn’t see any indication of this in the product description.

Here is a pic of inside the doorbell chime. Guessing just hook up the relay to the black and white wires.

Nope, didn’t work. Interesting though the relay worked with 120v (yellow wire). If I could figure a way to ground a wire when the doorbell rings it would work.
But I think I have a work around, the ST Multi Sensor seems to trigger acceleration when the doorbell is rung if I stick it to the next to the speaker.

Before I return the Nexia door bell chime, anyone want to trade a ST Multi Sensor for it?

I ordered one of these today, hopefully I can make it work. I tested the voltage at the chime on the transformer line with the doorbell button held down, it shows 13.2 volts. When I had someone just pressing it regularly, my volt meter was showing high 12 volts…

I’m now worries about the 14 volt requirement. I have no idea where the transformer is, hopefully I can find it in the attic if I need to replace it with a stronger one.

I went ahead and ordered a strongee new 16v 30vac transformer, I figure some of people’s issues are weak transformers.

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I would guess that you’re correct regarding transformer issues. I would be interested to hear how things go with your testing. Also, if you get a chance, I would appreciate it if you could post the firmware version reported by the device. I am curious if Nexia has made any recent firmware updates.

Hello Darwin,

I am having the same issues reported previously with Nexia handler reporting every 4 minutes like clock work; running on Nexia 1.44 firmware. I changed to “push to break” option and it stopped. I check my power which is a 16vac transformer operating at 18.7 volts with diodes on the circuits. The voltage drop is minimal when holding down the doorbell button as my VOM not fast enough to see a voltage drop.

I excluded the Nexia unit from ST and by the instructions of the hardware. Removed successfully and re-added to ST. Handler app started reporting every 4 minutes again with button depressed and button released every four minutes. Optioned it back to “push to break” and it quit reporting every 4 minutes. Additionally, what I noticed in this testing, the handler would only report if I held the button down for a couple of seconds rather than a momentary. This is the case whether the handler is option for “push to make”, or “push to break”. Must keep button depressed.

Additionally, removed diode and it made no difference. Any help would be appreciated as if I can’t get this operational, will send back to Amazon.

Regards,
jls

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Unfortunately, I haven’t heard from anyone yet that has had success with the Nexia Doorbell Sensor on what appears to be a push-to-break powered > 14 VAC button. The push-to-break code preference option I added a while back appears to workaround the device’s 4 minute voltage notification for doorbells with buttons under constant load, but for whatever reason, the voltage toggle doesn’t appear to get detected by the Nexia device with short presses for these types of doorbells.

Excellent concise yet thorough and summary by the way. It’s the most detailed description I’ve heard to date on the device response with these types of bells.

As a double check, the live logging tab should show if the Nexia device provides any indication of recognizing a shorter button press regardless of the device handler code processing. I’m guessing you won’t see anything, but If you do see any type of device notification in the live logs with a short press, please send me the log snippet and I can see what I can do.

Darwin, logs are inline with the operation of ST. If not holding down for a couple of seconds, no info logged.

Hi @Darwin,

I was the original poster that reported the every four minute ring indication - and you very nicely added the workaround. After installing and testing the sensor with the option selected, I, like @jlsenter found that the Nexia sensor wasn’t picking up the doorbell presses. Thanks to the excellent work and reporting of @jlsenter, I now see that a long button press is required - which won’t work because people just don’t do that.

We recently moved to a new home and that was an all-consuming event for a number of months. However, life has finally settled down a bit now and I’m ready to get back at this… Since I originally posted in this thread, I’d mounted a ST Multi Sensor (Zigbee) to the inside of the doorbell housing and set it to use vibration to notify me when the doorbell is rung. Although that works, with the issues that ST is having with Zigbee devices, I’m getting a lot of false notifications - which turns on lights (CoRE Piston) and wakes us up. Even before that started, if someone bumped the wall, I’d get a false notification too. So, I’d like to make the Nexia sensor and your handler work if possible.

As noted earlier, I removed the four small bulbs that light up the doorbell box thinking that that was exclusively causing the constant power draw. It didn’t improve the situation. Without your workaround switch turned on, I get a notification every 4 minutes. With it on, the false notifications stop, but then long button presses are needed to register the button press.

So, do you know if is it possible that the lighted doorbell is causing the constant draw or possibly the particular type of doorbell electronics or transformer I have is causing the issue?

Good questions. I’m unfortunately not familiar with the details of these types of doorbells. I can only tell from the descriptions that the circuit the Nexia doorbell sensor is on appears to always be at greater than 14VAC (except for those longer doorbell presses). If you haven’t already, you could try a non-lighted $4 doorbell from Home Depot - or even just (safely) manually momentarily short the doorbell wires first to see if that correctly triggers the bell and the > 14 VAC needed for the device.

I also tried the ST Multi to detect the doorbell vibration and it didn’t work well for me either in this application. It was often triggered by wall bumps and barking dogs.

Darwin,
I have installed your device with ST and found it to work great. However, I’m having difficulties finding an app that allows integration with a Dome Plus siren. The siren has both a true siren and also a chime capabailty. The standard Button Controller and Home Monitor apps don’t seem to either connect with both devices or allow selection between the siren/chime functionality. Any suggestions?

Today, I finally had a chance to retry the Nexia Doorbell sensor. Like @jlsenter, I can stop the every-four-minute false presses by using the push to break option in your app, but then it still didn’t pick up (in my case) either short or long presses. So, I give up on the Nexia. Disappointing. Thanks again for trying to make it work.

Other than the very occasional wall bumps (no dogs), the only issue I now have with the ST-Multi (vibration sensor) method started occurring with recent ST changes and ZigBee firmware updating causing false doorbell activations. This causes specifically programmed (via CoRE) lights to come on at 100% for 5 minutes before returning to their previous state. Of course, this happens in the middle of the night, so it’s a pain.

So, I’ve purchased a Z-Wave Monorice vibration sensor and try that out to replace my ST Multi (ZigBee). Since the Monoprice sensor is Z-wave, it should avoid the firmware upgrade/false indications issue I’m currently having. We’ll see.

just bought one of these and set up in smart things, works great with 2 9 volt batteries in parallel, will set up to my home tomorrow, too late tonight, have a old home, so prob 16 volt Transformer, no lighted button, fingers crossed

one question, the ‘firmware version’ in the gui doesn’t show anything, do I need to change something somewhere?

I don’t believe the lack of a firmware version showing is a problem. Maybe just a timing issue with the version request. It can also happen if the device is added to SmartThings before the custom device handler is installed. The firmware version request to the device can be re-sent by hitting the refresh button after first waking up the device with a doorbell press.

thanks, I order a wire tracker as my house is older and I have searched everywhere for the transformer, probably in a wall or something, so will need to update that first :slight_smile:

everything appears to be working though as the two 9 volts set it off no problem, quick and long presses, so just need to replace that probably 50+ year old transformer if I can find it

That’s good news! That was a great idea to check with the 9V batteries. I never went back to see if a new transformer would solve my quick press issue after I found the (no longer available) SAGE doorbell sensor. I suspect upgrading the transformer would have fixed it for me.

Thanks for your work on this Darwin. I tried installing this today and I’m having some trouble. I was able to install the device handler and get the doorbell sensor to show up in my list of devices. But, it gives me a bunch of false positives. It also doesn’t work when the doorbell is pushed. My events list for the device are basically a series of “Button Pushed” followed by “Button released via verification check”. It’s occurring about every 5 minutes. Any idea what’s the problem?

@alygator- it appears you have a similar doorbell, button and/or wiring configuration as @lflorack and @jlsenter discussed above. If I am understanding correctly, for these doorbells, the DB100Z will be constantly triggered by > 14 Volts even before the doorbell button is pressed. The DB100Z device + handler combo are expecting the baseline voltage to be < 14 V across the doorbell button and then expect the voltage to be > 14 only during the period when the doorbell button is pressed. I don’t have one of these doorbells to test with, but I have not found a way to make these work based on the logs I’ve seen. In an attempt to work around the differences with these devices, I did add a push-to-break option to the handler. For grins, you can try setting push-to-break using the preferences cog on the mobile app, but unfortunately, I’m not aware that this option has helped anyone with this particular issue.