[OBSOLETE] Strips Drip / Strips Comfort

I won’t be converting the Strips Drip / Strips Comfort DTH into an Edge Driver, but the device should be functional with the built-in driver.


This is a device handler for the Strips Drip and Strips Comfort by Sensitive.

I’ve split the Strips Multi-Sensor handler into 2 DTHs so that users don’t have to mess with the vid to get it to work with the new mobile app. These devices have the same fingerprint so if you have both DTHs installed then you’ll need to change the device’s Type field in the IDE if it wasn’t automatically assigned the correct one.

Disclaimer: Both devices are listed as indoor/outdoor and have the ability to report Water, Light and Temperature, but they’re not water proof and can be damaged by submerging them in water. Strips Drip has a special mount that allows it to detect water without getting completely wet and the Strips Comfort doesn’t so I don’t recommend using the Strips Comfort as a Water Sensor.

   

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Awesome.
I do like that the temp/light strip is outdoor safe. I’m considering picking these up to try since you’ve got a DTH for them.

Just make sure it doesn’t end up sitting in a puddle or under snow or something and make sure you use the mounting plate it came with.

The water sensor actually reports the percentage of wetness so I thought people might be able to use it to monitor water in a fish tank or something.

To get it to report 100% I had to completely submerge it and after doing that a couple of times the device went dead. The manufacturer said it shouldn’t be used outside without the mounting plate and it also shouldn’t be left submerged in water.

I ended up pulling the percentage value out of the handler to prevent others from using it for that purpose and because the reported values weren’t that accurate anyways.

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Are these flexible at all? I’m considering mounting it at the top of a tub to determine if water is in the tub or not.

No, they’re not flexible at all. They’re almost identical to the Strips Contact Sensors.

They also can’t be submerged in water. (I learned that the hard way while writing the DTH)

The plastic mounting plate has 2 strips of sponge material that wicks the water to the sensor. If you had them on your basement floor or something and you’re basement flooded the sensor would float which would prevent it from getting damaged.

It’s supposedly fine to use outside as long as it’s mounted in a location where it won’t end up under water or buried in snow.

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Thanks, I read what you said about not submerging them. I was going to mount them towards the top so just the bottom would get wet. Oh well. Actually… not that I am thinking about it… My tub has a sensor that it uses to determine if there is water in the tub so it can prevent the heater from running if there is no water. I’m sure I can just use that with one of my spare EcoLink contact sensors.

The device actual determines the % of wetness so I thought the device would be perfect for mounting vertically in something like a fish tank to keep track of the depth of water. While writing the handler I had to submerge it to get it to report 100% and after doing that a couple of times the device stopped working.

The manufacturer said they’re not meant to be submerged and that’s most likely what killed it so I removed the percentage reporting from the handler to prevent others from thinking the same thing.

The Smartest House has the old model of the Fibaro Water sensor for $30 and the Everspring Water for $20 right now. The Everspring uses an external sensor you could mount in the hot tub and the Fibaro has terminals that allow you to attach wires to dangle into the tub. The Fibaro also has terminals for 12V DC.

Hi - I know this is an old topic but @krlaframboise it looks like you made an update to this DTH in March 2020 - is there a way to show/toggle percentage of moisture for the Drip Strips? I’m using them in an application where relative moisture level is required. Thanks

Every application I’ve seen that mentions relative moisture is referring to humidity which this device doesn’t report.

This is the only water sensor I’ve ever seen that reports more than just wet/dry, but the only way I was able to get it to report a high percentage was by submerging it in water which killed the device because it’s not actually waterproof.

All that being said, if you add 2 lines of code you’ll be able to use the device like a humidity sensor to see the water percentage being reported by the device.

Add this below line 40:

capability "Relative Humidity Measurement"

Add this below line 640:

eventMaps += createEventMaps("humidity", val, "%", false, false)

I’ve found the same thing regarding relative humidity. I am also testing some 4-20mA sensors with a MiMOlite but the Drip Strips “form factor” has been interesting enough to kick it’s tires as well.

Thanks for the follow up and code snippets - much appreciated.

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@krlaframboise, Thnx for this dh! Can you add functionality for editing parameter 10 and 11? it would be very appreciated

@krlaframboise, would that be alot of work? My sunshading automation is dependent of setting param 10 and 11 (param 9 to 2), since the logarithmic reporting of lux just wont work for that purpose.

I’ve made the changes, but I haven’t tested them so I’m going to PM you the code.
If everything works OK let me know and I’ll release the new version.

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Hello @krlaframboise

I’m a tester at Sensative AB. Thank you so much for creating this Device Handler! It has been a lifesaver for us since the default template for Strips Drips/Comfort doesn’t support leakage alarm functionality.

I have been in contact with @raja82 on our support channel regarding the lux-level implementation. We’ve both tested the code you sent to raja, lux level reporting is enabled and functioning as intended. Many thanks for the quick fix!

I have two comments though on the remaining functionality of the handler that i fear will cause Strips’ battery to drain early:

  1. I note that “Water Reporting” is enabled by default. More specifically, this setting tells Strips to send a moisture report every hour, leading to 24 reports/day. This feature is useful when debugging Strips Drips (if leakage alarms aren’t getting triggered when expected), but for any other case it is a drain on the battery. Would it be possible to have this setting be disabled by default?
  2. Strips’ wake up interval is set to 4200 seconds by default on inclusion. This issue seems to exist in the base template as well now, so perhaps it is a general SmartThings behavior? Do you know of any possible way of changing this wake up interval via Device Handler code?
    Ideally we want Strips to use the maximum possible wake up interval of 24h. Wake ups are only really used to retrieve updates from the gateway which happens rarely, so there is little reason to use a low wake up interval.

Thanks again for all your work!

/Jonathan Bjarnason

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I’m going to respond in a PM…

New DTH for each device

I just released a dedicated DTH for each device so that you don’t have to mess with the VID to get it to display correctly in the new mobile app.

I also added some of the missing configuration parameters and changed some default values and wake up interval to preserve the battery life.

Let me know if you run into any issues.

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Hi @krlaframboise (Kevin) - thanks for the great work on this app!

I just installed it tonight and saw that by default my ‘checkInterval’ value is set to 173100 s. This equates to almost exactly 48 hours.
Does this mean that the strip will ping the hub once every 48 hours to confirm that it’s alive? I have an app that alerts me when a device hasn’t checked in for 24 hours (see link below).

Just wondering if I can change this in the code somehow?

The device checks in every 24 hours.

The checkinterval means SmartThings will mark it as offline if it fails to check in within 48 hours.

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Thanks Kevin! That’ll work out fine I think.

@krlaframboise @Sensative I was wondering if this is the ideal DTH for the new Comfort 700 devices? The interface looks the same but I haven’t studied it thoroughly. Since the devices are just hitting the market I assume it may not have been tested by the community but for sure has been tested by @Sensative.

I noticed that in the IDE the DTH list has an entry for Sensative Strips Guard 700 and Sensative Strips Drip 700 but of course nothing specific for Comfort 700. So far the Comfort 700 device seems to function with the DTH for the normal Comfort 500 from @krlaframboise with the exception of the new slider switch which causes an “Unhandled Command: CentralSceneNotification(sceneNumber: 1, keyAttributes: 0, reserved11: 16, sequenceNumber: XXX)” error.