Smartthings Compatible Smoke/CO Detectors

Devices & Integrations
21

Hi Paul - would you mind sharing how you got the Firefighter to trigger STHM? I can’t seem to find it in my devices to select for STHM.

Thanks

22

I didn’t do anything specific. It just showed up there. I am using the ecolink dth from thesmartesthouse so that may help.

23

Awesome thank you. That was the issue. It was on the generic zwave sound sensor. The custom Dth made it show up in sthm and shows smoke and co.

24

Perfect. Glad it worked out.

25

There’s a great discussion of using acoustic detectors below. However, i’m intrigued by your comment of using a “ZWave relay wired into the alarm loop”. I assume that would mean wiring the ZWave relay into the hardrwired smoke/co detectors loop - that sounds like it would be reliably triggered by any of the detectors going off. Do you have an example of the ZWave relay to use for that? Many thanks.

26

Lok up the FirstAlert RM4 relay. You’d send the signal out of that to an appropriate Zwave Dry contact relay. When I first looked at this - I think I had planned on using a Fibaro - but the Zooz Zen51 should also be ok.

Here’s the wiring diagram of the RM4:
image

You’d wire the relay between Brown and Blue (normally open) so when that contact closes it’ switches the relay / detects, etc.

Pros to this approach: Use any old standard cheapo wired smoke that supports cross device signaling in an alarm loop (pretty much all of them in the US)
Cheaper than a ‘smart’ smoke detector
Cons: You’ll ahve to kludge together the solution and write some automations
Some relays only support alarm signal - not WHAT alarm (smoke v. CO)

@JDRoberts may have some specific device suggestions

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27

Thanks so much for the quick reply! I also just found the ZEN51 but put together with a KIDDE SMOKE ALARM RELAY MODULE SM120X at Zooz | Kidde DIY Smart Smoke Alarm Kit - The Smartest House This looks straightforward and still inexpensive.

I wonder if it would detect the difference between smoke and CO. To me, I’m not sure if that’s a priority anyway - as long as I know the alarm is going off. Right now i’m new to the SmartThing Rules API, but coming to terms with scripting new rules and I see sensors are pretty straight forward in there. That said, a standard rule in the app automation might be enough for me to simply be notified while I’m out.

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28

As a follow up here I’m pleased to report that I received and installed the Zooz ZEN51/Kidde SM120X kit. It truly does work as advertised. I was pleased it came prewired, so all I needed to do was connect the 3 provided wires inline with my smoke detector loop. (BTW, finding the breaker to turn off for the install took some time, but was good to know which one for future reference), Ultimately the ZEN51 is simply a relay that turns on and off in response to the SM120X picking up the smoke detector signal - from any of my 8 detectors. SmarthThings sees that and I then have simple routines to have a vEdge Smoke Detector turned on/off automatically (I love those vEdge devices), The ZEN51 operates with an Edge driver too, so is local. It uses S2-Authenticated security, and the vEdge Smoke Detector is also local. I have the vEdge Smoke Detector defined in SHM, so the Home Monitor responds accordingly. I do have one issue in the Home Monitor, in that it won’t retain mobile numbers to text in response to a smoke detection, but I’m very confident that’s not related to this config. Last observation is that the only thing that could have been better is it distinguishing between Smoke and CO detection. The SM120X seems binary - on or off. That’s still fine for me as I principally want it to tell me that I have something detected, particularly when I’m away from home.

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29

Just read the Smartest House description and have questions you might be able to answer. Of not, I’ll drop a line to the vendor.

  1. Smartest House page says to connect to the last dumb detector in series. How do you figure that out?

  2. Does the Kidde detector replace a dumb device or do you need to make another hole in the ceiling for it?

  3. My home is about 5 years old and I’ve got separate smoke and CO2 detectors. Does that affect the installation of this kit?

30

@hald Here’s my opinion/experience on each - but I am not an electrician or professional in this space!

  1. I did not connect to the last detector (at least knowingly). I found the most convenient location, which was in my basement with an unfinished ceiling. I recall seeing a comment that that last detector will have the fewest wires to deal with, but, for me, it doesn’t seem to matter where this connected, as long as it is in the overall detector loop.
  2. It’s an additional device - hence for me the unfinished basement was ideal - I joined it into the wiring there and strung it up beside that detector.
  3. I suspect as long as those detectors are on the same wiring loop then this “should” see an alarm go off from either type detector. If you had a separate wiring loop for smoke and a separate loop for CO, you would of course need two of these devices. Per my comment above my installation did not differentiate between a smoke or CO alarm - it just knows an alarm went off. Clearly testing required!
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31

Thanks very much!

32

If you go the route with the relay…

You can use this driver: [ST Edge] Z-Wave Masquerade

To fake a smoke detector for the designated contact sensor.

Works very well in my case.

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