How I Secured My Home Against Power Outage Risks
Last week, a power outage tripped a GFCI circuit in our home. Among the devices affected was our garage freezer. Although we were home at the time, we didn’t realize the freezer was off until late at night, when our landscape lights—also on the same circuit—failed to turn on.
That day, we learned an important safety lesson: all bathroom, kitchen, garage, outdoor, and basement outlets need GFCI protection. These circuits are designed to trip for our safety, but when they do, it’s easy to miss—sometimes with significant consequences.
Despite having my internet router and SmartThings (ST) hub connected to a UPS, I realized I needed a reliable way to monitor critical outlets, like those powering the garage freezer or basement sump pump, for such scenarios. A quick online search led me to several DIY solutions and the Ring Alarm Range Extender (2nd Gen) (Amazon link).
Why the Ring Alarm Range Extender?
What caught my attention was the extender’s internal battery and its ability to report power source changes between battery and DC. I decided to give it a shot. However, I quickly discovered two challenges:
- The default SmartThings drivers lacked support for the Ring Alarm Range Extender (2nd Gen), as its “fingerprints” were missing.
- Even with an updated driver that included the “fingerprints,” the device was treated as a basic “dumb” device without capabilities for battery or power source reporting.
Taking Matters Into My Own Hands
Determined to solve this, I took matters into my own hands. After locating the correct fingerprint details for the Ring Alarm Range Extender, I developed a custom Edge driver that:
- Functions as a Z-Wave range extender.
- Reports changes in power source (battery vs. DC).
- Provides battery status updates.
Now, it works perfectly for my use case: monitoring the power status of critical outlets, even when my internet router and ST hub are running on UPS.
A Solution for Everyone
For anyone who wants to avoid discovering their garage freezer food has turned into raccoon snacks or their basement has become a natural pool, you can use this driver too. It’s available on my channel, which currently hosts just this one driver for the Ring Alarm Range Extender:
