I have no other option but to get rid of these useless sensors. The motion sensors work better than the door smart sensors but even they need to be reconnected to the hub every so often.
The door sensors continually loose connection, they get stuck on open, they don’t report the status of a door, they don’t report vibration, they get stuck on active, they randomly report closed to open position hence triggering events, they cause false alarms all the time so that I’ve had to disable the security feature. I’ve resorted to just disabling all of them hence wasting the $500 I put into them. If I wasn’t so invested in the infrastructure I would get rid of SmartThings all together and get the new Wink hub.
You can’t tell me that the sensors are to far from the hub because all of them, near and far, act this way. Also our home is only 1500 sq ft and the furthest device is probably no more than 30 feet away. My light bulbs all work perfect which are a mix of Wemo, Phillips, and Cree.
It burns me that I wasted so much money on these sensors. Don’t even get me started on the leak sensors that I’m sure are just expensive pieces of plastic sitting there doing nothing as I’ve tested those too and they can sit in a puddle for hours and not report a leak.
Not an impressed customer especially since a company like Samsung is running the show.
Wemo are WiFi and Philips/Hue are ZLL connected to their own bridge so do not repeat ST ZHA. So that leaves only the Cree bulb actually connected to ST.
Not to start an argument, but if all you have are the hub and battery powered sensors, than weak mesh and range is exactly what your issue is. Battery powered devices do not repeat mesh commands ( to save on batteries ) You need at least 1 constantly powered AC device in each room to build a mesh. " $500 wasted" on OC sensors tells me about 2 dozen all trying to connect directly to the hub .
FYI the test for moisture sensors is NOT to toss them in a bucket of water for hours. I is to simply put a moist finger across the contacts. If you did toss them in a puddle for hours as you claim, I’d bet you fried the electronics. Just as likely that they too ae NOT connected to the hub because you don’t have a mesh.
Having a couple dozen battery powered sensors is not " heavily invested" in the infrastructure.
It is heavily invested when I have to import these things from the USA to Canada and everything ends up double the price. I guess you can afford to throw away $500. Sensors cost me about $60 each up here. As for the leak sensors I said they sat in a puddle not a bucket of water. I didn’t fry the electronics. I’m not stupid!
Anyway what do you recommend for a constant AC source? That way I can get this working the way it should.
For your info I have 4 door sensors, 4 motion, and 3 leak.
Any constantly powered AC device. Wall plugs are the cheapest and easiest way to build a mesh. The Lowe’s Iris work well ( same hardware as ST 1/2 the price, with the addition of ZW repeater as well as ZigBee)
I’m assuming they are available in the great white north.
You can install a wall switch or a plug-in module… Since ST modules (leak, motion, door) are Zigbee, be sure to get a Zigbee module to repeat the signal.
I’m from Canada too and I know it’s expensive for us getting all that stuff… For my part, I’ve got a couple Zigbee modules but I’m switching to ZWave modules gradually. I installed 9 Stelpro zWave thermostats across the house so my zWave mesh network is pretty solid. I’ll eventually replace all door sensors and motion with ZWave products since I think it’s more reliable. I just replaced my 2 ST leak with Fibaro ZWave and it works great. I had the same issue as you, the ST leak wasn’t responding but everything showed OK within the app.
Also, it might be a good idea to install a smartapp to monitor the devices and be sure they still report to ST. I use Simple Device Viewer… For exemple, if my leak sensors didn’t report to the hub over 24 hours, I get notified… same for batteries.
Odd. I’ve never experienced any of those problems. Are you in an apartment or somewhere they might get a lot of interference? Zigbee (which all of the SmartThings sensors are) is 2.4GHz, so Wireless APs, etc. could interfere with it.
I went on holiday for a week and came back to none of my 3 ST motion sensors working.
Had to do a battery pull on all 3 to get them working.
I have just ordered 3 Xiaomi motion sensors to replace them.
Reports on the forum seem to be positive.
These ST motion sensors are nothing but trouble
Same issues, guys. I see that Leak/Door/Motion sensors randomly disconnected, but Smartthings iOS app does not shows it. Crappy software, crappy hardware. I’m dissapointed using Smartthins, really. I’m not a beta tester, just want to use it.