Sound sensor for dumb smoke alarms?

Is this a thing? I have nest protects but with the laws in my country I need smoke alarms and a heat alarm all interlinked so would be handy to have a sound sensor to alert me when away from home of any loud sounds.

Thanks.

Sure, these exist, and some of them integrate with SmartThings on the new architecture, :sunglasses:

Anyway…what country are you in? The device selection definitely varies on this one.

BTW, these devices are technically called an acoustic sensor, but at least in the US the common marketing term is “listener.” I suspect so people don’t get confused and think it has a smoke or CO sensor built it. (It doesn’t.)

  1. If you use Alexa, that does have this feature in some countries, including both the US and UK, but I haven’t looked into the details, and I’m not sure what you can trigger off of it. This is one of the simplest and easiest methods, but it is cloud based.

I personally find it annoying that the feature will only work when Alexa is set to “away” mode, since you might also want it when you’re at home, particularly for smoke detection routines. At our house we ended up putting one echo Dot on a completely separate Amazon account and leaving it always set to Away mode. That works fine. But I’m still annoyed about it. :rage:

US:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GDNAUMT8GABDER44

UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GDNAUMT8GABDER44

OTHER OPTIONS

The following options are mostly US or Canada only: many will probably not work with UK smoke alarms and the zwave ones won’t work with UK hubs. Since the topic title didn’t specify country I’m going to go ahead and list all the ones I know for now.

  1. for years the best North American integration with SmartThings was the Ecolink Firefighter, available in either zwave or Zigbee.

Both models were still listed in the SmartThings app at the time of this posting.

Zigbee US version:

https://www.amazon.com/Ecolink-Wireless-Detector-Zigbee-FFZB1-ECO/dp/B07HN5CZCV/

There are custom edge drivers for at least some models:

Ecolink Firefighter FF-ZWAVE5-ECO in SmartThings Home Monitor as a Smoke Detector using NEW EDGE DRIVERS

  1. Ring Security Smoke and CO listener. A zwave device sold for use with the Ring security system in the US: not available for the system sold in England. It should connect to a US ST hub, but I don’t know what features are available after that.
  1. Kidde RemoteLync. US only. This is a plug in WiFi device that used to have an Ifttt channel. It was one of the first of these devices to be widely available back in 2015. Technically not discontinued but they are really hard to find now because they have so few integration options.

Listed for completeness and because it’s one of the only standalone options that doesn’t require a ST hub,

(Leeo was a similar plug-in device from a start up company, but the company has gone out of business, and the cloud is no longer available. So don’t buy this one—it won’t work.)

  1. Various security systems. Since Ring offered theirs, lots of security systems now have proprietary models that only work with their own systems. That includes Abode, ADT, even Arlo has one (requires their security system, not just an Arlo camera). WYZE also. If you have a security system, check to see if one is offered and what if any integration options are possible.

  2. Alternative to this whole idea: many people use a relay hardwired into the interconnect line to detect the electrical signals the interconnected hardwired smoke detectors send to each other. Or just a dry contact sensor. This can work in any country. Or if you are in North America you could use Konnected.io

Here’s a project report from 2013 (!) that lays out this idea. Although all the groovy stuff is obsolete, the basic concept is sound.

Connected Smoke Alarms

Kidde makes a relay specifically for their interconnected alarms for this purpose, but you would be more likely to use a device that already works with SmartThings.

Most of the devices options would require a ST hub because they use zwave or Zigbee, but Shelly does have some WiFi hardwired relay modules with dry contacts that could be used for this purpose and don’t need an ST hub. Again this is available for many countries.

Konnected.io would cost more than the other options in this group but has a prebuilt SmartThings cloud to cloud integration that works with the new architecture and excellent customer service. No ST hub required. Here’s their page on wiring smoke detectors to their system:

Everything in this group requires knowledge of wiring, and none of the integrations other than Konnected.io are plug and play, but it’s a popular option for maker types.

  1. For the UK specifically, there are a number of devices intended for people who are deaf, which can hear a specific type of UK smoke alarm, and then, either flash of light or shake the bed. The bed shakers in particular would be quite easy to detect with a vibration sensor. So while the solution has a Rube Goldberg feel, it should work.

Here are some typical examples of devices of this type, but there are many available.

I had a hard time finding any devices of this type for the US, but I did find one. I’m not familiar with the device itself, but I have purchased from this website in the past, and they typically have good prices.

Note that unlike most of the UK models, this one doesn’t come as only a bed shaker. It also has a very loud siren built into it. I don’t know if that’s a US safety requirement or what, but you have to be to decide if that was an acceptable feature.

Also, this is considerably more expensive than most of the UK devices. But it would be an option for some people. Just understand that you aren’t getting any direct integration with smartthings with this: these devices are creating a physical change in the environment, typically a bed shaker, and then you would use a device that was connected to smartthings to detect that physical change.

https://www.activeforever.com/safeawake-fire-alarm-aid-102373?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7oaBhsP5_AIV1hWtBh01VQ2QEAQYBCABEgJsI_D_BwE

——

So there are some options, depending on exactly what you were looking for and what country you are in. :sunglasses:

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Thanks mate, as always.
I’m in the UK. I don’t see Alexa guard within my app. I don’t think the UK have this.

So all the other options are for US only? :frowning:

Looks like Alexa Guard is currently in a closed beta in the UK. So hopefully available there eventually.

Alexa Guard is currently available to a limited number of customers in a closed Public Preview.

Option six, connecting a hardwired device to the wiring between two of your smoke sensors can work in any country. It’s not an acoustic Listener, but you get the same end result: connecting your hardwired smoke sensors to another system.

For option two, try opening the smartthings app and go to add a device by brand and see what’s listed under eco-link. They do make some of their devices for the European market, I just don’t know if that includes a firefighter version.

I’ll also add an option seven in my note above, but specifically for the UK, there are quite a few devices intended for people who are deaf, which can hear a specific type of UK smoke alarm, and then do something else, either flashlight or shake the bed. The bed shakers would be quite easy to detect with a vibration sensor, so while it’s a little Rube Goldberg, it should work.

Here are some typical models of this type of device:

Nest protect are fully compliant with UK law for smoke, CO and heat. They are linked together with the app. I can’t see why they are not sufficient or is this for a business premises?

I could be mistaken, but I read the question as wanting to integrate the fire detection devices with smartthings, maybe to turn on lights or unlock doors or other typical home automation scenarios. So my answer was specific to the issue of getting the information from the smoke sensors over to smartthings. My apologies if I misunderstood the question.

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Are you 100% sure on that mate? I’ve been looking them up and it’s seems they aren’t.

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Yeah it is mate , in a way. I’ll continue to keep my Nest protects but my law requires something that the Nest protects can’t do so I’ll need to invest in something like this

Wireless Interlinked Smoke, Heat & Carbon Monoxide Alarm Bundle | Scotland Law Compliant | Pre Linked | 10 Year Battery | CE & BS Certified | LINKD Alarms | Easy Setup | UK Phone & Email Support https://amzn.eu/d/i3hxm1z

And continue to still use my Nest protects. But I’d need some way to integrate the new dumb ones into Smartthings so was thinking a sound sensor to alert me if and when the dumb ones start making noises. :+1:

@Andrew_Bartlett

Unfortunately, Nest Protects do not meet the requirement of the new Scottish regulations. The government website calls them out, specifically:

Please note that the Nest Protect System will not meet the standard. This is because they do not meet the requirements for a heat alarm under the relevant British Standard. British Standard (BS 5839-6:2019) states that only heat alarms should be installed in kitchens.

You can still use them as additional sensors, but Scottish residents would have to add new devices which did meet the minimum requirement as well.

So they are OK to use, which is why Google keeps insisting that they are not defective, but they are not enough by themselves to meet the legal requirement for a safety system.

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Exactly. :+1:

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Frient make these heat alarms ideal for kitchens

I have the smoke detectors which work in unison.

You can download edge drivers from their website.

I use a Frient HEAT detector, not smoke, the frient Edge driver last i tried was not working correctly, there is another driver working for the heat alarm that works perfect but im not sure if it is publicly available yet, pm me if needed

It should also be noted STHM does NOT integrate the Frient heat alarm, home monitor is well behind the times and to be honest very inflexible

That said there is a very reliable way to create integration using a Vedge device and an automation or two, pretty painless and just as reliable

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I’m needing a carbon monoxide, heat and smoke detectors all interlinked for Scottish law so I think the best thing to do is get a set from Amazon and then try and find a sound sensor and put that next to it so I can get any sort of alerts to my phone from ST. There must be a way.

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The easiest way to integrate your new alarms will be to get one of the bedshaker alarms for people who are deaf that is calibrated for the same UK smoke alarm that you have, and then detect the bed shaker going off with a vibration sensor that works with SmartThings. These are much less expensive in the UK than they are in the US and you can get ones that don’t also have a siren if that’s what you want. It also runs locally if you want to have lights go on. Of course, any notifications require the Internet because all smartthings notifications require the Internet. But it wouldn’t require any wiring or any custom code unless you want the vibration sensor to report as a smoke alarm.

See the list I posted above for some examples of this kind of device. :sunglasses:

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Was also thinking a ST vibration sensor stuck on one of the alarms would work too. I have a spare one lying around so I’ll stick one to one of my nest protects To see if it picks up the vibration, before purchasing the alarms from Amazon.

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Hey, how did you get on with the vibration sensor? I’m in the same position at the moment not wanting to splash out on Nest alarms if I can avoid it!

Not tried it yet as haven’t bought the new alarms but I’ll try it with my current alarms and put a spare vibration sensor I have lying around on it and test it.
I’ll post back here.

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I’d be very interested to hear how you got on with linking your Nest Protects @jjmucker

Very useful, as ever @JDRoberts .

The vibration pillow in the UK looks like a good way to go, though the few I’ve just looked at seem to require connection to a particular smoke alarm. I’m probably missing something but I can’t yet find a listener that will hear Nest Protects. I’ll keep looking but if anyone already has an answer, please share :slightly_smiling_face:

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