Hi all,
We just bought the Aeotec hub with Smarthings. Our goal is to be able to use our Leaksmart automatic water valve and z wave sensors again, after the manufacturer closed its doors a while ago.
I wired the new hub to our router, and, after an update, I was able to find it and 3 WEMO wi-fi smart plugs on the app in iOS iphone, however no z wave devices were picked up.
I then moved the hub to be nearby the zwave valve but away from the router. I attempted to connect it wirelessly to the router, after resetting the hub using the published technique. While setting up, I got as far as choosing the wi-fi network and password but not being able to register the hub. I powered my router and modem on and off with same result.
At this point, I’m thinking both the wi-fi and z wave radios are not working on this brand new hub.
An outlier may be that:
That I already have a z wave network operating for home energy meter that has a third party receiver graphical display (hub??) and this may be interfering.
The radio on the water valve is not working or one of its sensors batteries is still functioning and causing a problem.
Anyone heard of dud hubs coming out of the factory lately?
Anyone, please help me on my next steps I need to take!
Really? It’s not using Zigbee? I haven’t heard of any Z wave systems of the type you’ve described, but there are over a dozen Zigbee ones. What’s the brand and model of the system? I mostly just curious about this, because it is unusual.
As far as your other issues, I am tired today, so I’m going to leave it to other people to discuss for now. I’ll stop back in tomorrow and see if you’ve gotten any help. But I will say I would be very surprised if it’s a defective hub, there are just multiple other much more common Issues that would affect the set up as you describe it.
Oh, I will add that you can check to see if the radios are non-functional by using the advanced page to the official web UI for your SmartThings account.
Also… you’ll get automatic discovery of many Wi-Fi devices, but you don’t get automatic discovery of Z wave from any hub. Including SmartThings/Aeotec.
Instead, you have to individually put each Z wave device into “pairing mode“ (that’s typically through a tap pattern on a network button on the device), and then have the hub scan for nearby devices, and then they will find each other. That’s intended as a security feature, but it can get annoying, particularly if the devices are already installed and hard to get to. But it’s just how the protocol is designed. So it’s not surprising that the zwave Devices didn’t show up the first time. And the fact that the Wemo devices did implies that the Wi-Fi is working.
Also, as I said, I’m tired today, but isn’t the Leaksmart valve itself Zigbee? Not Z wave?
Those are two different things, kind of like “apple “ and “android”. They serve similar function, and they both start with the same letter, but definitely not the same thing and apps run on one won’t necessarily run on the other.
But everything I said about adding a Z wave device also applies to a Zigbee device: they don’t get picked up automatically. You have to do something physically with the individual device to prepare it, pairing to a different network. The instructions, for that should be in the user manual for the device. It might be called “inclusion“ or “adding to a new network“, but it should be pretty obvious.
“ They serve similar function, and they both start with the same letter,”
that’s where I go wrong, I assume they are very similar and interchangeable!
My existing home z wave network consists of
1- Aeotec Home Energy Meter (HEM 5).
1- Aeotec z wave extender, version 6, I believe.
1- Chilicon Power (CP100??) Gateway. This company merged with Generac and this unit controls solar panels via Power Line Communication.
It is currently up and running and is setup the same way as you describe…with the CP100 put in “pairing mode” and the HEM and extenders having push buttons. Wouldn’t it be great if I could use both the CP100 and the Aeotec hub to connect to the same devices with one controlling solar production and one giving me a reading of my homes energy consumption on an app?
BUT the safety issue is that we have an automatic water valve that I would like to work again. This, if it closed, would prevent a huge amount of damage if one of our water pipes (and there are many) would break.
SmartThings/Aeotec hubs always expect to be the primary Z wave hub, and they don’t even provide support if you try to do them any other way. And if you do make them the secondary, they won’t show up in the SmartThings app, so that doesn’t help you.
As far as the leaksmart, I still think that’s Zigbee. You should be able to get it working with your new Aeotec, but you’re not going to have the information from your other system that you can connect together that way.
Did your Leaksmart previously show up in the same app as your Aeotec energy monitoring device? Or was it a standalone?
Because it sounds like you should be able to leave your solar stuff working the way it is now and then have your leaksmart work with your new Aeotec hub and show up in the SmartThings app. But they would be two separate systems.
Thanks for the great info. Things are a lot clearer now.
So, the Leaksmart originally worked through a hub called Wink. It worked good for a while, but then the company manufacturing the Wink stopped developing the firmware and ur became buggy.
I bought a Leaksmart Hub 2.0 but that is defunct now, and, in fact, is not required with the new Aeotec hub.
I checked the smarthings website and both the wi-fi and z wave radios are working on my hub.
It appears Smarthings already had a driver for WEMO pre installed, so that why it auto detected them.
Can I get other brand of wi-fi smart plugs to work too? How do I get the Leaksmart to connect when I’ve already tried pushing its radio button and searched for nearby devices with the Aeotec hub, but no luck?
The good news is that based on reports from other community members, it looks like this device is already included in the stock edge drivers which are distributed to every customer, so it’s just a matter of going through the correct “add to network” process as we discussed. You’ll need to find a user manual for the model that you have, and determine how to reset it and then get it ready to add to a new network and then when you “scan nearby“ from the SmartThings app, it should find it as long as you have it correctly in pairing mode.
If that doesn’t happen, we’ll have to start checking fingerprints and all that, but honestly I’m too tired to do that today. Other people can help you with that or you’ll have to wait until I feel better.
As far as Wi-Fi devices, the first rule of Home Automation applies: “the model number matters.“
Begin by determining the brand and model of the device (with Wi-Fi devices, it’s usually on a label on the device itself). Then open the SmartThings app, go to “add a device” see if the brand is there, and if your model is listed.
If it isn’t there, Please read the following post.
After a bit of work, I am able to get the Leaksmart hub and sensors to pair with the Smarthings by Aeotec hub. It took being in the same room about 5’ away to do the trick. Also, there was a 30 second delay between initiating pairing mode on the device and detection, which is different than “immediately” that it should be.
So, now I have sensors and water valve hooked up to the hub, however, in doing some research, I found out that the original Leaksmart app had a “protect” or “detect” mode. The only way to close the valve automatically was to put it into protect mode.
Can the Smarthings hub automatically close the valve when a sensor detects water?
Thanks in advance,
Paul
PS the sensors and valve are using the smarthings generic drivers to communicate.
And try SmartThings Home Monitor (STHM) where you can set rules for various events including leaks. Set it to close the value, send various notifications, turn on lights, etc
