Wireless Sensor Tags Integration

I’ve updated the code on GitHub again in the attempt to add Celsius support. I made the changes based on what it looks like other device types are doing. Let me know if it works. If it doesn’t, I’ll have to look into it a bit more.

Thanks swanny, now I can see temperature in ºC in motion and water Tags, good work!

Each time I update the functionality of the SmartApp, my Tags are armed (normally I have my tags motion disabled), it’s normal?

@Swapper Great. I’m happy the Celsius mode actually worked without being able to test it locally. :smile:

My original thought with arming the tags was to arm them automatically since that was needed for them to function as motion/open sensors. However since that thought I added the the motion/door button to switch between those two motion modes. I could add a new mode that is a disarmed mode. I’ll look into that when I have time to mess with the code again.

For the water tag, I haven’t been able to actually test one yet as I don’t have one and they are sold out. When you have a minute, could you try getting it wet to trigger the wet reading? I’m curious if the wet setting shows up correctly in the Device Type when it shows up in the WST web site. It should update within seconds if the URL callbacks are set up correctly. If it doesn’t show up quickly, then I may be missing a different setting.

There appears to be a need for simple tags like these, but that run wi-fi so that you do not need a special hub to connect to them, Of course the other side of that, is that the spectrum will be filled (SMILE). Since doors and windows are often pretty close together, it might be interesting to use BT here.

Anyone into hardware hacks, and want to do a kickstarter?

I think wifi would severely compromise their range and battery life.

I was thinking of low power Wi-Fi that has been introduced. I see that in some cases it uses less power than BT, of course the range is compromised though so you are right about that. Also, since most houses are designed to have windows in each room, I would think a simple mesh would be workable and you would not need the distance.

Just really getting tired of Adding yet another Hub, that I have no control over in my network. While I understand that there are sometimes a need for these type of things, that it is still frustrating when everyone makes there own protocol vrs common standards. Look at the Z-Wave, Zigbee battles now. We need one standard, that follows given rules for connection, and provides a secure channel that can use a Radius server for authentication.

A mesh network requires power that battery operated devices can’t supply, plus I don’t think any one technology is going address the needs for every situation (try putting a wifi device in a refrigerator).

Plus, as it seems all this junk is built to a price (and most of it is still too expensive), I have given up looking for that gold standard. I deploy whatever devices fit best for any given situation. 5 hubs and counting. (c;

@swanny I have put water on the WaterTag. After 1 second the WirelessTag application informed the sensor was wet and simultaneously, the water tag on the Smarthings application showed a wet icon, so it works.

@Swapper Awesome! Thanks for checking for me.

How accurate are these sensors for knowing the state of a door (open or closed)? It seems that are solely triggered by motion and thus would not know if something was only partially closed or open. Is this an accurate statement or is there a way to establish the proper state of the door?

Not quite. They sense motion based on an angular change relative to the earth’s magnetic field. You can set up what angle determines a door is open. They are quite accurate.

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Have you had any issues with the hub keeping a solid connection? I have read that at times the sensors go off unexpectedly. In other words, what happens if the hub dropped a connection? Do the sensors respond or remain dormant when the hub reconnects?

I have only had the system for a few weeks, but haven’t had a lick of trouble. I have had two power failures (this one is not on a UPS yet), and had the power supply on the switch it was connected to go belly up, and it has been seamless in reconnecting to the tags each time.

In fact, you’re supposedly able to use tags as presence sensors as an event can be triggered when they come and go out of range. From the web site:

By setting “Auto-Ping” or “Update every…”, each Tag is configured to transmit a status information back to the Tag Manager at a certain interval. Upon receiving such status information, Tag Manager transmits an acknowledgement response back to each Tag. When the Tag does not receive the acknowledgement, it repeats the status information transmission for up to 16 times before giving up.
The system only decides that the tag is missing and send out notifications when it does not receive the status information by the estimated time plus the time needed for the retransmissions. Therefore, even when because of temporary radio interference a single transmission is not successful, very reliably the system can detect if a Tag has gone out of range or gone missing.

So far… the entire system has been rock solid, and really love the granularity available in setting up each sensor.

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Hate to add another hub (I try to stick with z-wave) but given the price, flexibility and range of these sensors. I may have to order some. Thanks for the info.

You’re welcome. Last week I put a tag on a piece of monofilament, dangling from a shaded eave. No contact with the structure is finally giving me accurate temps Check out the data logging you get for free. Got one in the freezer, the mailbox (steel box a hundred feet away), and just ordered the reed sensor that can be hooked up to one of these to make a really smart crock pot. (c;

Use code TAG-ffbt3dtf to get 15% off your first order

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Interesting, the reason I purchased these was the unreliability of z-wave and zigbee open/close sensors in my mailbox (about 100-125’ away). Same or maybe even worse with these. It’s works when the mailbox is open but once it closes it loses contact. It will still actually work because when the mailbox opens and the signal is sent and I get it sometimes.

I may have to get a plastic mailbox. I put the hub in direct line of site with the mailbox tag in a window on my 2nd floor, which gave the best result but still not consistent.

I tried one in my mailbox but didn’t get a signal either. I did some testing and my signal on the website went from -70ish when near hub to about -90 outside (through 2 walls and the outside wall is lined with rock). The signal can’t be detected somewhere between -100 and -105, so going inside the metal mailbox was past the threshold. For reference, the signal is about -88 in my freezer which doesn’t have a full wall in the way (but is inside a metal box of course).

You could try a SmartPower Outlet at the furthest edge of your house near your mailbox.

When I create the SmartApp following your instructions & save I get the following error message:

groovy.lang.MissingMethodException: No signature of method: script14132426999262029150502.metadata() is applicable for argument types: (script14132426999262029150502$_run_closure1) values: [script14132426999262029150502$_run_closure1@4a84600b]
Possible solutions: getMetadata(), getState(), setState(java.lang.Object), metaClass(groovy.lang.Closure)

. The app never shows up in Convenience. It shows up under My Apps but I can do nothing but associate it with various Modes. (This, after logging out; killing the app, etc.)

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

@gnat54 You see this error when you hit save on the SmartApp? Can you verify you see 888 lines of code for the SmartApp?