lilac horizon
I don't want to start a religious war here, but curious what folks use for door sensors/contact sensors. I'm in a new place and probably going to use Alarmo for my security, but I'd need to buy... almost 20 door/window sensors to do that. I've got Zooz XS ones right now, Thirdreality, and Aeotec, and they're all "fine." I see good reviews for the Aqara but they're Zigbee, and most of my in-wall switches are Zwave so the mesh may suffer a bit.
Thoughts on this?
dusty sphinx
Probably best off sticking with Z-Wave if you've already got a Z-Wave network established
lilac horizon
I've got a mix of both right now. Some Mains powered by Zigbee (like Peanut devices), but my in-wall switches are mostly Z-wave, so I could go either way. I'm just worried about 2.4 GHz for so many contact sensors.
dusty sphinx
Ah gotcha
lilac horizon
At my last place, I got a lot of "Zigbee network congested" errors in HA, but never any issues with devices surprisingly. That was a neighborhood with a lot more houses though. Now, no other houses are within 150 feet, so it may not matter as much.
I mentioned the mesh because I'd say... 70-80% of my Zigbee devices right now are not repeaters. But I just did just upgrade to the SLZB-MR1 and it seems great so far.
dusty sphinx
I've had a good experience with the Linkind Zigbee contact sensors, but they're gonna be hard to find now since they don't make them anymore. I also have some Tuya Zigbee contact sensors that are surprisingly good, and they come in black which is great since our windows are a very dark brown so they blend in
lilac horizon
Oh that's pretty slick. Ours are white, so that makes it a bit easier at least... I see AliExpress has the Aqara on sale for $11 each, which is nuts.
The Zooz XS sensors I'd normally buy are $25 each, even on sale/
dusty sphinx
The Ikea PARASOLL ones seem to be hit or miss as far as having issues, but they're the only ones I've found that can bind to lights and actually control them (on/off)
lilac horizon
What do you mean by bind? Without using an HA automation?
dusty sphinx
And yeah, ThirdReality Zigbee stuff is good
lilac horizon
My only issue with ThirdReality is just how chunky they are.
I love that they use AAAs.
dusty sphinx
What do you mean by bind? Without using an HA automation?
Correct, the contact sensor communicates directly with the light so it will turn on/off even if zigbee2mqtt or the coordinator are offline
lilac horizon
That's pretty sweet.
The only thing I have right now that does that is the ThirdReality Zigbee repeater & night light. The motion sensing / night light works even if HA is down.
dusty sphinx
Yeah it's also handy with Zigbee remotes and smart lights for the same reason
(binding)
lilac horizon
I'll have to look into that. Now that you mention it, I do have a couple Aurora that bind.