Ring Alarm Outdoor Contact Sensor 2 Zwave

[CPrince]

A couple of years back I set up 2 Insteon Contact sensors (2843-222) in weather tight boxes to monitor my 2 gates.  They seem very intermittent.  They work and don't work.  I get heart beats every few weeks. I have dual band insteon modules in the house about 20 feet away that should pick up their signal.

I have been looking for an alternative solution and found these.  https://www.lowes.com/pd/Ring-Pre-Sale-Ring-Alarm-Outdoor-Contact-Sensor/5005824673?user=shopping&feed=yes&srsltid=AfmBOopmSVTYsEsUk-P-iszna3iiuBYXmubzUYcXiUaw0BlRxyGL-zvL_Q8&gQT=1

This is a Zwave device.  I have many Zwave devices.  I setup the Polisy to register this device, and it did.  Polisy picked up 7 entities.

  

Unfortunately non of them pick up any activity. The device seems to be working.  It has a tamper LED which seems to work. I am testing this device 10 feet away from the Polisy.

Has anyone tried this?  Maybe some idea on a different gate sensor?

 

[paulbates]

Insteon wireless heartbeats are sent daily. Your results of weeks between heartbeats say that

• the contact sensors are in a box that is shielding their rf, and/or 
• They are far away from the PLM or nearest dual band device

Do you have an insteon lamp or on/off module you could temporarily plug between where the sensors are and the house powerline to test this theory?

 

[CPrince]

@paulbatesI will try this.  I have an outlet under the eve which is line of sight to the gate. My bathroom is 15 feet from my south gate sensor.  There is a 1/8 inch glass window in it.  In the bathroom is a Insteon lamp module and a insteon wall switch. The sensor is mounted in a thin plastic weather tight box 4 feet from the window.  Sometimes I may get 5 or 6 heart beats a week, but not often.

[Geddy]

4 hours ago, CPrince said:

Unfortunately non of them pick up any activity. The device seems to be working.

Since these are "Ring" branded items it might only work (well) with the Ring Alarm system. It might be connecting to the Polisy Z-wave controller, but the Polisy doesn't know how to handle the sensors. 

From the product page you linked to:

Quote

• Requires Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro (sold separately).

• Sounds the siren on your Ring Alarm when armed and triggered.

You would probably want/need something generically branded for z-wave to possibly work. Otherwise, I think @paulbates has a good idea of moving something closer to the Insteon sensors. It is possible you are beyond range (or very limits) even though the box they're in is "thin". The signal still has to go through walls/boxes and "stuff" that can really kill the RF signal. 

I'm not sure how others have handled gate setups, but know several have talked about it in the past. Perhaps a Google Site Search might help find some older threads. 

[dwengrovitz]

6 hours ago, Geddy said:

I'm not sure how others have handled gate setups

I'm not suggesting abandoning Ring or Insteon sensors just yet, but I've had a lot of success integrating outdoor sensors to eisy via Yolink devices. The LoRa technology works great over long distances, battery life is outstanding, and the Yolink plugin for eisy works quite well (the developer has been very responsive to requests and feedback via the forums). I also have a ton of Ring devices but I prefer Yolink for anything where distance is involved.  

For example: I have a Yolink contact sensor inside a mailbox about 150 yards away to detect when mail gets delivered, with a hilly terrain and lots of trees in the line of sight, and the sensor is rock solid. I suspect one of their contact sensors would work quite well for gates.  If new to Yolink, one would need a hub, but the starter kit cost for a Yolink speaker hub plus two outdoor contact sensors is pretty reasonable at around $65 (the speaker hub adds a nice dimension by providing the ability to easily integrate custom audio alerts). And it just reliably works without a lot of hassle. 

Edited Wednesday at 11:46 PM by dwengrovitz

[DennisC]

I have a Yolink sensor installed on my metal mail box: https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Contact-Closure-Assistant-Security-Required/dp/B08P1VQMCR/ref=asc_df_B08P1VQMCR?mcid=b0c7c452897c36e98dc5936b3338999c&hvocijid=1587467274128929744-B08P1VQMCR-&hvexpln=73&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=721245378154&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1587467274128929744&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9004510&hvtargid=pla-2281435179058&th=1

Long range and long battery life. There is a plugin to bring it in to UD infrastructure.

[CPrince]

@dwengrovitz Thanks for the YOLink tip.  I ordered the starter kit last night as suggested. 1/4 mile range; impressive.  5 year batter; nice.  I will work on the Ring Gate sensor on the side.  There is a uTube video on how to connect it to Home Assistant.  Just for the record, I have ordered all sorts of Zwave stuff on eBay.  Most of the Zwave stuff works as expected.  The only thing that I have given up on is "The Button". I like going outside the box.

Thanks @DennisC.  I have ordered it and have a weekend project!

[paulbates]

37 minutes ago, CPrince said:

1/4 mile range; impressive.  5 year batter; nice. 

I have yolink too and it is a great compliment to insteon on a UDI system. I don't have the contact sensor but the devices I have all function as advertised.

[dwengrovitz]

9 hours ago, CPrince said:

There is a uTube video on how to connect it to Home Assistant.

There are lots of fun options to play with if you also have Home Assistant. Take a look at the Ring MQTT add on in HA as it lets you integrate most all of the Ring ecosystem into your home automation setup (including contact/motion/flood sensors, smart lights, keypads, etc.). And Yolink also plays nicely with HA via an integration.  

Definitely sounds like you have a weekend project coming up.