I purchased an Aeon Labs Z-Wave Water Sensor (Model DSB45-ZWUS) in late July 2013 and included it in my Vera 3 system on July 31st quite easily. It appears as a Motion Sensor in UI5. I have tested it several times and reliably detects the presence of water. I want to deploy it and several others throughout my home; however, no one seems to be selling it today including my original seller. The Aeon Labs website (http://aeotec.com/z-wave-water-sensor) indicates this product is “Coming soon.” What experiences have others had with the Aeon Labs Water Sensor?
I just purchased one from DroidKC here in Kansas City http://www.dkcautomation.com/ and installed it into my sump pump. I am wanting to buy a 2nd one because it worked so well and sends me a notification in under 2 seconds to VeraAlerts.
You purchased engineering samples. :o
It has just been officially released.
You can get it from here :
I just purchased an “Aeon Labs Z-Wave Water Sensor DSB45-ZWUS” from Amazon. Just got it today. I associated it with my Vera Lite but even though under Settings is says “Configured at 31-DEC-1969 19:00”, when I press “Poll now” it says;
- “Polling device #26”
- “Note is not configured”
If I press “Configure node right now” it says “Command for configuring mode sent”. Then all I get is a red light on my device panel next to its’ name “_Motion Sensor” and it either says “Unable to get name” OR “Unable to get any information on node”!
Took the battery out a couple times. Still having the same problems. Anyone have any suggestion?
Thanks,
Jeff
PS Not impressed with the construction of this device, or the user manual! The manual refers a couple times to the “water sensor LED”, I don’t see an LED anywhere on this thing!
PPS I tried to remove it from my Zwave network, then re-add it. I still can’t configure it. And in the manual it says “1. Press and hold the Z-Wave button on the rear of your Water Sensor for 20 seconds.” 2. Your Water Sensor will reset to its factory default configuration. Its LED will be on for 2 seconds to let you know the reset was success fill" …again, I see no LED on the device!!
PPPS Just tried again to pair the device. Now on the control panel on my computer it said “Waiting for wakeup to configure device”. I tried pressing the Wake Up button. Get the same error “Unable to get any information on node”. Never had so many problems with a Zwave device. Probably sending it back.
PPPPS Finally found the LED!! It’s actually behind the white plastic case (and only visible when it light up), where if you are holding the device to press the Z-Wave or WakeUp buttons you can see it. You’d think the manual would point that out…
PPPPS Just tried AGAIN. Unplugged power and network to Vera Lite. Took battery out of Vera Lite. Waited a minute. Put battery back in Vera Lite and waited. Pressed the battery/power button on the Vera Lite. Waited until the blue LED was solid. Pressed the + button and waited until I had a blinking orange LED on the Vera Lite. Pressed the Z-Wave button on the DSB45-ZWUS…I now see a solid red LED lit on the DSB45-ZWUS! Ok, I plug the power and network back into my Vera Lite, return to my computer. The red LED on the DSB45-ZWUS is still lit, the manual says I have 10 minutes to configure the device. I go into the devices control panel and press “Configure node right now”. Red LED still on, but it says “Waiting for wakeup to configure device”. Nothing is happening…I press the WakeUp button on the DSB45-ZWUS…after a second or two the red LED goes out, and I get the same “Unable to get any information on node” error again!!! its now 3:58am. I should have not even opened this thing tonight. I am really amazed how bad this thing is. Clearly not designed by Apple engineers.
Well, totally fed up right now. Repeated the last step above and now can’t even get the orange LED on the Vera Lite to flash like its waiting to add a new device. The red LED on the water sensor won’t stay on again either. Just wasted about 5 hours trying to add ONE zwave device to my network. I do have three “apps” in my Vera Lite, the DSC Alarm Panel Plugin (that I FINALLY got working a few weeks ago, or “mostly” working), the Wunderground Weather Plugin ann the ERGY Plugin.
Could those apps be “taxing” the Vera Lite, making it hard to add new devices? I don’t she why it should, but I don’t know what else to try. I see no reason this should not work. Unless the Aeon Water Sensor just doesn’t work right. I don’t understand why this sensor shows up (as “_Motion Sensor”) in my control panel but does nothing when the Vera Lite tries to communicate with it!
I have some light switches, a door lock, an appliance module and a temp/humidity sensor…not a lot of devices on my network. Really can’t believe the problems I am having now. And I have two more temp/humidity sensors and three LFM-20 relays ordered. If I have the same problems adding those as I did this water sensor not sure what I am going to do…
Jeff
Well, somehow I seem to have gotten the water sensor to pair up and communicate with the Vera Lite. But then it showed me THREE instances of this water sensor in my control panel!! So I deleted two of them from my control panel. Now the one that is left does’t work again! When I tried to Poll the device it said “Delivery failed”. And now it says “Unable to get any information on node”
Unbelievable. And can anyone tell me why this device (a water sensor) has a “Wake Up” button?? It makes no sense, why would you have a water sensor that “sleeps”!!
And now as the device sits here on my desk the red LED just came on. Probably trying to tell me there is an issue communicating to the Vera…? Who knows.
Jeff
First of all, are you sure that this device is within the radio range of the Z-Wave network? Perhaps you should begin installation/experimenting with it close to Vera until you understand how it operates before installing it at the far end of the house.
This device, like all battery operated Z-Wave devices, shift into sleep mode in order to preserve battery life. Sleep mode turns off the power hungry Z-Wave radio and other unnecessary components, but the sensor remains active and wakes the device instantly when triggered thus sending the alert.
When a battery operated Z-Wave device is in sleep mode the Z-Wave radio is off. During this time Vera cannot communicate with the device, so Vera cannot configure or poll the device until the device wakes up. Battery operated devices wake up momentarily when tripped and they also wake up periodically to see if Vera has any instructions for them. The wake up interval varies depending on the device manufacturer and type and it may be anywhere from every 10 minutes to every four hours, or more. The wake up interval is configurable, though it usually doesn’t need to be changed, so don’t go messing with it unless you truly understand what you are doing and why, otherwise your next ranting post will be about self-inflicted poor battery life. If you check the manual, it should describe a process of pressing the sensor’s Z-Wave button in a particular pattern which will cause it to wake up and stay awake for a period of several minutes(usually 10). You use this mode to do your configuring, polling, and testing.
What’s happening to you is that in your failure to understand what you are (trying) to do, you are adding and resetting the device repeatedly rather than removing(exclude) from Vera. You are then deleting devices from Vera with no knowledge of which one you are deleting and have probably removed the valid one from Vera. The result is that nothing seems to work. I would recommend the following steps:
-
Read and try to understand the manual. Determine the sequence to put the sensor into awake mode.
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In the Vera GUI, delete all instances of the water sensor and then reboot Vera.
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Shift the sensor into wake up mode. It should then reappear in Vera.
3a. If the sensor never re-appears, perform an exclude of the device and then include it one last time. Then wake the device and proceed to the next step. -
While still in wake up mode, configure if necessary.
-
After wake up mode has expired, test by putting the sensor tips in a saucer of water. You should see a tripped state on Vera near instantly, certainly within a second or two.
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If you did all this with the senor NOT in its final install location, there is a good chance that Vera will not be able to communicate with it when you finally install it since relocating it will change its routing requirements. There are three options to resolve this:
i. Wake up the sensor and run a heal operation on Vera so that Vera can reconfigure routing. Keep the sensor awake until Vera completes the heal operation.
ii. Leave everything alone until the next morning. Vera will perform an automatic heal at 2:00am and it should figure out the routing and send the necessary configuration at the sensors next wake up.
iii. Exclude the sensor and begin anew, with your new understanding of operation, with the sensor in its final permanent location.
P.S. I can’t find a manual for this device online. Anyone got a link or care to upload a scan?
Edit: Spelling
Z-Waver,
Thanks for the reply.
First of all, are you sure that this device is within the radio range of the Z-Wave network?<<
Yes. Within 10" to 2 feet.
What’s happening to you is that in your failure to understand what you are (trying) to do, you are adding and resetting the device repeatedly rather than removing(exclude) from Vera.<<
I have done both many times. The water sensor pairs up with the Vera, then fails to properly communicate/configure, resulting in nothing but errors and failure of the device. I know how to pair ZWave deices.
The wake up interval is configurable, though it usually doesn’t need to be changed, so don’t go messing with it unless you truly understand what you are doing and why, otherwise your next ranting post will be about self-inflicted poor battery life.<<
Nothing is user configurable at this point, rant or not, especially since the Aeon DSB45-ZWUS does not want to be configured with the Vera. The Vera can’t even “Get name”!
ii. Leave everything alone until the next morning. Vera will perform an automatic heal at 2:00am and it should figure out the routing and send the necessary configuration at the sensors next wake up.<<
Yes, I have TPI session closing and TPI log in events emailed to my phone, and in the morning at 2am I get one. BUt during all this attempt to add/set up this device I had probably 20 TPI close/Log ins. And it still doesn’t work.
P.S. I can’t find a manual for this device online. Anyone got a link or care to upload a scan?<<
I scanned it last night to make reading it easier, it uses typical tiny print (and of course is not on the manufactures site yet). I will upload it later.
I am in a rush right now, but I do appreciate your help. I just can’t be spending 5 hours to get a Zwave flood sensor to work. I will try again tonight when I have a few free hours. If that fails its going back and I buy the Everspring flood sensor. My Everspring Temp/Humidity sensor gave me no problems and has worked for months with no problems.
Thanks
You are experiencing what is somewhat common with z-wave battery sensors. You need to make sure you have a reliable z-wave network before you start scattering all of these water sensors around the house. All battery powered devices have their hiccups. You can mitigate these mess ups by following the steps up above. But even when you do there will be times where the device just doesn’t like you 
. haha but you will just have to try again. Let us know if you have figured it out.
we just started to carry the water sensors and have surprising good luck with them.
http://www.smarthomesd.com/collections/sensors/products/aeon-labs-z-wave-water-sensor
Just wanted to add my experience here. I have a Vera 3 with 622 firmware. Just got this sensor and had to go through the following procedure to get it to add properly (successfully in the end):
[ol][li]Pushed Z-wave button on vera to put it in pairing mode, z-wave light is flashing on vera. Then brought sensor within 3 inches of vera and pushed zwave button on sensor. The red led blinks on sensor and turns off after 8 seconds. Scratches head, because sensor manual says red led should stay on for 10 minutes on successful pairing. I go to my computer to login to my vera via the Web UI and see that my Vera status is the dreaded “Failed to go into learn mode. Try again in a minuted”[/li]
[li]I had this issue a while a go, but I had to dig through all the old threads on this to figure out how to fix this. I went into Setup → Z-wave settings → Advanced → Hack to convert convert 2.78 to 3.20 → Go. (This is even though my vera is already running zwave firmware 3.2) Vera reported success after this[/li]
[li]Then, I went back to the vera, and pushed the z-wave button again on both the vera and the sensor, and this time on the Vera status I saw that it reported it added a new node. I then pushed the z-wave button on Vera to get out of pairing mode. While the vera was restarting, the sensor led stopped blinking.[/li]
[li]Once vera z-wave led was solid again, I pushed the wakeup button on the sensor, which turns on the led on the sensor for apparently 10 minutes according to the manual, then went to the Vera UI and clicked on the new sensor device, and hit Configure this node, which completed successfully after a few seconds.[/li][/ol]
Everything seemed to work fine after that, with the sensor tripping in Vera if I dipped the prongs into water, and my Vera Alert notification getting triggered.
Hope this helps someone else out there with similar issues.
I just received a couple of these Aeon Labs Water Sensors. I seem to have it set properly. It paired and configured fine. It appears on my dashboard. When I test it by submerging the prongs into a cup of water, I do receive the notification I set up which is ultimately what I want.
However, when I watch the dashboard, I do not see the green guy change to red or anything when the sensor is tripped. It would be nice to have a visual on the dashboard so I could see that there is water in contact with the sensor.
Does anyone know how to get that part of the sensor to work?
Thanks!
this might have to do with timing. It polls every 60 seconds and default is wake up of 27 minutes. I adjusted mine to wake up every 15 minutes. This will shorten the battery life at the trade off of a faster response.
p.s. found mine at a local staples store for 35$
I don’t have one of these devices to test its normal behavior. However, a leak detector should be a binary sensor(tripped/untripped) like any other e.g. door/window sensor and the transition between these states should be indicated nearly instantly in the Vera GUI.
Polling frequency and wake up intervals, as suggested by @paulhardin, should not be a factor in the indication of these states. Polling/wakeup should only affect device configuration changes, routing updates, and state changes that might have occurred when Vera was unplugged and unable to receive notifications. If Vera is aware enough to send a notification, the display in the Vera GUI should change accordingly.
My suspicion is that this is likely a browser related issue. If you refresh the browser(F5) does it show the change? Which browser are you using? Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome seem to work best, Internet Explorer has many Vera display issues and Safari has a few as well.