I purchased a couple of Monoprice door sensors a few weeks ago and my plan was/is to use the “external switch connection” to monitor a contact closure from my smoke detectors and from a sump pump. They are not working how I expected, so I think I need a lesson on the typical operation of these types of sensors.
I didn’t do my homework when I purchased these to realize that there was an issue with the Monoprice door sensors and Vera UI7. But I was able to find examples of LUA script that I could use to “un-trip” the sensors. So [thought] I had this working in an acceptable way, but it was not how I really wanted it. On Friday I updated my Vera firmware which now “un-trips” the sensors automatically but it still isn’t working how I expected.
The way it is working now is when the external relay changes state (i.e. the smoke detector goes off), the door sensor trips for a second or two, and then returns to the un-tripped state. It stays like this until the external relay changes back to it’s normal state (i.e. the smoke detector is silenced), and then the door sensor trips again for a second or two and then returns to the un-tripped state. I have stopped the scenes from running that used to un-trip the sensors, so it is now happening completely on their own (which is what I think the firmware upgrade did). I have also simulated these same conditions using the magnetic strip for the door sensor by placing it close and moving it away to simulate a door opening and closing.
The way that I expected this to work is that when the door is open (or in my case the external relay is open) the sensor would show as “tripped” and it would remain this way until the door was closed. Am I completely wrong about this? Is this the way that all door sensors work or is this just a Monoprice issue? Or am I just having bad luck?
The main reason why I am trying to figure this out is because I keep getting random notifications that the smoke detectors have tripped when I know they haven’t. I am still trying to diagnose this to see if this is a door sensor issue or if it is part of the normal operation of the smoke detector relay. If this is normal operation for the relay, then I need to put a delay for the notification in Vera. But being that the sensor does not stay in a “tripped” state for more than a second, I can’t put a delay in it.
Any/all help is appreciated! I am also very open to not using these door sensors. I would personally much rather have a non-battery operated way of doing this.
I have both Monoprice and Schlage door sensors and that is how both of the behave. They send a ‘tripped’ signal only when the state changes and after the ‘time out’ period is over, they will send an untripped signal when the state is closed again. I believe if the state is still open they send another tripped signal but I’ve not tested this.
In previous firmwares, the untripped signal after the time out was never processed which kept them showing in a tripped state. Do realize these are battery powered devices and them sending constant ‘Hey, I am still tripped’ signals would wear out the battery rather fast.
[quote=“BOFH, post:2, topic:188283”]I have both Monoprice and Schlage door sensors and that is how both of the behave. They send a ‘tripped’ signal only when the state changes and after the ‘time out’ period is over, they will send an untripped signal when the state is closed again. I believe if the state is still open they send another tripped signal but I’ve not tested this.
In previous firmwares, the untripped signal after the time out was never processed which kept them showing in a tripped state. Do realize these are battery powered devices and them sending constant ‘Hey, I am still tripped’ signals would wear out the battery rather fast.[/quote]
Ok so you are saying that your sensors stay “tripped” as long as the door is open? That is what I want mine to do, but it isn’t happening. Mine are un-tripping immediately when they should not be.
I understand what you mean about the battery powered nature of these and thus the need for limited data transmission. That is why I would expect 1 “tripped” transmission and then 1 “untripped”
Well darn. I was hoping they were not working correctly. But yes it seems these will not be the most ideal for my application. But this is also good to know because I was also thinking about installing door sensors to know when a gate in my yard is open, but with this new information, that would not help me at all.
As I was writing this, I realized that what I am really looking for is how the Mimolite operates with my garage door. I can tell at any point if the door is open or closed because it stays in whatever state it is actually in (triped/untripped or open/closed) and does’t change until the actual state changes. It is really surprising to me that is not the normal operation of the door sensors.
OK, have to call myself a liar. The torrential rains just stopped for a bit and I was able let my dogs out. I purposely left open the back door that has a Schlage door/window sensor on it for a bit. As long as the door is open, no ‘untrip’ command is apparently returned to Vera and the sensor keeps showing tripped. (I use rstrouse’s excellent Virtual Panel for a quick overview of all my sensors) When I closed the door, the sensor sent an untrip command to Vera and the sensor stopped showing tripped.
I can’t test the MonoPrice one as it’s on the front door and if I leave that open, my dogs will escape as the rain has them freaked out. (The front yard is not fenced like my back one)
I use the internal magnetic contact and don’t have an external contact connected so I can’t test the behavior of that.
Can anyone confirm how door sensors are supposed to function? I assumed that the sensor should remain “tripped” the entire time a door is open which is what BOFH said his Schlage sensors do. However my Monoprice door sensors are not doing this. They trip for a few seconds when the door opens and then automatically return to not-tripped. Then when the door is closed it trips again for a few seconds and then automatically returns to not-tripped. I am trying to determine whether this is an issue with the sensors or if this is standard functionality for some door sensors (such as Monoprice).
[quote=“RichardTSchaefer, post:8, topic:188283”]I have never heard of this behavior before.
Door sensors should always show tripped when the door is open … and always shop not tripped when the door is closed![/quote]
Ok good, that is what I would expect too. I know there was a “known issue” with the Monoprice sensors prior to the last UI7 firmware update (issue was that once they would trip, they would not un-trip). Then supposedly this issue was addressed was addressed during the last firmware update but now it is exhibiting the behavior that I described above. Now I just need to figure out whether this is still a “know issue” on Vera’s end or if they think they fixed it…
I did, but I only had them running in scene (i.e. once a specific sensor tripped, a specific scene was triggered to un-trip that specific sensor). However, I have disabled those scenes when the new firmware came out. I did not run the LUA how some others did on more of a time-basis.
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