Ecolink Zwave Garage Door Tilt Sensor (TILT-ZWAVE2) issue

Hi,

newbie here. hope somebody can help me out. I was able to add this zwave device to veraplus (other zwave device). I see 2 icons, 1 door/window sensor and the other one is the zwave logo. it works for a while when i attach to my garage door (tripped/untripped). that’s all I want to do. My problem is when after a few sec/min/hrs, i go open/close my garage door the zwave device does not send notification anymore but once i lift it from it’s location. I get an email notification that it’s being tampered. Any idea why this is so?

thanks in advance!

I don’t have any answers to your question, but I am having problems of my own with this sensor recently and I wanted to throw in some emotional support.

I managed to get mine to work well for a few days, but now it just says it’s tripped and won’t update. Something must have changed system-wise - this thing used to work great!

This looks to be some kind of range/ routing issues. Not enough repeater nodes if device is too far, or something changed in the z-wave network,(new added/removed hardwired devices ?) that can affect the route.

Don’t hesitate to log a ticket with our support team (see my signature), for a technical analysis of your setup.

Has there been any resolution to this question? I switched from the regular z-wave model of the Ecolink tilt switch to the newer Ecolink z-wave plus model, mostly because of the gold-plated tilt sensor on the plus model. (My older sensors were becoming unreliable in tilt.)

However, just as the OP states, this new z-wave plus model generates two different devices; one a door-type sensor, and the other a genericIO1 device - neither works worth a crap.

As a note - the generic zwave device is the parent of the door sensor device. However, a tilt (or trigger) gives no indication on the screen - i.e. no red indicator on the door sensor icon in UI7. The generic IO1 device has an Off and ON button function on the UI7 screen as well. But does nothing when you select either option. (Thus, my comment about neither works worth a crap.)

Any ideas? I’m going to let them sit and stew for a couple of days and see if they can collect themselves enough to figure out what they truly do.

Melsman

The Telguard and Linear units work great. We install loads of these.
If you choose the Telguard, you will never have to worry about batteries again.

Not trying to force products to people, but at some point you have to ask yourself if the pain of these two products not working together, worth it?

Thanks for the recommendation, Jamr, but I’m still looking for an answer to my question. My existing Ecolink tilt sensors have worked well - and simple to set up. But the tilt sensor component is getting old and I want a corrosion-resistant gold-plated sensor that comes in the new tilt sensor. Unfortunately, the new z-wave plus tilt sensor generates two devices and neither works. Ecolink’s support has tried, but to no avail.

Next up - MCV support.

Melsman

OK - So after working with MCV Support, I think we got it figured out.

Turns out the z-wave plus aspect is the issue. Vera doesn’t know how to handle the additional information from the Ecolink z-wave plus device. (Something that MCV needs to work on…) So, it creates two devices - a generic device (a parent device) and a door and window sensor (a child device). The key is to convert the parent device from a generic device to a door sensor, and hide the child device. Not an elegant solution, but it works. So here’s how you do it:

(First - a note of thanks to Juan David - the MCV tech who worked through this with me.)

  1. Add the device through the normal “Add Device” button
  2. Select Sensors>Ecolink Door and window sensor
  3. Go through the include process. This will generate two different devices; one a generic device and the other a door and window sensor.
  4. Go to the Advanced tab of the generic device. You are going to change the configuration files on this device so that it thinks it is a door and window sensor.
    Make the following changes:
    device_type - urn:schemas-micasaverde-com:device:DoorSensor:1
    device_file - D_DoorSensor1.xml
    device_json - D_DoorSensor1.json
    category_num - 4
    subcategory_num - 1
  5. Once these parameters are changed, reconfigure the device by going to the Advanced>Commands tab of the device, and press “Configure node now”. Then remove the battery from the device, count to five, and then reinstall the battery. This will wake up the device and the new configuration should load.
  6. Reload the Luup engine through the Settings > Z-wave settings>Advanced> Reload Engine
  7. Once everything is completed, you should now have two door and window sensor devices. Give the device a tilt and the parent door and window sensor should show a proper tripped indication.
  8. Now you need to hide the child device (the one that begins with _Door…)
  9. Make note of the device ID number in the child device’s Advanced tab
  10. Under Apps > Develop Apps > Test Luup Code, type in the command, luup.attr_set(“invisible”,“1”,_Device ID), where _Device ID equals the device ID of the child device.
  11. Press GO.
  12. If the command is successful, then the device will be hidden. If you get an error message, retype the command carefully.
  13. You may have to refresh the page to have the device disappear.

Anyway, that should do it.

Melsman

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Well, just when I thought it was safe to go back into the water…

I pulled up my Vera iOS app last night to check on a couple of things and I noticed something peculiar… My newly configured tilt sensors showed up as motion sensors on my app. But more importantly, the “invisible” child devices were clearly visible on the Vera app - and labeled as “Unknown Device”!

“One of those famous ‘delayed Vera adjustments’?” I thought… But no. Checking the UI7 web interface, the parent devices were still displayed as door and window sensors, and the child devices were still invisible. So it appears that the Vera web interface and the Vera app use different ways of displaying the same information. Very confusing.

First, Vera should handle the z-wave plus commands of this simple tilt switch better. And second, the app and the web interface should display devices in the same manner.

Yes - I will be sending this as a bug report.

Melsman

Have you tried terminating the iOS app to clear settings and force it to refresh from Vera?

Yes - quite frequently.

On a related note… I hadn’t noticed until now, but some of my door and window sensors are displayed as motion sensors in the app, but as door sensors in the web UI. Although not very clean and consistent, that’s not a big deal to me. (They still trigger properly.) It’s the useless child device that appears with the z-wave plus tilt sensor that frustrates me.

Melsman

I did some more comparisons, and yes, many of my door and window sensors show the D&W icon, are using the Door Sensor device files, but are categorized as motion sensors in the web UI. These same sensors shown in the app are still categorized as motion sensors, but use the motion sensor icon. The strange thing is that many of my other door sensors have identical device files, but are categorized by both the web UI and the app as door and window sensors. Again, they all trigger properly, but are represented differently in the app and web UI.

Melsman

Figured out how to make the device show up as a door and window sensor in both the web UI and the app. I changed the subcategory number from a 3 to a 1, and then reset the device. Now the web UI and the app show the same door sensor icon. (I modified my post above to reflect this change.) However, the reset generated another stupid child device that I had to hide. >:(

In the meantime, MCV support got back to me and told me that their programmers were aware that the UI and app drew the device type information from different locations and were going to fix in a future release. They also said that this device and its’ z-wave plus commands had not yet been certified for Vera. So I guess this work-around is the best we have for now… Either that or buy the older, non-z-wave plus type.

Melsman

I upgrade to the zwave plus tilt sensor and ran into the same problem…Thank you for the great fix…Worked like a charm…

I need to get rid of id no 359 so can you tell me where i would add the numbers In the sentence?

luup.attr_set(“invisible”,“1”,_Device ID), where _Device ID equals the device ID of the child device.

I have a linear garage door setup…Works great

My device I’m trying to hide is 103, no matter how I copy/paste, type, whatever this into either test Luup code or edit startup LUA (I’m running a VeraSecure if that matters) I just get “Failed to test code”

What am I doing wrong?