Came across these detectors… Looks like they are a Zigbee device… Does anyone know if they will work with a Vera Plus controller?
I might have to get one and try it out.
I contacted Vera support regarding the Halo detectors because I could find no information on them in the forums. They stated that they were not aware of these devices, so they are not supported at this time. They did ask me for more information on them and I provided them with the website and some details from the manuals. It does look like they are Zigbee HA, so I hope that they will work eventually.
I did go ahead and order 3 of them to replace some older hardwired detectors in the house (after reading elsewhere that the Halos play nicely with existing interconnected detectors… we’ll see.) However, I am running a Vera 3 presently. So, until I upgrade to the Verasecure, which may be soon if it goes back on sale, I will not be able to try out adding them. Hopefully someone else will be able to try and provide more details.
I’m running a Vera Plus and I’m very interested if you have had any opportunity to buy the Vera Secure as well as how well are the Halo alarms working for you? As smart capable hardwired smoke detectors go these and the First Alert Onelink products are the only one’s i have found. First Alert is out for now as it is singularly focused on integration with Homekit only it seems.
Resurrecting an old thread.
I bought the Halo from Lowes and installed it in one of the rooms in my house. It interconnected with my other hardwired wired Kiddie smoke+CO detectors in my house and triggered them during startup test.
Setting it up in Vera was an issue. I tried connecting it twice as a generic Zigbee device, but it showed up as a temperature sensor. Got on a call with Vera support and they were able to change the device from the back end to a smoke detector, but couldn’t add the other sensors to show up (temperature, humidity, motion, etc) that Halo has.
I was told that Halo isn’t on their compatibility list and those sensors will not show up.
For now, the Halo is going back to Lowes, as it is only supported with Smartthings, Iris and Echo.
Too bad Halo and Vera can’t get along yet. Here’s the biggest drawback for me with the Halo: Halo won’t work with other non-Halo smoke alarms in your house.
From the Halo manual: “Note: Halo is only approved to interconnect with other Halo products. It is NOT approved to interconnect with any smoke alarms that are not Halo products. If only one Halo is installed in a home, the Halo will only go off when there is an emergency inside the room in which it is installed.”
So, you’d have to install Halos everywhere else in the house, if you wanted to be notified of smoke in another room.
Also, the Halo must be hard-wired. There is no battery-powered option for mounting them.
Maybe the next generation Halo will improve on this.
Hey, I was also thinking to try out Halo smoke detector once. But I am very much worried about its installation. I have heard a lot about its compatibility and now thinking to give it a try. My friend is recommending me to contact electrician NJ for more better advice on which detector to use and which to not, before heading towards the installation. I think, having a consultation with professional can clear all my queries too.
Hey, this is really a good idea of smoke detector.
haven’t seen a post in this string in a while, and am wondering if anyone else has tried these recently? I require hard wired for my solution, and so far these are all I’ve stumbled on.
I can’t provide input to the Halos specifically, but if the goal is to have smoke alarms that signal Vera (and not through an alarm panel interface), the ubiquitous Kidde detectors can be connected through their SM120X relay module to a Z-wave door sensor (I use an Aeotec, which has an aux input parallel with the reed switch) or similar contact module. If, as shashankmittal posted earlier in the thread, the Halos happily trigger Kidde detectors hardwired on the same circuit, I see no reason the Kidde relay module would not trigger as well. But of course, mixing detector brands on the hardwire circuit isn’t really permitted by NFPA, so there’s that.
STOP! Don’t buy a Halo product. The company has gone out of business. Even worse, Halo is ending direct support for Halo devices using the soon-to-be-defunct Halo app. That means Halo+ detectors are unable to connect to the internet to provide hazard and severe weather warnings. Wow. I’m glad I only bought ONE for $135. The company says Halo devices will continue to work with a Lowe’s Iris or SmartThings hub.
Halo Smart Labs Statement (7-28-2018):
[i]Dear Halo customers,
It is with our sincere apologies that we must let you know that Halo Smart Labs is closing its doors. You may have noticed a lack of available product and support responses, and we apologize for taking so long to let you know what is going on. While we are proud to have created a best in class product, it takes more than a great product to make a great business. Despite the best efforts of our team, ultimately the resources required to continue making and supporting Halo products were beyond our reach.
Over the next couple of weeks, direct support for Halo devices using the Halo app will be disconnected, leaving them unable to connect to the internet and deliver messages including hazard notifications and emergency contact ability. Our recommendation for those customers who wish to retain these features is to connect the Halo smoke alarms to a hub produced by either Iris by Lowe?s or SmartThings. These connected home systems intend to continue to provide connectivity and support for Halo devices and offer some additional benefits beyond the previous Halo app.
We at Halo recognize that your support of our products was no small investment, and we truly wish we could have found a way to provide a better outcome for your experience. Thank you for including us in your search for ways to make your home smarter and safer, and for letting us be a part of your lives.
-Ben Stagg
Co-Founder
Halo Smart Labs[/i]
Resurrecting this thread:
In my “cloud independence” and “google be gone” effort I have gone on to replace my new protect which are wifi/cloud only device with the Halo/Halo+ sensors which are Zigbee/wifi.
The company is now bankrupt so one can find these sensors broadly on eBay for relatively cheap. One seller had them for ~$30 a piece. It is quite interesting as I noted before that the only Zigbee device I have which is not from a bankrupted company are the Keen vents. None of my other Zigbee devices are officially supported and so take some manual configuration to make work.
The tremendous advantage of this solution vs the next protect and other zwave sensors I found besides the temperature and humidity sensors is… it is wired with battery backup so you do not need to rely on battery only and it does make use of the third wire to talk to one another inside the house.
Being bankrupt the cloud function no longer works which… to me is not a big downside since it was only picking up weather it seems.
So I went on to try to pair it to my vera plus and… well it paired just fine. It created temperature and humidity child devices but as one expect, the device itself came out as generic Zigbee. I am used to this… I did this with the Keen smart vents. So to make it work:
Change the device json and xml to D_SmokeSensor1.json and D_SmokeSensor1.xml respectively under the attributes. Also change the device category and subcategory to 4 and 4 since you are at it and now… go into variables.
You will see supported outclusters 0019 which is not configured.
The other available clusters are 0402: temperature sensing, 0405 humidity sensing and 0500 IAS zone which is the security sensing corresponding to Vera’s “Tripped” Variable.
It supports also 0403 which the pressure sensing the vera does not support and 0502 is a warning signal not supported by vera.
under the variable reportattrib, you can see the sensor values the vera support. I tested tripping the sensor and it does trip the device on the vera creating the lastTripped, Tripped, Armed and ArmedTripped variables!
@melih, you had asked if there were good zigbee devices you could potentially incorporate into ezlo’s platform and takover from bankrupted companies. Between this one and the centralite thermostat. I think these are pretty unique offering giving the wifi based nest/ecobee a good fight. It seems like they were all dragged down by the iris platform but the devices themselves are very good and not cloud dependent.
