I’m new to Vera, and new to these forums. I’ve been reading and trying to learn as much as I can, and these forums have been invaluable.
So, I wanted to let you know that www.Monoprice.com is now carrying a few Z-Wave items. I decided to “take one for the team” and pick up a motion detector as well as a door/window sensor. Each were around $30. I’ve added both and they both seem to be working pretty well. (Beware, both come up as “Motion Detector”.)
If you have any questions about these, I’ll try to answer them.
Does the motion detector measure temperature? The description seems to imply that it does but the PDF manual says nothing about it being able to do so.
[quote=“kirkla79, post:2, topic:179146”]I picked up 2 of the motion detectors yesterday.
Glad to hear they work.
Does the motion detector measure temperature? The description seems to imply that it does but the PDF manual says nothing about it being able to do so.[/quote]
On the Advanced tab, there is a variable called “CurrentTemperature”. For me, this had a value of 70 yesterday, and is 64 right now (in my garage), so that seems about right.
I still need to figure out if there’s a way to alter the sensitivity, as I’d like to up that setting.
[quote=“Laughing Man, post:4, topic:179146”]How does the motion detector work at night? Also, is it standard for the door/window sensors to be classified as a motion detector?
I just started with Zwave and the Veralite so do forgive me for the newbie questions.[/quote]
I can’t comment properly on the motion detector @ night, as it’s in the garage, and I’m still working on positioning, etc.
I’m new also, and assumed they would be discovered as distinct device types (so I added them at the same time). That’s what I get for assuming. Hopefully others can let us know how it works with older, more established devices.
I’m still trying to learn about "device_file"s, and how they are detected, assigned, and what they really do. For instance, the door sensor has device_file = D_MotionSensor1.xml . Same for the actual motion sensor. I’d like to think that if more precise device_files were used that the door sensor would come up as a door sensor, and the motion sensor might show the temp in the GUI (like my thermostat does).
By the way, I saw on another thread that devices like these might not be recognized correctly because they are not yet included in the zwave_products_sys.xml file. I’ve opened two Tech Support tickets to see if Vera can resolve these issues. I’ll keep you posted…
I second the desire to report the temperature the same way as the thermostat button does.
It’s a minor inconvenience to have to click in and scroll to the temperature.
I picked up two of the door sensors and one of the PIR. So far they seem to be working great. Decent batteries too, let’s hope the sensors don’t eat them!
I was going to go back an order more of the PIR’s but they’ve gone out of stock and the due date is mid March!
Tech Support got back to me with this message - “I?ve manged to connect to Vera controller and I?ve made some changes to your door sensor. Now you?ll need to bring the sensor near Vera (3 feet) and wake it up so it can update the changes.”
The GUI now shows a more accurate icon, and in advanced settings, device_type and device_file look more correct.
Now a question. Rather than unmounting the sensor and bringing it to Vera, couldn’t I put Vera into battery mode and take it to the sensor?
Anyone pick up one of their smoke detectors yet? So far no z-wave smoke detector has been able to be integrated in the US with Vera. I’m not sure if the one they sell there is for the US Z-wave frequency but they make it seem as if it is. Are Monoprice.com’s z-wave sensors all no-name brands?
Another quick update (regarding the Motion Detector)
Tech Support is having me install the “iDoorContact Plugin” app. sounds like once configured this will add a child device to show temperature in the GUI.
[quote=“kelpayne, post:15, topic:179146”]There is now a wiki page to help with iDoorContact. Hope that helps folks playing with the “Passive IR Sensor”.
Both of mine came in yesterday and work without issue. Put one in the garage and one in my reptile room.
Now I can monitor the temperature in my reptile room and create a scene to trigger my siren just in case I forget to lock the door to the room and a guest enters.
I don’t know why these things are so damn difficult (at least for me).
I followed the instructions.
I put in the battery - the LED blinked.
Put the cover on
Put the Vera into inclusion mode
Pressed the program switch - wait, there is no program switch. I see a hole.
I scratched my head.
But like the instructions said, the LED now is solid.
Vera shows the device - says waiting for it to wake up to configure
Instructions say to Awake the device remove the cover.
Vera still can’t find it to configure
I decide to exclude it and start over
I put Vera in Exclusion mode
By now I’ve decided a need to insert a little pin in the hole to press the button (???)
I put the pin in the hole and it seems there is a little switch in there.
But it won’t exclude.
Oh, at one point I deleted the tile in Vera.
So right now the device has a solid red LED and I don’t have a tile in Vera.
I’ll keep screwing around with it, in the meantime anyone else run into this?
I played first, read directions afterward and ran into similar issues.
The pinhole in the back is the “program switch”. But I found that it’s not really necessary to use it as the device checks in when you open it up.
Here’s what I did (successfully, with 2 modules).
[ol][li]put Vera into include mode[/li]
[li]put battery in PIR module, put cover on[/li]
[li]exit include mode[/li]
[li]do the Vera refresh dance until you see the PIR as a device. At this point Vera will be waiting to configure the device.[/li]
[li]open settings tab and click “configure now”[/li]
[li]open the module again. The red LED will come on and Vera will configure[/li]
[li]Install iDoorContact following the instructions linked to previously in this thread[/li][/ol]
Note: a solid red LED means that you’ve tripped the tamper sensor on the device (there’s a switch inside that’s pushed when the cover is on).
The LED will blink momentarily when it first senses motion. It won’t send an “off” to Vera until there’s been no motion for 3 minutes. For instance, if you put this in a busy location, you could conceivably see one “on” in the morning and one “off” in the evening if there was motion all day long.
I did finally read the last page of the instructions noticed that the LED will light when the cover is off.
No dice on what worked for you. I think I had successfully included the device originally but maybe didn’t wait long enough for it to be configured.
Now I think I’m stuck in limbo land. I’m wondering if the device thinks it’s included but the Vera doesn’t.
If it’s still waiting to be configured, can you just pick up at step 4?
To exclude, try putting vera in exclude (long press on the vera 3) and then press the program switch with a pin. Then re-start from the beginning.
The “vera dance” is that whole reload refresh thing you need to do to get new items to show up correctly. If you don’t refresh the browser (rather than just use the blue reload button), you sometimes won’t see all of the variables on the advanced tab.
