Like most z-wave devices, there’s an attribute for the battery level. I create a custom sensor for this. I tend to monitor them manually (in a lovelace card that lists all the batteries), I probably need an automation for this though.
and attempting poll with a value of 1 with no success. for those of you that got this working, what was the secret? The water sensors work, I just cannot get the temp sensor to update. It is powered by USB. I want to get a few more of these, but not if I cannot figure this out.
@shellprompt I’ve had this sensor working for about a year now and still going strong.
I get a temp measurement every two hours. After one year and a couple of flood triggers via HA (HA saved the day), the sensor battery is still @ 100%.
If you are using battery power, the notes I took when setting it up can help you. The key is the last point.
Parameter 48
* = 55
* There is a bug in the UI (it only allows values 0 to 1), the workaround
* Home Assistant > Dev Tools > Service > zwave.set_config_parameter
* {"node_id":4,"parameter":48,"value":55} (and push the action button in the device)
* 55 = enables reports for leak / overheat / underheat etc.
* on battery, the thresholds are checked only when the device wakes up (hence: not so useful)
* Enable/disable the sensor report
* Methinks: on battery power, the Unsolicited Reports are ONLY triggered when the device crosses the High/Low temp boundaries, otherwise it doesn’t report anything. A bit worse than that, since there is a “recovery parameter” (see the doc), say tricking the High boundary and setting it to 0 C will only get the unit to send ONE report and that’s it.
* Another workaround when this parameter can't be set is to setup polling
* To set it up: in the ZWave section, under device customization
sensor.aeotec_zw122_water_sensor_6_temperature:
ignored: false
polling_intensity: 115 # polling every 115*60s = 115 min
* For battery-powered sensors, the value of "polling intensity" is meaningless as long as it is > 0: whenever the device wakes, a Get command is immediately queued, so the Wake Up Interval controls the frequency, and the intensity means nothing (but: it needs to be > 0 for polling ("Get's") to get enabled)
I purchased a Aeotec ZW122 (Water Sensor Gen 6) and was able to pair it with my HA installation no problem but as the OP mentioned, I too cannot get it to work in a way that reports to HA where I can setup an automation to notify me through Telegram. I reached out to Aeotec support but their answer was pretty technical for someone who is newer to Z-wave sensors.
Can anyone help me determine the best way to set this thing up? I have the additional dock which allows Probe 1 and Probe 2 to trigger but unsure about which entity to watch to trigger my automation.
I don’t understand how I am able to poll the status values using the “NOTIFICATION COMMAND CLASS” and also the parameter 136 they mentioned is a GET only command how am I able to see if both probe 1 and probe 2 are wet OR if Probe 1 or Probe 2 are wet? Is there a way to set that within my automation?
Here is the email I received from Aeotec:
Water Sensor 6 utilizes NOTIFICATION COMMAND CLASS to advertise its sensor values that it sends out, unfortunately it does not utilize Binary Sensor Reports at all.
Parameter 121 does not exist on this unit.
Parameter 136 allows you to determine which probes are triggered as a value, this parameter is a GET only command which will return 4 different values:
value 0 = no triggers
value 1 = probe 1 wet
value 2 = probe 2 wet
value 3 = probe 1 + 2 is wet.
NOTIFICATION COMMAND CLASS should be used to retrieve the status values of Water Sensor 6:
Not that I have seen. I did just order the HomeSeer HS-FS100-W Z-Wave Perimeter Water Sensor as they are on sale now, and I was able to get 3 that will be USB powered for the price of the Aeotec Water Sensor 6 package (sensor + mounting kit + lasso cable). They also report temp and are Zwave Plus repeaters so they have many of the same benefits, I’m hoping they are easier to get setup and going with HA.
Struggling to find a water sensor that seems to work with HA, or one that doesn’t have a lot of issues being reported. Do we consider the ZW122 working? Both water sensor and temperature? Plus if you plug in the dock, ability to monitor both ports it adds for water? I saw a video on YouTube about this unit and they said Aeotec said it’s working with HA but not sure that helps if they aren’t going to provide guidance on how to make it work fully.
@jriker1 it does work fine but it requires effort to set it up, you need to fully understand what you are doing - how “sleeping sensors” work with HA (if you are using it with battery rather than with usb power), the above discussion will give you the pointers.To me this required a few afternoons of trial and error, parsing logs etc, but I was also new to Z-wave at the time. After that, smooth sailing.
I have one under the kitchen counter directly on top of water-absorbent paper, with no dock. It reports temperature and battery level once every two hours, unless it gets woken up by water detection. I have HA setup to send me an alarm email and notification. It very much saved the day once.
I just changed the battery on this thing last weekend after close to 1.5 years of use with HA - battery level fell below 25%.
I used to use Z-Wave with another open source automation solution and found the connectivity horrible. Probalby because of the location of my hub to the nearest device. Was thinking of going down that path again since my hub is in the basement, and the first water sensor would also be down there although on the other side of the basement by the sub pump. Then the next one will be directly above it one level under the sink. Hoping they will talk. Do we have a tutorial anywhere that talks to how to set that unit up? I know the DSB45 had some challenges but in the end someone compiled things and looks pretty easy to setup. Not sure I saw that with this unit yet.
for me zwave with HA has been rock solid, and I have slowly added nodes over time and got rid of the wifi ones I used to use. I have this water sensor, the aeotec multisensor, a GE smart plug, a zooz smart plug with power reporting. This sensor was the most difficult to setup because I did not understand the basics of battery-operated ‘sleeping’ sensors with HA.Other than reading the basic zwave documentation, I think this thread now compiles all the key concepts and pointers. This is still homeassistant so there is a steep learning curve you have to go through but once you get the basics, it’s so flexible and stable that other solutions do not come close
By the way a side question. I was thinking with the ZW122 of getting the dock. Thought since it has the extended cable I could stick the cable down the subpump pit a foot or so, so in the event the sub pump and the battery backup sub pump fail I would get alerted. Does the main ZW122 no longer do anything for water detection other than with the extension cables once in the dock? Guessing the bottom led’s are no longer functional? Wanted to stick the main unit by the water heater and then run the extension cable to the pit.
I don’t have the dock, but I can see the dock just extends the electrical connections (4, for 2 sensors) that are at the bottom of the unit allowing you to use the two cables. So I’d say the ‘main zw122’ on the dock just gets both sensors ‘extended’ with the cable, and the original unit electrical terminals get covered by the dock. It’s still two sensors and both are actually inside of the unit. The circular LED has multiple functions (see the manual) and I can guess is not impacted or affected by the dock at all.
For your use case, if you look at the dock you will see that you get two extension cables, so it seems it fits your use case. I do remember that HA fires different events depending on which of the sensors detected water, so you could have different notifications configured for each.
Thanks, just placed my order for two ZW122 units and one with a dock. Did hear on one video that the ZW122 is not Z-Wave Plus without the dock but doesn’t look like that’s true if you believe the marketing info. It does sound like the dock has a booster antenna of some kind though. Also ordered the Aeotec Gen 5 USB stick.
So I just got two Water Sensor 6 and a dock. Took the water sensor 6 and put it in the dock and connected the extender wires. Pulled the battery connector also so the battery was active and also plugged it in the wall. I put some water on the ground and stuck the copper connector on the end of the wire into it. Nothing happened. Anyone know if this thing won’t work until z-wave linked?
OK I got this thing working with one issue. Even though the sensors go from 0 to 2 when there is water for the life of me I can’t get the buzzer to work. Any thoughts? Buzzer setting is enabled and I have parameter 48 set to 1 so it’s just alerting on water. Didn’t do it on 55 setting either.
I just set up one of these devices and easily managed to add the device using the Z-Wave Network Management panel, as well as receive the Flood Alerts in real-time (using sensor.aeon_labs_zw122_water_sensor_6_flood) - when the contacts are shorted (“flooded”) then the value is set to a value other than 0 (in my case 2), and the device starts beeping, and when I remove the short (“remove the water”) then the beeping stops and the numeric sensor value goes instantly back to 0.
However, other than this “flood” sensor and the battery sensor (which currently shows 100%), all the other sensors, including the tempearture sensor (sensor.aeon_labs_zw122_water_sensor_6_temperature) show a zero value. It has been over two hours and I have also tried pressing and holding the button on the device for 3 seconds to turn on “constant awake mode” but that hasn’t yielded any changes. I have also gone over the various Z-Wave Node Configuration Options for this device but haven’t found anything useful.
So, is there any way to get the temperature reading to show up, even if only once every 2 hours as has been reported in this topic?
My Configuration parameter 48 is set to 55.
Perhaps Configuration parameter 101 (Unsolicited report) can be used somehow? The description says: " To set what unsolicited report would be sent to the Lifeline group." and these are the values:
Also, I noticed that my device manufacturer is called “AEON Labs” however the device was listed on Amazon as “Aeotec Water Sensor 6” (and of course this thread says Aoetec as well). Not sure if this means anything.
