I have one of those frient buttons, and intend to use it outside as a doorbell. I haven’t gotten around to permanently leaving it outside, but the construction looks solid and it does seem that it’ll survive everything except total immersion. Otherwise, it behaves as you expect a ZigBee button should, and ZHA handles it well out of the box.
Just got one of these too - as you say it looks very solid.
Are you getting a battery level sensor? Mine is permanently unavailable, but oddly I am getting attributes for voltage, battery size and battery quantity - never seen the last two before! I can template a battery % out of the voltage, but it’s weird.
Edit: Another odd thing is that it presents as a binary sensor rather than a button giving an event. The sensor turns on, thern off again immediately. Maybe this is just the ZHA interpretation.
There are cheap Tuya Zigbee wireless switches/buttons out there that are advertised waterproof IP55 and seemingly compatible with ZHA/Z2M.
Just a couple of examples in the 5-10$ range on Aliexpress:
Single + Double Press
=> blakadder device page
Single + Double + Long Press
=> blakadder device page
The “no seam on front faces” design has me less worried than that of the frient (for example) as to the waterproof claim… but I don’t use buttons so I can’t confirm… we all know how vendors can be with adjectives. But then again, it all depends on the requirements of the environment… I’ve been using a 10$ Sonoff temperature sensor on an outside wall that receives the occasional “wind-pushed” rain for over a year without issues, and that thing is definitely not waterproof.
I’m using a Hue (zigbee) button for a doorbell. I have a porch overhang, so slight protection from elements. Button seems pretty sealed. It has worked well for over a year now, but the reported battery levels plummet when the temp drops below 10°C. It’s currently reporting 1% battery, but appears to be working fine…
Right, with ZHA I don’t get a remaining battery percentage with the Frient button. I don’t know if the button simply doesn’t support it, or if ZHA has trouble extracting it. Like you, poking around the clusters, I can get it to report values for the voltage but not the percentage remaining.
To me, the implementation as a binary sensor makes sense. It actually will stay in the “on” state if the button is held down, so some people might find that useful. It was very straightforward to link the “turn on” of the button to an automation, like for activating a doorbell relay and sending a smartphone notification.
Otherwise, we’ve had some good rainstorms by now as well as a couple weeks of snowy/icy weather, including a few days below -10º C, and the button has happily kept working through it all. (In my case, the button is very exposed to the elements, where it’s frequently subject to wind-blasted rain.) I’m rather confident it’ll happily chug along for the long haul.
Anyone tried these: Friends of Hue Outdoor Switch – Senic ?
Says it needs no batteries - movement generates enough power to connect and send.
My understanding is these green devices aren’t yet supported, it’s not regular Zigbee so they need to be in range of a compatible (basically hue) device and the coordinator needs to be compatible as well.
Haven’t looked into them in a while, maybe there’s been progress