Few weeks ago I was looking for an assistance how to properly install this smoke detector, so I would return for some review and tips.
I use the device with Zigbee2MQTT, on Home Assistant Green and Sonoff E Dongle.
One important note on the beginning. Dont buy this device as used one. Sensor in it has life span of 10 years, and if it was used, it might be already expired.
Of course you would look for installation instructions here:
And instruction manual.
But few information is missing
a) Pairing mode?
You would not find much information in the manual how to initiate pairing mode with Zigbee network, like by pressing some button on most of the devices.
After reading the manual for the Bosch application, what i considered to be a “booting” of the Twinguard, was the pairing mode, which is initialized by resetting the device and its active for few minutes after that.
Solution
- remove battery, hold the main button for 5 secs, insert battery again.
b) Twinguard not showing up in your Zigbee network, even when you enter the code?
Due to congested 2,4GHz Wifi network I had to move to a different channel, and the Twinguard wasnt picking it up at all during pairing mode. This is rather old device and it was simply not scanning in the channel where I moved my Zigbee network.
Solution:
Switch your Zigbee network to channel 15 for pairing. Afterwards I got ZB network to 16 for better radio performance. Ember driver helped me to perform this seamlessly.
This solved pairing issues and I could go on and use the Twinguard. There were few surprises on the way too:
a) Smoke alarm + Siren
These are main reasons I purchased it. Siren is exposed in Z2M and you can trigger it from an external source. For most cases thats a different smoke alarm within the same network, triggering all alarms in the building.
This is the “basic” non smart feature of this device which will be available at all times, even when you decide to not pair it.
b) Temperature and Humidity.
I use two cheap 10 dollar temperature/humidity sensors, while they are quite useful, they are not very precise, while sensor in Twinguard tends to report more often and provides more precise data.
Therefore I moved two cheaper sensors close to Twinguard and performed manual calibration, by adjusting offsets in Z2M.
I am sure there is some calibration automation for similar setup.
Also I used this blueprint to calibrate Thermostatic valves:
c) VOC sensor
For most of cases I use humidity sensor as an indication to enable the ventilation, but this is yet another useful information.
d) AQI and CO2
Well… both values go from measurement of the VOC sensor and are just calculated. Especially CO2 value is just a calculated guess, so I turned off reporting of CO2.
e) Light sensor
Sorry a what? I did not noticed it at first, but once I made the Twinguard running it took me few days how to add an automation.
Imagine a situation when you return home, a router integration finds your phone or smartwatch in the Wifi network and a light powers up.
To verify if its really necessary you just check if Light value in the room is below 15 Lux. No internet service such as Sun, calendar or such needed, and it powers up only when the room is really dark.
Is cooking an issue?
Twinguard has to be properly placed in the room, just keep it away from kitchen. Alarm did not triggered even against frying, i did not dared to burn the food.
However, even when I switched the sensor to Medium sensitivity it returned to High automatically.
Hope this helps.