Cheapest Door / Window Sensor Solution - RF 433? / Orvibo / Other?

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Heya,

I’m trying to figure out the most cost effective (and reliable) solution for door / window sensors - I am in AU so z-wave has limited options (due to frequency) and i’m certainly NOT paying $60+ per sensor for each door / window.

I would love to hear what solutions everyone else had done for door / window sensors. Anyone had any luck with 433mhz RF sensors - the lack of encryption on these is concerning, but mostly the range / reliability is the big thing for me now. I just want to get started in HA in a smallish house but learn what I can take on a bigger project.

Ideally my budget would be around $25-35 AUD each i’m happy to buy a hub - I haven’t committed to Zigbee / Z-wave yet, (i’ve got wemo lights on zigbee but I understand that is a walled garden) so I was planning on getting a aeotec stick and use the multi sensors around the house (at $50 a pop with motion, temp and the rest) i am happy with that solution to get a few sensors in the main rooms.

In saying that can I get a smart things hub (would you recommend? to do both Zwave + Zigbee) as it avoids me getting a z-wave stick + hub and I found some mutterings online that these orvibo sensors work with smartthings.

The reason I ask is I found these:
ORVIBO Alarm Mini WiFi Smart Door Window Sensor Home System Remote Control for $26 AUD
http://www.banggood.com/ORVIBO-Alarm-Mini-WiFi-Smart-Door-Window-Sensor-Home-System-Remote-Control-p-1027134.html

Anyone had any luck getting these working?

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(second post for second link)

and the hub is only $50

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Hello,

You could take a look at this thread, these 433mhz are cheap and differentiate state:

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Thanks @1technophile interesting stuff! What is the range like on 433? How does it go with brick?

Those rounded designed ones look nice without the antenna!

THis post on xiaomi sensors looks really promising too…
Xiaomi smart home I’m tempted to give that a shot and hope we get a HA intergration

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Maybe @masterkenobi can give us some info about eh range of the door sensors he bought?

Mine are at maximum at 6 meters with two walls from the gateway

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Sure. The range is pretty good. The gateway is on the ground floor and it can detect the sensor signal which is on the second floor. Sometimes it doesn’t. But I can always add another gateway on the second floor. It is so easy and cheap to make one.

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If you are ok with DIY electronics, check MySensors
I’m not into using 433 for sensors, since if a two sensors transmit at the same time (or a sensor and a 433 switch), probably nothing will work.

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I have tried MySensors. The problems with MySensors are…

  1. It takes time and effort to build your own sensors
  2. It doesn’t look that good
  3. The battery life is relatively worse than those generic 433Mhz sensors.
  4. It costs more.

However, I wouldn’t say I will not use MySensor at all. It is still good if I want to build a custom sensors such as temperature sensors, distance sensors, light sensors, etc…

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check out what is happening on the Xiaomi Smart Home space. It is in the process of integrating into HASS, and is cheap as chips. I am just getting the wireless button and motion sensors installed and they are running fairly well at the moment. I havent tried the reed switches though. @jon1012 has a python script you can run as a service which publishes to MQTT for use in HASS until the component is ready.

Check out the thread Xiaomi smart home .

Hub AUD30
switch/Motion Sensor/Reed Switch AUD11

i got mine from Gearbest (im also in Australia, Perth)

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Hello, do you have an idea of the range you are getting with this system and the battery life duration?

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the one big unknown is the battery life. however they use CR2032 coil cell batteries, so are readily available.

Havent played with range yet. I’ll stick one out the back and see how it goes.

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@palitu I’m excited about this! I bought a full set of sensors and hub this morning- door, motion, temp, rgb light and hub.

By the time gearbest finally ship I hope intergrated / to find a tutorial I can follow to get it up and running :slight_smile:

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I got mine in a week. I used the DHL delivery for $7 extra. Worth it. I dont suppose you are in perth?

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Nope in Sydney…

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the wireless button is just on-off switch?

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Apparently does three functions I read somewhere

Press
Hold
Longer press

Hold hold me to that though

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I don’t understand …
press Ok
press longer OK

How can you distinguish a hold by a long press??

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it has

  • click
  • double click
  • long press
/xiaomi/switch/158d00010aa036/status click
/xiaomi/switch/158d00010aa036/status double_click
/xiaomi/switch/158d00010aa036/status long_click_press
/xiaomi/switch/158d00010aa036/status long_click_release

edit: i have found 1 more…

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Ok, good. This I understand. 4th I don’t understand

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i think it sends it when you finally release the button. perhaps use it for a whilst pressing, do this, when released, do that.