Is someone with the Elexa Dome Mouse trap able to tell if the information being reported for this mouse trap looks correct/normal and is in a state to fire if a mouse has been caught? I have had this thing for a year…got frustrated with it because I didn’t think it was working and am not circling back to it to try to put forth more effort to get it to working properly.
The second screenshot shows that the last checkin was 11 hours ago, but I’m still not convinced that it’s in a ready state because the top sensors indicate that the device is ‘off’ …and I’m not sure how to turn them on… If I send a ping, that doesn’t seem to matter, and worst of all the Wirless dbm level is abismal…The mouse trap is MAYBE 2 ft a way from the usb dongle…not even close to where i actually want it and to have that poor of signal, I have concerns that this is even useable.
Trying to handle one thing at a time… I first just want to know if this setup looks correct to anyone…clearly it’s imported into HA…but that may not mean that it’s working and if it’s not…then what did I miss? Because there is very little information about this device on the internet that I was able to find.
Have you set it off? To test if the sensors fire? Also, try moving the device a few rooms away to see if the poor rssi is just due to local interference.
If the rssi is even worse far away, I would suspect an antennae or solder joint issue. Can you open it to do some digging?
How do I set it off? …
yeah, I can move it to another room.
I prefer just to troubleshoot externally…If it’s junk, it’s junk. which may be the reason these things aren’t being sold anymore. I’m trying to rule out of it’s just a crap product or I’m just dumb and don’t know what I’m doing at this point. There’s no guides or anything…a few youtube videos, but they’re not really helpful in the way that I need.
I’ll move it further away and see If that does something, but I don’t know how to set it off. There’s no app (that I’m aware of) just directly connected to Zwave into home assistant.
There must either be a mechanical trigger like a classic snap trap, or some sort of sensor that detects proximity/movement/IR to let the trap know a mouse is in there.
Edit: oofz it says it uses electricity to kill the rodent, so be very careful about putting your hands in there.
If it were me I would disassemble and see what makes it tick.
I think you’re correct when you say it isn’t being made anymore for a reason. Might be better to recycle it.
I moved it half way down the basement, there’s no walls for obstruction, just a bunch of junk, to see if the signal changes at all. I do see a check-in history since I’ve had it sitting for a couple days, but I’m never seen it do much of anything. The most I’ve ever been able to do with it is get it initially imported into HA and I’ve seen the battery level change once…that’s all.
Thanks for replying, I’ll circle back if i see any changes.
It’s been a day and I haven’t seen any value change on this thing at all…that’s been my experience with this thing, it connects just fine and then that’s it…end of story, no values change, no response past the initial connection.
I am looking for the exact same help. I have actually caught a couple of mice in mine, and none of the entities in the device are changing. The entities only change when I turn the mousetrap on or off. - so I am not seeing any notifications at all. I do see in the device information, under the log book, the following entry when the device is successfully tripped:
Basement Mouse Trap fired Notification CC 'notification' event 'Pest Control': 'Pest exterminated'
9:49:17 AM - 1 hour ago
I also see the exact same entry in the system log book.
Despite the instructions of the mouse trap saying that the "trap armed’ and “trap required” entities should change, they don’t in HA when a mouse is exterminated (or when you successfully trip it on your own)
If there is a way to act on the above logbook entry, that would be treat, but haven’t found a way to do it yet.
BTW, to trip and test my Dome Mousetrap, I throw a wadded up damp paper towel in, and tip the trap back and forth until the damp paper towel hits both trigger mats. you will hear it zapping. You have to wait till it is finished (which is about a minute) before it stops zapping, and then the message is added to the logbook.
Another thing I can mention, out of the box, my trap did not work. I found that I had to take it appart and widen a hole where a spring comes up to touch the top mechanism contact. In my situation, one hole was the right size, one was too small. As soon as I widened it, and put it together, I was able to hear/see the zapping going on. May not be your problem. First try to trip it with a damp paper towel (not putting in manually, because you will get zapped, but by dropping it in the chamber). If you wee the above log messages I stated above, the trap is working.
shredder_guitarist… I got some help from a question I posted and got a lot of answers. I had to create an event trigger based upon event_type zwave_js_notification. I first went to developer tools and started to zwave_js_notifications. I then tripped the trap with some wet paper towel. after a minute (about), I got all kinds of information back. I used the information to created the following trigger in an automation:
In your environment, your node_id, home_id, and device_id will be different. I used the above, and it worked like a charm. If you want to see the information shared by some fantastic users, you can check out my post:
This is excellent. I may have to try this… I put the mouse trap in my basement and never gave it another thought and since removed the Zwave integration because I never saw anything.
While I think this is a plausible solution and I fully intend on trying it at some point…this is still BS…why does it work this way? Why doesn’t the integration just work like it’s supposed too…seems unfinished and hacky. These obviously aren’t questions for you to answer…but still just saying.
I appreciate you posting this info and will give it a go at some point. Thank you for providing this.
