Can anyone recommend a sensor I can use to monitor when my garden gate is open/closed. I would prefer WiFi or z-wave. I don’t mind if it is battery operated or mains powered. Thanks for any recommendations.
I use a Z-Wave Aeotec Door Sensor Pro in a waterproof box with external Ademco contact switch. So the magnet of the Ademco is attached to my gate, and the pickup of the Ademco is attached to the inside of the box, along with the Door Sensor. Has worked flawlessly for the past year on 3 gates.
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Good to know it’s possible to connect wires into that unit, only I can’t find that one for sale at the moment. I imagine others might be modifiable too.
Look for a unit with “dry contact” capability.
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Anyone know of just a generic switch sensor? You can buy outdoor magnetic contact switches that are wired back to a security panel.
Hi,
The key question here is “how can the sensor be powered and connected?”
If you have mains power (or can get a sensor cable back to mains power), a Sonoff running Tasmota or ESPhome connected to a magnetic reed switch (from any alarm supplier - consider the metal cased shutter door reed versions) can work well on WiFi. I have a similar modified device measuring temperature in my shed with a DS18b20.
If the gate is too remote for mains power / sensor wire / low voltage PSU wire, then there are several Zigbee or Z-Wave door switches which contain magnetic reed switches. I’d second the Z-Wave recommendation for Aeotec as they are less prone to weird issues than Fibaro (FGDW-002), but the kit is the same.
Sonoff make decent Zigbee kit but these use particularly low-capacity coin cells. Remember that every time you change the battery, you break the water seal!
The waterproof box idea is very good - and gives space for extra batteries. These Z-Wave or Zigbee devices tend to use a small 3V battery which will drain much faster if a distance away from other mesh kit. Think of the sensor having to “shout louder” to get to the rest of the network.
You can off-set this by putting a mains-powered device nearby to act as a mesh RF router/relay, or replace the small 3V battery with a battery holder containing two AA batteries. AA cells have a MUCH higher capacity, and are cheaper than the original tiny cells. I suspect they also have a better chance of surviving temperature swings outside.
Forget using WiFi devices on batteries - the power budget just isn’t there.
Enjoy,
James
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