How to configure a sensor?

Configuration Z-Wave
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Hi all, I’m a HA newbie. I’m in the process of switching over from SmartThings and looking to customize a door/window sensor. I apologize if this info is somewhere on the forum or in the HA docs (i’m sure it is, please point me in the right direction), but I couldn’t find it and I’m getting very frustrated. All I want to do is learn how to customize sensors. Right now when pairing the sensor it gives me these 5 sensor readings. I know from testing that the 23 means the sensor reads that it’s closed and the 3 is the tamper switch. Please help me do a few things things, 1) change the 23 to read out closed, 2) hide the tamper switch reading (I don’t need to see the reading all the time) and 3) figure out how to read the battery level.

Last but not least I’d also like to learn how to only show whether the sensor is open/closed and if I press it it shows all the other info such as battery level and tamper switch reading rather than showing these as different sensors.

image

Thank you all for any help, I really appreciate it.

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Well, you forgot to tell us the make and model of your sensor, which makes it hard to help you in detail :wink:

Most Z-Wave door/window sensors support binary mode, where they send an on/off rather than a value (though, usually as well as the value). Check the manual that came with it - some require you you activate it through changing the configuration (Configuration -> Z-Wave, select the node in Z-Wave Node Management, scroll down to Node config options). Note that battery powered devices need to be awake to receive configuration changes - again, see the manual that came with it for how to wake it.

If it doesn’t support binary mode, then you can “fake” it with a template sensor:

- platform: template
  sensors: 
    window_sensor:
      sensor_class: opening
      friendly_name: 'Some window'
      value_template: >- 
        {%- if is_state("sensor.your_sensor", "22") -%}
        open
        {%- else -%}
        closed
        {%- endif -%}
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Ah thanks, it’s one of these from Monoprice.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24259

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The manual (I assume you’ve read it yourself) says nothing about binary support, but it looks to be a rebranded Hank sensor. That sensor is listed on the Z-Wave alliance site, and doesn’t support binary mode.

So, strictly speaking, the sensor is behaving as it should, and you’ll need to use a template like the one I provided to get an on/off binary sensor.

As for the other values, you can ignore them. Alarm type of zero appears to mean this is a general purpose sensor/alarm, and I’ve never seen the alarm level change from 0 on any of my devices. The burglar sensor is (normally) the tamper sensor, and the source node is a static value.

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Thanks for your help Tinkerer! I forgot to mention that yes I did read the manual, but didn’t see anything about changing the mode and being that it’s my only Zwave sensor at the moment I was confused as I couldn’t compare it to a sensor that can change modes. I really appreciate you clarifying everything. You’re correct it’s a rebranded Hank sensor. When paired it reports that it’s manufacturer is Hank.

Two things I’m hoping you can help me out with. How do I get the battery level to report and is it possible to hide the tamper switch and battery level info until I open the sensor? What I’d like to do is display only the open/close status and then when I press that it will display the battery level, tamper switch status in a new window.

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The battery level is an attribute of the zwave entity for that device. I have template sensors for each battery device that has an appropriate icon. Replace your_sensor with the entity name.

- platform: template
  sensors:
    zwave_battery_your_sensor:
      value_template: '{{ states.zwave.your_sensor.attributes.battery_level|default(0) }}'
      icon_template: >
        {% set battery_level = states.zwave.your_sensor.attributes.battery_level | default(0) | int %}
        {% set battery_round = (battery_level / 10) |int * 10 %}
        {% if battery_round >= 100 %}
          mdi:battery
        {% elif battery_round > 0 %}
          mdi:battery-{{ battery_round }}
        {% else %}
          mdi:battery-alert
        {% endif %}

To hide entities from the web interface, you can use customize:. There’s no way without creating a custom UI to have multiple-sensors displayed like that.

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Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it. You’ve sent me in the right direction. I’ll try it out tonight!

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Thanks again Tinkerer, it have it working. There’s still plenty I’d like to do, like group sensors together and change the color of the sensors based on their state, but I’ll learn in time I’m sure.

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