I’ve been able to make leaps and bounds with HA over the last couple of weeks, but the brakes are on now that I have ventured into the world of ZWave. I have added 3 Zwave devices; 2 door contacts and 1 motion/temp sensor.
They have all been discovered by HA and show up with multiple elements each. The two elements I have focused on are the “binary_sensor” and the “level”. I can see the level increase to the expected value (255 for these devices) when in an alarm state. I never see any activity on the “binary_sensor” elements. To note, I can also see the temp display correctly.
I’d like to understand how all of these are supposed to work together - or am I over complicating things?
What is the use of the ‘binary sensor’. I see in some posts people use this for their automation and monitor of the device. Should I be using automation to set these values to ‘on’ somehow when the ‘level’ rises to alarm state?
Could I not just use the ‘level’ and base my automation off of that value? Will I be missing any features if I do it this way. (At first try, I was unable to get an automation to run off of this value change - but I certainly need to put some more effort into the automation before I claim defeat.)
Is there any “management” required of the zwave devices that has to be done outside of HA? I have done nothing more than edit the HA config files to discover and import the devices.
Thanks for any input in advance - I am really looking forward to getting this part of HA up and running.
Well, a binary sensor is just what it sounds like; a sensor with two defined states - on or off, open or closed, home or away. Automations using a binary sensor are going to only need to look for a state change or to poll a current state from the two known states. So in that case it’s only an if test for the state and one else case for the other state.
Using levels, I think you now have to take in account a range when using them in automations so it more like a variable sensor, like a thermostat for instance. Your automations will have to account for that and you’ll have to define either a narrow range or states for each possible range you define. While I’m sure you can do this, IMHO it would be a lot easier to do the first example, especially if you’re still learning HA.
As far as management I know that AIO installer also installs and complies the OpenZWave Control Panel and you can use that for stuff - but as I use a WInk hub in my current config I have done anything with it.
Most sensors are pretty simple - some add additional abilities like alarm if the case is opened etc, unless you want to be complex, ignore the alarm stuff and just look at the binary sensor and base your automations off that.
OZWCP enables you to set up some parameters for ZWave devices - not all need it, but it is a useful tool for setup.
Thanks for the prompt info rpitera and aimc! I value the input you have provided and now see the value in using the binary sensor.
Any suggestions on where I should start digging into to see why the state of the binary sensor does not change when the sensor is tripped (and in fact shows its state change in the level element)? I am using linear door/window contacts.
Not sure as I don’t have any door/window sensors n my setup yet. I do have one I was planning to do something with so I’ll try and get it set up and see what it looks like.
I have MultiSensor 6’s that required me to change a setting using ozwcp before they worked. I can’t recall at the moment what the setting was but it was a drop-down with only 2 options and talked about BINARY_SENSOR or something. Maybe check ozwcp for something like this for your sensor.