Zigbee Smoke detector in Home Assistant - if you dare

[@schuim]

The amount of *sigh* moments in this video are trough the roof, love it

[@BeardedTinker]

That's when hopes and reality are on different tracks ;)

[@CliffordFullerton]

Since a smoke detector is critical infrastructure, I'd be reluctant to rely on uncertified stuff. But as you say: As a backup, this is interesting. Battery Level/State is an important info. Thanks!

[@BeardedTinker]

I know I was repeating myself, but there is a big difference in certified equipment and cheap devices with "no warranties" or anything... Thank you 😉

[@gzxto]

I've bought about 8 pieces 433Mhz ones on Ali with the exact same housing, I also tested them with smoke and they all worked. All you get there, 1 alarm from Smoke, 2 alarm from testing 3 battery low. All 433mhz alarms come in parallel whith the high volume beeping on the device.... Believe me, battery state is that you want to have ! So you can replace them before they complain battery-low by start beeping randomly... Murphy's Law always in the middle of the night! I use ZHA so here zigbee2mqtt defenetely a big advantage....

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you for this information! Yeah, guess when my Aqara water sensor had low battery... You guessed it right 3AM :)

[@daylen577]

I'm surprised nobody has made an all in one zigbee device for air quality, temp/humid, and smoke under 20 euros yet. That's 100% possible, especially if it's based on Tuya anyway, and it would instantly make whoever does it a massive player in the home automation field.

[@BeardedTinker]

Yeah, it wouldn't be that hard I guess. Nor would it seriously impact battery life.

[@turboturd7954]

Why woukd I care or pay money to know what temp or humidity my smoke sensor is?

[@BeardedTinker]

Maybe because with extra temperature sensor, you could more accurately determine if it's fire or just cooking.

[@daylen577]

That, and combining sensors is always good, less busy network and fewer batteries needed. ZigBee smoke detectors can't replace normal ones anyway, so might as well make them as useful as possible

[@turboturd7954]

@@BeardedTinker If I was being serious, and in a remote application. I would monitor a support check, using a camera before a sensor. Its a critical alarm, it should not be false alarming unless it has low quality pyro.

Have recently bought one of these. Build quality seems better than other cheap "certified" detectors from the local hardware store. What I miss is the possibility to turn off the alarm remotely. Remote triggering and linking multiple alarms would be desirable, but would probably hurt battery life a lot. You can buy smoke detector test spray to test optical smoke detectors.

[@BeardedTinker]

Not sure if others have this option, I think this is by design to prevent accidental mute when there is hazard.

[@Willdickinson]

It's a shame it doesn't present speaker being active as a switch. The ability to silence it based on a kitchen presence sensor or other conditions that indicate I'm cooking would be the main things I'd want from a smart smoke alarm

[@BeardedTinker]

Yes. That's a missed opportunity unfortunately. I do understand that it is possibly not that good from a safety perspective, but still...

[@EsotericArctos]

A lot of Zigbee devices are cheap, but they all seem to work the way they should. Z-Wave is a great standard too, but tends to be a fair bit more expensive. Matter just hasn't' lived up to the hype yet. I have all three radios on my HA Yellow to give me options. Using the built in Zigbee, a SkyConnect for dedicated thread and a Z-WAve radio too. Figured that gives me the best of everything :)

[@BeardedTinker]

What did you get for ZWave. Thinking about finally adding it to my test system (Yellow)

[@elpabre]

I've got already a Frient heszb-120. So this one will be a good complement... thank you 👍😁

[@BeardedTinker]

Glad it helps!!! Enjoy!

[@davidkennedy7848]

I bought a First Alert Z-Wave smoke detector. I guess it is certified and safe. But I got a low battery beep of course in the middle of the night despite the device reporting 72% battery via Z-Wave. So from that perspective, I am quite disappointed with the device. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to rely on this one, but thanks for the video.

[@BeardedTinker]

Yeah, I've mentioned that in video. Not 100% sure that I would trust it with my life, but....

[@davidkennedy7848]

@@BeardedTinker Yes, waking up with an unexpected low battery alert > not waking up with the house on fire.

[@adifoto6362]

Thanks for sharing this, will give it a try. I think they have a promotion at the moment I got mine for 14.95 EUR. I wouldn't pay 50 for it.

[@BeardedTinker]

Hope you enjoy it! Yeah, anything about 18-20 is too much I think for "no-name" device. If it would be any brand name 30-40 should be OK, of course, if it was certified.

[@Tntdruid]

Mine always go off when wife is making dinner 😂

[@BeardedTinker]

😂😂😂 I'm keeping this one out of kitchen - just to be on the safe side

[@turboturd7954]

Poor quality ones fire on kitchen smells.

[@BeardedTinker]

Smells? Didn't see any that have smell sensor, but that would be interesting feature.... Not just for kitchen, it could be used to automate toilet...

[@Tntdruid]

@@BeardedTinker 😂👍

[@markloughtonUK]

I just love your attitude. Thanks for the videos 😂

[@BeardedTinker]

You are so welcome - thank you 😉😂

[@SenseiKeoni]

i have 3 of them... i use them to monitor carbon dioxide values... and because you can never have too many ZigBee devices.... 😅

[@BeardedTinker]

Do you have CO or smoke detectors? I've bought one WiFi but it was only CO, not smoke. Do you have link maybe? Would love to get Zigbee one :)

[@SenseiKeoni]

@@BeardedTinker my bad, was thinking in Monoxide and wrote Dioxide ^^

[@iainhay2823]

I have some 433 smoke detectors, seem to work ok but absolutely eat batteries. I have them as extras to normally smoke detectors and have them in 3D printer enclosures. Fire safety too important to trust to such things but as an addition to let me know from afar, a decent addition

[@BeardedTinker]

These should run appx 2 years on battery charge, but we will see how it goes in year or two.

[@EsotericArctos]

I do find Zigbee generally is better with battery life than 433MHz RF, plus Zigbee is 2-way generally :). I would only use these smoke detectors as auxillary though. Properly certified ones are best, even if not mandated, for real protection.

[@BeardedTinker]

@@EsotericArctoshave to agree on both statements with you!!! Especially the last part as it can really be difference between life and ...

[@jerryaycock]

ordered 3 today!

[@BeardedTinker]

Awesome! Hope you'll use them well (or to rephrase, never use them!)

[@grahamshaw5531]

In NZ only Photoelectric alarms are available & all alarms must be sold with a battery.

[@BeardedTinker]

It's strange that from what I know, we don't have anything mandatory in regard to smoke detection. Except, of course, for commercial buildings.

[@ronm6585]

Thank you.

[@BeardedTinker]

You're welcome Ron and thanks for watching!

[@defyent]

It’s a shame there is no way to trigger the alarm, so if one goes off, all can go off. This is a feature most modern smoke alarms have even if they aren’t smart devices. A bit of an oversight from the manufacturer I’d say. Deal breaker for me.

[@BeardedTinker]

Yeah, that is unfortunate...

[@funoneone]

How do you link these together? Like if one goes off -> all goes off?

[@BeardedTinker]

Only way to do it is create automation that would trigger sirene if any of them trigger.

[@jani140]

You can't. It is not (at least currently not) possible to trigger an alarm remotely. But if, I would do it via group bindings directly via z2m. This way, devices could talk to eachother even without the coordinator. For instance if the fuse allready popped.

[@xjcode6237]

Nice video! I got a similar zigbee smoke detector. In my has zha sees the triggers as motion detection. Also when i do the test button it says, motion detected. Does somehody know how i can change this to smoke detected?

[@luisicomur]

Is possible to deactivate sound alarm? , I would like to be notified only by home assistant notifications, I use ZHA

[@BeardedTinker]

Not really sure that you can.

[@andrea00]

Shelly produces a similar smoke detector (but WiFi). I would like to buy the Shelly smoke detector.. have you considered it? It is pretty expansive (around 50€), but I expect a certain quality from Shelly!

[@BeardedTinker]

It was on my shopping list, but haven't bought it yet. Shelly Smoke was announced I think 2-3 years ago and it took them really long time to get it out. While usually quality of their devices is great, not sure about this one as they also had some not so good products on batteries (like door/window sensor).

[@andrea00]

@@BeardedTinker Thank you very much for your answer! I have Shelly smoke and Shelly Gas in my wish list too. I’ve not purchased them yet for two reasons: 1 pretty expansive (about 50€ each) 2 I can’t find a reliable KZbin video made by home assistant community KZbinrs! However I think I’ll buy a Shelly smoke or Shelly gas, since I’ve recently bought a Shelly plug S and it works really well with home assistant! Thank you for your answer!

[@Cool_Hand_Luke77]

Does this device need Tuya Hub? Or can it work without it?

[@BeardedTinker]

It needs some king of zigbee controller - any that works with Home Assistant. Not necessarily Tuya hub.

[@Birukoff]

Does it blink repeatedly when it's armed? How bright is it, if it does?

[@BeardedTinker]

It does blink. I'll try to catch how often. It doesn't look that bright. I have it currently on my work desk and it doesn't distract me. Will update/maybe do short clip in pitch dark room.

[@Birukoff]

Thank you. These blinking LEDs can be really annoying in bedrooms (speaking from experience).

[@BeardedTinker]

Needed stopwatch for this one - it blinks once every 90 seconds. It is red LED, but not to bright. In pitch dark you see it, but again, not that much.