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Sunday, May 18, 2014

Fibaro (3 in 1) door sensor

This evening was spent with Fibaro's Z-wave enabled (3 in 1) Door / Window sensor.
Fibaro makes the a lot of very usefull things to the z-wave world but this door sensor left me wonder if I did the right decission to spend my own money here...
I start with the good things.
The sensor is very small, but the casing feels very fragile and you wonder several times if it will break before it's mounted on the door frame.
It has some ER14250 battery, but you better remember which ways it goes in since it's not visible in the manual or in the device itself. Good thing is that the battery should last for years and are not much more expensive than other, if you can find it.
Edit. The battery did not last for years. I needed a new one after only some month, but that was probably due to the issue with leaving the device not attached to the magnet, so it was basicly triggered the whole time. I have seen this with other magnetic door sensor also so it might be a z-wave thing. Battery costed me 9.99€ from Clas Ohlson Art Nr. 36-5215 (SAFT LS-14250 3.6V)
Inclusion... Was somewhat confusing but not worse then other devices. Issue seemed for me that if you include two door sensors with tmp sensors attached you must re-name the temp sensor before you include the sencond one. Or else it's overwritten somehow.

It's pretty neat that you can add the DS18B20 tmp sensor, but if you do that you must reset the device before including it.

How to reset it:
  • Take of cover,
  • Remove battery
  • Make sure Tampere button is intact
  • Touch sensor with magnet
  • Insert battery
  • Remove magnet
  • Remove battery
  • Re-install battery
  • Reset will be confirmed with super short double blink.
Here comes the super tricky thing. It sems like it's almost impossible to mount this on the door frame wihtout resetting it by misstake. So the trick is to first mount it on a mounting plate, then include it, then mount the mounting plate on the door frame where the door sensor already is screwed to. And to be extra sure keep the door open so the magnets is not close when you screw it on. It's a bit confusing and actually render the tamper switch useless, since somebody can just unscrew the mounting plate.
My idea was to use the tmp sensor and a momentary switch but it turns out that it's either the magnetic switch or the momentary switch. So this device is more like (3 in 1, but not more than 2 at a time) http://www.vesternet.com/resources/application-notes/apnt-38#.UvkzX7SFnm2

Duewi Duwi Switch on / off FIX!

I have had several Duewi Duwi z-wave socket plug in module that switches istelf on and off constantly. I have sent atleast one back on RMA and got it fixed but in this thread 
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,12500.30.html
somebody has discovered that you can:

changed 4 under device options to 0

This fixed it! So far it seems to be working without any issue.
Nah. Issue is back... So now my only hope is that some body will post a comment on how to repair this thing.

4 is Relay output 1 and 5 is relay output 2
Therefore add these as monitored device options
If they are not zero then change from monitor to 1 byte dec and set as 0

Monday, May 5, 2014

Foscam FI9805W and Micasa Vera

Purchased the Foscam FI9805W for 158€ online, no shipping cost, since I needed a good outdoor camera with IR.
It was a bit tricky to add to the Vera so I have documented it here.

First download the firmware and upgrade your cam, registration is needed.
This tutorial is based on:
System Firmware 1.4.1.9
Application Firmware 2.14.2.8
Plug-In Version 2.0.2.10

Under Port settings I changed HTTP port to 80. Seems to require a restart.
Remeber other basic stuff as changing user name, password, Camera time etc.

In Vera I had already a PTZ cam from foscam but I went ahead and installed a newer foscam app from the app store. Foscam IP Camera 2.6

The I installed the camera the "normal" way. Selecting add IP camera, select Foscam from dropbox. In the picture box I added:
/cgi-bin/CGIProxy.fcgi?cmd=snapPicture2&usr=YOURUSERNAME&pwd=YOURPASSWORD&
(don't forget the last & after the password!)

Username and Password must also be filled in into each own boxes.

When the camera is added I added also the MAC, changed timeout to 10.
impl_file I_FoscamPTZ.xml
device_file D_DigitalSecurityCamera2.xml

And there it is. Visible in Vera!
The preview icon did not work at the beginning but without actions it's now working ok, one day after.