I’m in the US and had a previous HA system where I used X10 PIRs extensively - they were cheap and reliable. I used the W800 receiver (http://www.wgldesigns.com/w800.html) which worked great using the US 310 MHz X10 frequency. I can’t tell whether the RFXCOM is still available or even if there is active support within the OH2 community.
There are many inexpensive PIRs using 433 MHz and I’d like to move in that direction.
Am I right that RFXCOM is on its last leg?
Are there any alternative 433 MHz receivers supported by OH2 that can incorporate 433 MHz PIRs?
Hi Gert - others using another HA system like the unit but I want to be sure that I’m not investing in a component in my HA system (433 MHz PIRs) that look EOL.
Why do you think RFXCOM is EOL ? I agree that some older 433 MHz devices are no longer fit for use, because they can only receive data and give no feedback to the domotica system. But the RFXcom interface is capable to do so if your devices are.
In my opinion the whole 433 MHz technology is old fashioned and if I had to start from scratch, i would prefer Zigbee or Z-Wave. Not so long ago there was hardly a technology with all needed device types. That is why people who started early in domotics always have a mix of technologies. That is where openHAB proves its value.
My old system was a combination of zwave, upb, x10 and 1-wire. I had maybe 30 x10 Hawkeyes (wireless pirs) sprinkled about. On sale the Hawkeyes were us$10 or so. Zwave pirs seem to be 2-4 times more expensive and include more functionality than needed and also less reliable unless there are enough devices to create a good mesh in my situation. So my goal is to replicate my motion sensor array the least expensive yet functional way. 433Mhz seemed to be a good option even if older. Maybe zigbee would be an option as those devices seem to be less expensive.
I use a tasmotised wemos D1 to capture the serial output of the RFLink gateway. The Wemos then forwards the payload to Node-red and I use the RFLink nodes to pass on the information to OpenHAB.
Just curious - in the US wireless sensors are 310 MHz whereas elsewhere 433 MHz. In my older system I used a WGL W800 (http://www.wgldesigns.com/w800.html) for the wireless X10 motion sensors. I’d like to repurpose those if possible. The W800 protocol is here;
Despite the name, it’s not limited to 433MHz. Since the hardware is a software defined radio, it can be tuned to other frequencies as well. So it can support 310MHz as well as 866 MHz too.
The binding to feed the received messages to openHAB is the mqtt-binding.
Read this if interested (as I said: don’t be worried about the “433”):
True, as long as the freq fits the sampling bandwidth, usually ± 2 Mhz. 433/310/867 are too far off each other. You will need dedicated hardware for each if you want to listen at all three at the same time.
Yes. It can “listen” on just one frequency at a point in time. Worth mentioning: There is a frequency hopping option for switching between frequencies. This might be an option for some slow changing sensors (eg. temperature) but certainly not for motion detectors obviosly…
sensors/x10/A/3/time 2020-02-25 14:41:07
sensors/x10/A/3/id 3
sensors/x10/A/3/channel A
sensors/x10/A/3/state ON
sensors/x10/A/3/data 1621037295
sensors/x10/B/1/time 2020-02-25 14:41:12
sensors/x10/B/1/id 1
sensors/x10/B/1/channel B
sensors/x10/B/1/state ON
sensors/x10/B/1/data 1888420095
This reflects 2 sensors: house code B, Item 1 and house code A, item 3
In creating Items, I cannot get the date to output. It looks like 2 dates are outputted in the data: the string (“2020-02-25 14:41:07 for example”) and a millisecond integer (“1621037295” for example). I’ve tried this to no avail:
I’m curious. How much exactly do the 433MHz or 310MHz PIR sensors cost?
I have been using Xiaomi Aqara human sensors (Zigbee), and they cost around US$12 or less each.
In the UI (PaperUI/Control) the date/time of one unit shows “26/02 - 08:52:00” and the output of the others show “%s”. What am I missing? It appears all of the items/channels are coded in a similar manner.