I see that Monoprice has several Z-Wave Plus sensors at good prices. Do they work okay with OpenHAB? I searched and didn’t see any recent discussions related to them. Thanks
I bought the 4 in 1 motion sensor. It was pure garbage. Not only were the instructions plain wrong, it was completely unreliable. It also dropped to about 50% battery in a matter of a few weeks before I gave up on it and excluded it from my network.
Other devices may be better but I recommend avoiding the motion sensor.
In general, I have continued to find that “quality” name brand zwave stuff will save you a lot of heartache.
Thanks @Moxified… is there an online vendor of choice for good Z-Wave sensors that work well with OH2?
I don’t have a specific vendor of choice. I buy where is cost effective… often Amazon. I just recommend finding well spoken of gear.
I like GE switches and outlets for good low cost units.
I also use several 2gig dimmers: http://www.2gig.com/products/z-wave-automation-accessories/
Anything from Aeotech: https://aeotec.com/
I have heard good things about homeseer switches: https://homeseer.com/lighting/
Lutron and leviton are probably good but I haven’t tried them.
I have 3 honeywell zwstats. These have one stupid flaw… they aren’t all zwave so they have a little 4 pin plug that is junk… you have to reseat the zwave board once every 6 months. I ended up removing the plugs and soldering jumper wires… been great ever since. Even still you didn’t have to re-include them, just reseat the board.
Others can/will/should jump in with other good recommendations.
If you are looking for something specific, ask around and save yourself some expensive trial and error. I started in z-wave 4 years ago by buying cheap without talking to anybody. I ended up with about 30 devices that would work most of the time but would loose one a month. I would have to exclude it and include it and jump through those hoops. I got sick of it and replaced all of the lighting with GE, Linear and 2gig. I still have about 8 iffy outlets that will randomly stop communicating. I only use them for Christmas lights so I haven’t been quick to replace them. They usually make it through a season without issue.
I second all of Moxified list. I only have one, but my Linear wall switch has worked flawlessly as long as I’ve owned it. One nice thing about the Linear units is you can replace the cover for the rocker switch to change its color. Our house has all dark brown switches and I needed the smart ones to match. Everything else I have is GE or Aeotech and my only problems so far* have been a bad mesh network which I fixed by adding a repeaterin a good location to give every node to at least two paths to the controller.
- Well, this morning my controller went AWOL so I might have some problems there, but I have a Gen 2 Aeon controller which is known to not be the best, might be time to replace it.
Oh Yes! I have several of those. I was thinking while making the list that linear was the same as GE but GE is the same as jasco.
I use GE and 2gig primarily for dimmers and three ways. I use the linears for standard on/off switches for florescent, garages and the like.
Really appreciate the info @rlkoshak and @Moxified! I’ll check on those devices and stay away from Monoprice based on what was said.
I “third” Moxified, possibly excepting "anything from Aeotech – specifically keyfobs and Minimotes. Those are a “dark art”.