Indigo supported smoke detector

Posted on
Fri Dec 30, 2016 2:18 pm
trevorsmith offline
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Re: Indigo supported smoke detector

yassi wrote:
jay (support) wrote:
I think First Alert is a US-only company unfortunately.


Jay, thx.
Bought two Everspring smoke detectors.


The only user-review I have come across is on Amazon, which says....
"This product claims to be Z-Wave compatible, but the Z-Wave capabilities are very limited. It will report smoke detected or low battery, but you cannot communicate with it and it never wakes up to accept commands. As a result you cannot tell if the device is active on the network or not - and if it's not on the network because comms has failed for some reason you won't know until it's too late. I returned the device for a refund. "

This appears to be very at odds with your experiences. Any idea why?!? I am very keen to get a Zwave detector, in the UK.

Posted on
Fri Dec 30, 2016 2:50 pm
durosity offline
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Re: Indigo supported smoke detector

I just ordered two fibaro smoke detectors, the original model which had the connections for adding it to an alarm system as an added backup.. I figured based on all the pros and cons I've seen on HA smoke detectors that seemed to cover the most bases.

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Posted on
Sat Dec 31, 2016 3:56 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Indigo supported smoke detector

jay (support) wrote:
johnpolasek wrote:
"When one goes off, they all do" option without having to add the signal wire, which I'm not sure the Z-wave does; the documentation wasn't clear on that...


The ZSMOKE and ZCOMBO do not support this feature (at least as far as I know and with the versions I have, which are a couple of years). I solved it by getting a Z-Wave siren and centrally placing it in the house. It goes off when any of the detectors go off, and it's SUPER loud so no chance of sleeping through it.

And I do recommend the ZCOMBO, seems quite reliable whenever I test them. The down side is that they aren't AC powered so they're always on battery.

Resurrecting an old post on this thread.

I agree with everything that Jay says about the ZSMOKE and ZCOMBO. I recommend them but will not replace mine with new ZCOMBOs when they EOL. Rationale: like Jay says, the ZSMOKE and ZCOMBO units are not interconnected and they don't run off mains.

If I had to do it over again, I'd buy new First Alert interconnected units (run of the mill hard-wired units) and then add an auxiliary relay to transmit the signal to Indigo. My overall parts cost would be considerably cheaper--I could do my whole project for less than the cost of two ZCOMBOs. In my neck of the woods, adding a relay to a smoke alarm network is within code (if it's an approved relay and an approved control load) and there's a First Alert (BRK) relay unit that's less than $20. You can attach multiple relays if you like (there's an upper bound to the number of devices you can have on one network--something like 20 IIRC) but I'd never get near that.

Super simple. Three wires in and two wires out.

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Posted on
Sun Jan 01, 2017 12:15 pm
johnpolasek offline
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Re: Indigo supported smoke detector

DaveL17 wrote:
If I had to do it over again, I'd buy new First Alert interconnected units (run of the mill hard-wired units) and then add an auxiliary relay to transmit the signal to Indigo. My overall parts cost would be considerably cheaper--I could do my whole project for less than the cost of two ZCOMBOs. In my neck of the woods, adding a relay to a smoke alarm network is within code (if it's an approved relay and an approved control load) and there's a First Alert (BRK) relay unit that's less than $20. You can attach multiple relays if you like (there's an upper bound to the number of devices you can have on one network--something like 20 IIRC) but I'd never get near that.

Super simple. Three wires in and two wires out.


Query: do the newer mains powered units have supercap or short term battery backup if the mains power fails and/or does the code require the detectors have their own dedicated circuit even on old construction? Every year (including a couple of weeks ago) during the first really hard cold snap we get one or two house fires in which a heater (space or central) overloads or gets placed too close to flammables and starts a fire simultaneously with tripping the circuit breaker... and if the smoke detector has the bad fortune to be on that same breaker, as I happen to know occurred at a friend's house 6 years ago, the utility room was fully involved before enough smoke leaked through the closed door to trip the kitchen detector. Which is why I plan on continuing to swap out batteries whenever daylight saving begins and ends rather than trying to pull all those wires in and out.

Posted on
Sun Jan 01, 2017 1:16 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Indigo supported smoke detector

johnpolasek wrote:
Query: do the newer mains powered units have supercap or short term battery backup if the mains power fails and/or does the code require the detectors have their own dedicated circuit even on old construction? Every year (including a couple of weeks ago) during the first really hard cold snap we get one or two house fires in which a heater (space or central) overloads or gets placed too close to flammables and starts a fire simultaneously with tripping the circuit breaker... and if the smoke detector has the bad fortune to be on that same breaker, as I happen to know occurred at a friend's house 6 years ago, the utility room was fully involved before enough smoke leaked through the closed door to trip the kitchen detector. Which is why I plan on continuing to swap out batteries whenever daylight saving begins and ends rather than trying to pull all those wires in and out.

The ones I have experience with have battery backups--two standard 9v batteries--more than enough to sound the alarm and trip the other detectors. I always replaced the batteries every spring and fall (overkill) and moved the "old" batteries to other uses.
Last edited by DaveL17 on Mon Jan 02, 2017 5:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted on
Sun Jan 01, 2017 7:43 pm
durosity offline
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Re: Indigo supported smoke detector

No such thing as "overkill" when it comes to fire safety. Especially something that can kill you while you sleep.


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Posted on
Mon Jan 02, 2017 6:01 am
johnpolasek offline
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Re: Indigo supported smoke detector

durosity wrote:
No such thing as "overkill" when it comes to fire safety. Especially something that can kill you while you sleep.


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+1000 on that; which is why I went with the interlinked detectors and put one up in the attic (making sure it had a high enough operating temperature rating to survive the summer). That's another place where people don't typically monitor, but if something goes wrong with the vents from heaters or all the wiring up there, the smoke detectors in the rooms below may not trip until the ceiling collapses.

Posted on
Mon Jan 02, 2017 4:00 pm
RAID5 offline
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Re: Indigo supported smoke detector

I have Smoke Detector SF812 - Everspring (EVR_SF812) and they don't report anything except if they detect smoke or you press the test button or maybe when low battery is reported. Some of mine have lost network connection and I can't remember anyone reporting low battery. I press the test button every 6 months to be sure they work. Can't recommend them for z-wave network.
The good thing is that they always work as a standalone smoke detector. They are essentially a smoke detector with a z-wave module attached to the battery.
Regards Peter


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Posted on
Tue Jan 03, 2017 5:24 am
yassi offline
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Re: Indigo supported smoke detector

Yes, I also can confirm they are sending nothing.
Observed that after a while - I was blinded by the price. :evil:

But as I can see, it seems no one of the smoke sensors on the market is working as it should? :roll:
Some are complaining about the Fibaro's, some (like us about the Everspring), some other exists only in the US?
And for me a wired solution is not possible.

I think for the moment I will stay with them and press also the button, until some other solutions are better.

Yassi

Posted on
Thu Aug 31, 2017 7:04 am
yassi offline
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Re: Indigo supported smoke detector

So, after moving in July from a house to a flat, and trying to re-activate my system (after disabling the Indigo communication for all devices before the move) I have a lot of issues with these smoke detectors from Everspring (SF812).. :evil:
Had no issues with other devices but with these ones.

Enabled the communication again, pushed all the buttons, tried to re-sync, tried to include, to exclude, even reset (as noted in the documentation), nothing.
They are active (the LED flashes from time-to-time, so battery is ok), but at least they should update their status somehow.
I see their status from I think January 2017...
They seems to be really a crap!

Any ideea how-to re-activate them?

BTW: how is the status of the FIBARO ones now: are they working properly? Should one buy them? I will even afford to buy FIBARO's and throw the Everspring away...

Yassi

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