Indigo Domotics

Has anyone heard anything specific about the new Dakota 4000 series devices?
https://www.dakotaalert.com/store/4000-series-products/
They are supposedly 433 devices, some of them with almost a mile range, but I haven't been able to find out anything about the protocol they would use.

Have used there older 2500 series and the radio rage is very good. Had two systems with the transmitter about 600 to 700 feet away. Did not like the solar powered break
beam version, they leaked and stopped working. Dakota did replace the unit, but after the replacement also leaked they replaced it with the DCPT 2500. This one worked great
but only detects vehicles. Its battery powered and the battery lasts about a year.

The 2500 receiver has a sounder and rely outputs so the relay can be used with indigo. The new 4000 appears to have only the sounder and no relays so it won't work with indigo.
Looks like they may have a relay version in the future.

Hope this helps.
Elwood

ELWOOD wrote:

Have used there older 2500 series and the radio rage is very good. Had two systems with the transmitter about 600 to 700 feet away. Did not like the solar powered break
beam version, they leaked and stopped working. Dakota did replace the unit, but after the replacement also leaked they replaced it with the DCPT 2500. This one worked great
but only detects vehicles. Its battery powered and the battery lasts about a year.

The 2500 receiver has a sounder and rely outputs so the relay can be used with indigo. The new 4000 appears to have only the sounder and no relays so it won't work with indigo.
Looks like they may have a relay version in the future.

Hope this helps.
Elwood

I know all about the Dakota Mag sensors; I have a 2500 located 1000 ft out at the entrance to a rural residence set a quarter mile back from the county road and a second set about 200 ft out with code to allow Indigo to speak "Coming" or "Going" depending on which triggers first.. However, this doesn't always work because the far sensor is only about 90% effective. I posted here because the 4000 promises greater range and according to it's spec sheet is 433 MHz, so IF it uses any of the protocols already in the RFX433 (which I use for temperature monitoring throughout the house), the lack of relays in the 4000 receiver would not be a problem if I replaced the front gate transmitter with the 4000; I wouldn't even have to unbury the mag sensor since their accessories page indicates they use the same mag sensor. Unfortunately if (as I suspect) they wrote a new protocol for it, it's probably too small a niche market for RFXCOM to add it.

Dakota Alert is using GFSK modulation.
https://fccid.io/QK8DCT-4000/Test-Repor ... rt-4033692
The RFXtrx433 can only receive ASK/OOK modulation.

Thanks for checking; Guess I'll have to wait for the version of their receiver that has relays.

Sorry to bother you again, but looking for alternatives, I came across the Safety Technologies International driveway alert STI-34119 out of England, which also uses a 433 MHz transmitter and according to the FCC report has ASK modulation.

https://fccid.io/TXL34401/Test-Report/Test-Report-1387510

Would it match any of the protocols in the RFX433?

I don't think it will match an existing protocol.
The RFXtrx433XL with ProXL1 firmware has an option to receive RAW data which I can use to decode the protocol in most cases and add it to the firmware.

b_weijenberg wrote:

I don't think it will match an existing protocol.
The RFXtrx433XL with ProXL1 firmware has an option to receive RAW data which I can use to decode the protocol in most cases and add it to the firmware.

Is the RFXtrx variant now legal to ship to the US, or are we still restricted to the RFXrec version of the device?

And does the Indigo plugin have the option to define a RAW data device? If so, I could use a pattern match and trigger to set and reset a variable.