I recently added 2 zwave/ge/iris outlets connected to 2 elk9200 relays for turning my Well pump and hot water heater on/off. Alarm.com doesn’t show the current status of the 2 outlets. Can this be added or do I need to change a setting some where. Would really be convientient to login to the phone app and verify that I did turn them off/on or there current state of operation…
Z-Wave controllers can’t tell the current status of Z-Wave light switches. See this post:
http://suretydiy.com/forums/topic/firmware-update-notification/page/2/#post-10415
Your options would be to use a Lutron device instead of a Z-Wave device (Alarm.com supports both) or to find a way to externally monitor whether it’s on or off with something like this:
http://suretydiy.com/forums/topic/monitor-sump-pump-running/
We intend to put together a demo on how to set up on/off monitoring this way in the near future.
Since you’re using a Z-Wave receptacle, a cheap & simple solution would be to add a separate “on/off detection” circuit in parallel with the ELK-9200 on the Z-Wave controlled outlet. Use a splitter or power strip of some sort so you can plug them both into the same outlet and the detection circuit would let your Alarm.com system know the on/off status.
You could do it with these parts:
- 12V power supply. Any low cost 12V supply would work. You might have a bunch of these lying around your house like I do left over from old electronic devices no longer in use. If not, something like this ($5.36) would work.
- 12V relay. I've used Altronix and Honeywell a lot. Provantage has an Altronix RBSN ($6.77) that would work well.
- DC female pig tail. This is optional but it makes connecting the 12V power supply to the relay cleaner. Alternatively you can just cut into the power supply wires and connected them directly to the relay. Monoprice has a 2.1mm female pig tail ($0.48) that would work with the 12V power supply linked to above.
- A sensor input on your Alarm.com control panel. If you don't have one available or reachable you can use a wireless transmitter with a sensor input to create a wireless zone. Resolution Products door contacts have 2 wired sensor inputs so you would only need 1 transmitter to handle both the pump and the water heater as long as they're near enough to wire together. 2GIG Qolsys/Interlogix
Plug the 12V power supply into the same Z-Wave outlet that’s controlling the appliance. Connect the 12V power to the relay using the pig tail. Connect the NC & C terminals on the relay to the wired sensor input and program it as a “do nothing” zone that just reports open/close status to Alarm.com. You would control the appliances as Alarm.com emPower light switches but you would see their on/off status as Alarm.com sensors. When the power is on the sensor would show open and when it’s off the sensor would show closed.
Thanks for the very informative reply. A little more trouble than I want to bother with, I was hoping a much easier plug n play solution…
No problem. That’s the beauty of the forum - others will benefit from this solution. As you can probably tell, I don’t have a positive opinion of the Lutron patent. I support the spirit of patent law but I think this is an example of when patents go wrong.
I totally agree, I bet it could be disputed if someone had the time or legal ability to do so, IMHO its no different than read / unread notifications for msg on your phone or the open/close status of an alarm sensor.
the past few years some laws n regulations have been passed or so I read to counteract some of the patent wolves abusing the system.
Until then I guess were kinda sol…
1 other question back on topic…
Aeotech/aeon labs has smart energy sensors built into there zwave products, I haven’t tried it yet but do you know if these would offer some type of current status ???
If you have the Smart Energy Management add on then yes, 2GIG and Alarm.com can use them.
Here’s some more info about it.
There are some minor compatibility issues to consider like if you use a Home Energy meter 2GIG requires the G1 model whereas Interlogix uses the newer G2 model. These energy meter devices are known to work with 2GIG.
http://suretydiy.com/product-category/energy-management-2/?filtering=1&filter_control-panel=485
Was reading up a bit on the patent issue you mentioned earler, There will never be any Lutron devices installed in my house. They have no compatability with zwave yet use there patent to bully the industry in order to promote there own proprietary system by limiting the uses and abilities of others…
Another zwave question I cant seem to find a answer or who to ask.
Alarm.com cdma module 600-1048-XT-ZX-VZ : 3G Simon XT/XTi CDMA.
Does it only support the US zwave 900 MHz or can eu and china zwave modules also be used in the 848mhz range ?
Rf bands are regulated for multiple reasons but one is interference limitation. US Zwave devices operate on the 908 mhz frequency and your controller is designed for this. (Not to mention that devices for other countries will require different voltage standards, depending.) So the short answer is no, unfortunately.