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    #31
    Originally posted by Otis View Post
    Ah! Got it -- thanks.

    I had a Eureka moment today anyway. I added a bunch of receptacle outlets in the living room and dining room -- Intermatic HA01. After installing, suddenly the relay in the garage was communicating! Just opened and closed the door from up here, worked like a charm! In the event that the communication ends up being somewhat unstable, you make a good point -- I have an outlet in the garage, and I can just swap one of these in for that, so there is another Zwave device in there at least a little closer to the rest inside my house.

    Thanks again for all the guidance. Super helpful. Now if I can get the window/door sensor working properly, I will be in business!
    Its my pleasure. Glad it's working out. What kind of problems are you having with the window/door sensor? Mine were found by and added to HomeSeer wit out a glitch. I did, however, do that at my desk, right by my computer. After all, it's a portable battery-operated sensor. Might as well add it to HomeSeer in the comfort of a house, instead of a sweaty garage in July

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      #32
      Originally posted by VirtualPanther View Post
      Its my pleasure. Glad it's working out. What kind of problems are you having with the window/door sensor? Mine were found by and added to HomeSeer wit out a glitch. I did, however, do that at my desk, right by my computer. After all, it's a portable battery-operated sensor. Might as well add it to HomeSeer in the comfort of a house, instead of a sweaty garage in July
      It seemed to add alright (after a couple tries), but when I test it out by moving the two pieces apart and back together again, there is no report of the change in status to Homeseer. The red LED on the sensor goes on momentarily, but that's it. The sensor only seems to report the state of the "panic" switch on the back, and even then only sporadically (i'll hit it a few times, it'll seem to queue up a few commands, and they come in batches after some delay). The only other thing I received from it was the initial status, battery level, etc., some time yesterday after I installed. I haven't even put it in the garage yet -- I've kept it here in the room with the Ztroller until I get it working. :shrug:

      Edited to add -- FIXED!!! I rescanned the sensor, and now it works perfectly!
      Last edited by Otis; July 9, 2011, 12:22 PM.

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        #33
        Originally posted by Otis View Post
        Edited to add -- FIXED!!! I rescanned the sensor, and now it works perfectly!
        Glad to hear it.

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          #34
          Did my own installation this weekend. Took about 30 mins to get everything installed. I was able to mount my sensor directly on door and the wall so didn't have to use any 2x4. The relay was a snap to install.

          Only hitch was that I forgot to pull the plastic tab from the battery and was mystified for 5 mins why I couldn't get the sensor to be discovered.

          No more children leaving the garage doors open all night!

          Thanks for the suggestion VirtualPanther!

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            #35
            Originally posted by BillBurn View Post
            Did my own installation this weekend. Took about 30 mins to get everything installed. I was able to mount my sensor directly on door and the wall so didn't have to use any 2x4. The relay was a snap to install.

            Only hitch was that I forgot to pull the plastic tab from the battery and was mystified for 5 mins why I couldn't get the sensor to be discovered.

            No more children leaving the garage doors open all night!

            Thanks for the suggestion VirtualPanther!
            It's my pleasure. Happy to hear it is working out OK.

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              #36
              Originally posted by VirtualPanther View Post
              It's my pleasure. Happy to hear it is working out OK.
              Could you post pictures of the black and white wires going into the power source. I am hesitant to cut that big black cord. Is that what I'm supposed to do?

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                #37
                Originally posted by BillBurn View Post
                Did my own installation this weekend. Took about 30 mins to get everything installed. I was able to mount my sensor directly on door and the wall so didn't have to use any 2x4. The relay was a snap to install.

                Only hitch was that I forgot to pull the plastic tab from the battery and was mystified for 5 mins why I couldn't get the sensor to be discovered.

                No more children leaving the garage doors open all night!

                Thanks for the suggestion VirtualPanther!
                Could you show me how to mount that sensor on my garage without a 2x4. Where'd you put yours?

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                  #38
                  Originally posted by jayman13 View Post
                  Could you post pictures of the black and white wires going into the power source. I am hesitant to cut that big black cord. Is that what I'm supposed to do?
                  Will do, once I get back home from my trip.

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                    #39
                    Originally posted by VirtualPanther View Post
                    Will do, once I get back home from my trip.
                    thanks. Can't wait to get this installed.

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                      #40
                      I was actually able to buy a power cord at Menard's that has those three colors sticking out of the end for about 4 bucks so I didn't need to cut the power cord going to my garage. I have noticed though that when I open the garage door using the LFM-20 that sometimes the AEON sensor doesn't pick up the open/closed. Not sure if it is a coincidence or not. Any one else notice this? It seems like it picks up an open/close every time if the garage door is open by other mean, ie the push button or using a car remote.

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                        #41
                        I am having similar reliability issues with the Aeon Labs zwave sensors. Of the three I have, only one works consistently. Of the other two, one does not consistently register open/close events, although it reports it's current status correctly. The other one just stopped reporting status correctly after a few weeks and now registers as "open" when the door is still closed (which seriously screwed up my automated nighttime closing rule!)

                        I've had no issues with the Evolve relays so those are keepers, but I am thinking of replacing the Aeon Labs sensors with hard wired sensors (to my ElkM1).

                        Anyone have suggestions for improving the reliability of the Aeon Labs sensors or are there other more reliable zwave sensors they would recommend?

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                          #42
                          Originally posted by BillBurn View Post
                          I am having similar reliability issues with the Aeon Labs zwave sensors. Of the three I have, only one works consistently. Of the other two, one does not consistently register open/close events, although it reports it's current status correctly. The other one just stopped reporting status correctly after a few weeks and now registers as "open" when the door is still closed (which seriously screwed up my automated nighttime closing rule!)

                          I've had no issues with the Evolve relays so those are keepers, but I am thinking of replacing the Aeon Labs sensors with hard wired sensors (to my ElkM1).

                          Anyone have suggestions for improving the reliability of the Aeon Labs sensors or are there other more reliable zwave sensors they would recommend?
                          Aeon Labs Door / Window sensors I use are quite unreliable., especially considering the task they are designed to do. If I had means other than z-wave to connect sensors, I would use something else. Since, to the best of my knowledge, there are no wired open/close status sensors that are z-wave compliant, the Aeon sensor is the only thing I could find. If you do have another option, use it, without a doubt.

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                            #43
                            Originally posted by VirtualPanther View Post
                            Aeon Labs Door / Window sensors I use are quite unreliable., especially considering the task they are designed to do. If I had means other than z-wave to connect sensors, I would use something else. Since, to the best of my knowledge, there are no wired open/close status sensors that are z-wave compliant, the Aeon sensor is the only thing I could find. If you do have another option, use it, without a doubt.
                            The DS10A is a reliable and inexpensive sensor. See:

                            http://board.homeseer.com/showthread...hlight=W800usb

                            Given how cheap they are, there's many other uses for them:

                            http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/ind...?showtopic=798

                            http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=131631

                            Since they're not Z-Wave. You'll need the WGL W800USB or its serial Port version.
                            Last edited by randman; October 19, 2011, 05:37 AM.

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                              #44
                              Originally posted by VirtualPanther View Post
                              Aeon Labs Door / Window sensors I use are quite unreliable., especially considering the task they are designed to do. If I had means other than z-wave to connect sensors, I would use something else. Since, to the best of my knowledge, there are no wired open/close status sensors that are z-wave compliant, the Aeon sensor is the only thing I could find. If you do have another option, use it, without a doubt.
                              Look at the Everspring or HomeManageables Door/Window Sensor as you can use a use/utilize an external contact without major modification

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                                #45
                                I haven't used the Evolve relay, but I would like to use it to control the garage doors. Interestingly enough it looks like all the wires are bundled together in the same location out of the relay and if you use this for switching low voltage it is supposed to be separated in a j-box from line voltage. This device was probably originally intended to switch line voltage but since the contact is isolated it can safely switch low voltage or dry contact.

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