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    Best Temperature sensors? Replacing Oregon Scientific...

    I am looking for a decent Temp sensor with a probe. For years I used Oregon Scientific sensors with a probe on a 5 foot lead. They work great. Despite being DARK yellow from UV light, they keep on working. I am trying to eliminate old technology and plug-ins as much as possible so I am looking for a new sensor. Are there any decent ZigBee, ZWave or WIFI temperature sensors out there that have probes that I can stick in a freezer and/or Frig? I did try a few different motion detectors that also do temperature. That would have been the easy and fast solution, but they don't transmit through the frig. Sometimes I can get a reading when the door is open and the sensor senses motion and also transmits the temperature while the door is still open, but that is rare. ....and I need to know the temp of the beer AT ALL TIMES!

    How is everyone else monitoring refrigerator/freezer temperatures?

    Thanks!
    .

    #2
    Have a look at the Ecowitt sensors, they are reasonably cheap, reliable and easily integrated

    Comment


      #3
      Zigbee, Aqara sensors. Ultra small, cheaper than anything else out there, will measure temp and humidity. Coin battery lasts about a year. Simply put a Zigbee repeater ($10 Ikea plug) near the fridge and you should be fine, that's what I do.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by brientim View Post
        Have a look at the Ecowitt sensors, they are reasonably cheap, reliable and easily integrated
        How do you integrate these sensors with HS? It looks like they require the hub. Thank you
        HS4 4.2.6.0 &HSTouch Designer 3.0.80
        Plugin's:
        BLBackup, BLOccupied, BLShutdown, EasyTrigger, Ecobee, Nest, AK Bond
        EnvisaLink DSC, PHLocation, Pushover, SONOS, Blue Iris, UltraRachio3,
        weatherXML, Jon00 Alexa Helper, Network Monitor, MyQ, Z-Wave

        Comment


          #5
          I've never been able to find a Z-Wave temperature sensor with a probe
          HS4Pro on a Raspberry Pi4
          54 Z-Wave Nodes / 21 Zigbee Devices / 108 Events / 767 Devices
          Plugins: Z-Wave / Zigbee Plus / EasyTrigger / AK Weather / OMNI

          HSTouch Clients: 1 Android

          Comment


            #6
            The easiest way for Ecowitt is GW1000 that goes for around $25 such as from Amazon. mcsMQTT supports this interface locally. I believe Alex knows also does in his weather plug-in.

            I have also integrated an Ecowitt temp sensor using SDR and rtl_433.

            I have temp sensors in many products. When I add temp sensors for control purposes it is usually DS18B20 1-wire with Tasmota and MQTT

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by The Profit View Post

              How do you integrate these sensors with HS? It looks like they require the hub. Thank you
              To build Michael's response, the simplest is the Ecowitt hub GW1xxx and there are different variance but all do the same thing,
              There are a number of option including mcsMQTT, AKWeather, and Ecowitt listener.

              https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...er-application

              Comment


                #8
                Here are some tested options to consider:

                Nothing Zwave or Zigbee based for me as I decided to standardize on Wifi and non proprietary / open source solutions
                ( read : highly customizable, great community support & turn around time )
                and keep the number of proprietary protocols / parallel networks (read: more network issues & troubleshooting) to a minimum.
                There is however some learning curve to it and it's not "plug n' play" (is there such a thing in home automation?)

                Wireless : ( for your fridge / freezer use case )

                RF or Bluetooth based devices are great options as they are cheap and very energy efficient.
                ( Wifi will very quickly drain batteries unless you enable some sleep mode which makes real-time reporting somewhat difficult )

                RF : McsMQTT integration via RTL433 or OpenMQTTgateway
                supported devices : https://compatible.openmqttgateway.com/ or https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433
                Ecowitt is supported here.

                Bluetooth : McsMQTT integration via OpenMQTTgateway or Tasmota
                Supported devices : https://compatible.openmqttgateway.com/ or https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Bluetooth/

                For my fridges and hard to wire locations, I use the XIAOMI LYWSD03MMC ( about 10$ - Bluetooth via OMG )
                it operates on a single CR2032 which as stated above can last for a year or more (flashed)
                It has been reporting steadily every few seconds without failure for multiple months. One unit is in the basement fridge two floors down from the receiver.
                Also having humidity data is a big plus as it typically raises (see green spikes below) when the door is opened so you can use it as a trigger for a door left open or to know when someone's been munchin' in the middle of the night =) Another unit is in the shower to start/stop the bathroom fan on humidity spikes (blue spikes on second graph)
                Also reports battery status so you can proactively replace it before it fails.

                https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001042009489.html
                https://github.com/atc1441/ATC_MiThermometer

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                Wired :

                I second Michael on the DS18B20 + Tasmota / MQTT; you can cover your whole house with a single controller and daisy chain multiple probes on Cat5 cable.
                For a reliable Temp/humidity combo, the BME280 module does a great job.

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                ​​

                Comment


                  #9
                  I use these in all my fridges and freezers (and in equipment closets to turn fans on/off based on temperature)

                  https://store.wirelesstag.net/products/wireless-tag-pro

                  And this in my pool

                  https://store.wirelesstag.net/produc...e-thermocouple


                  1 hub handles many sensors and connects to wifi. I use 2 hubs (house is long)

                  https://store.wirelesstag.net/produc...et-tag-manager

                  I set them up to make URL calls to HS4 (locally) and update virtual devices when the values change or cross a threshold. To get the temp in Fahrenheit I setup my pool sensor to call this URL when temp changes:

                  http://[HS4 IP address]/JSON?request=controldevicebyvalue&ref=[hs4 virtual temperature device ID]&value=




                  I also use them on my doors and gates to set a virtual device to open/closed, and others to trigger bathroom fans to go on/off based on humidity or stream shower turning on, and lights on/off/dim based on illuminance (Lux) in a room.

                  The ones in the fridges and freezer will store readings if the loose connectivity (eg if the power goes out and they can’t connect to the hub). When they reconnect they upload their stored readings. This is helpful after a power outage to see if the temp of the fridge got too high and I have to throw out some of the food for safety (this is too of mind only because we lost power yesterday

                  Most of them use a coin battery I change once a year (a little more often in the freezer), taking readings every 5 min and updating HS4 every hour or when a threshold is crossed (eg freezer above 10 degrees F for more than 5 min or freezer door left open for 10 min). The pool sensor with the probe uses a larger battery and has been going for 2+ years taking readings every hour and battery is still going strong.

                  Have worked pretty well for years, though not perfectly. Takes a bit of fiddling to setup… a little less DIY than HS4 (but not much).

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I have a couple of the aeotech door/window sensors that have the ability to add a single ds18b20 temp probe to them. These are zwave and it works well. However they are not the cheapest option and the batteries only seem to last about a year. But they do work.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Dang! There sure are a bunch of ways to skin a cat! Thank you for your time on this. I will go through all of this and see what will work best for me. Much appreciated!
                      .

                      Comment


                        #12
                        https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/hs...icial-protocol

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