ZOOZ ZEN16 - Anyone have experience using the Dry Contact inputs?

[TrEigh]

I have seen discussion about odd behavior with the 3 Dry Contact relays (outputs) but was wondering if anyone has used the ZEN16 for the 3 Dry Contact inputs? If so, do they play well with HS4, using the 3 inputs as 3 discrete dry contact inputs?

[randy]

On mine the switch inputs worked fine, controlling the relays on the device. When included it only shows the three relays, no inputs. I'm only using mine as relays, I don't use the inputs. If you control one of the relays with a dry contact input, the output state will be reflected in HS.

[TrEigh]

So it looks like the ZEN17 might be more what I need (3 independent dry contact inputs). Anyone have experience with the ZEN17?

[Steveo369]

So it looks like the ZEN17 might be more what I need (3 independent dry contact inputs). Anyone have experience with the ZEN17?

I use a Zen17 for my two garage doors, with the dry contacts attached to magnetic door sensors and parameters set so that the dry contacts are independent from the Relays. Note the Zen17 is only 2 dry contact inputs, and 2 relays.

The Zen17 has been a good unit, however just last week I identified an issue with power cycling of the unit and the status of Relay 2 getting screwed up. Zooz has replicated the issue and indicates it will be fixed in the next FW update.

[scorp508]

Following. I'm adding a Kohler Programmable Interface Module (aka Kohler PIM) to our whole-house generator setup. It has 6 dry contacts I want to use to feed status directly into HomeSeer without relying on their OnCue Plus web-based service, and to do that I need some kind of device like those mentioned here.

[ksdehoff]

I'm using the Zen16 for my front door bell. It works fine but I'm not using the relays at all and can see how the relays being hardwired to the dry contacts could be really annoying. I use only the first switch with a momentary door bell switch. Homeseer sees the switch transition and I have an event to ring the aeotec door bell 6 - pretty simple stuff and is working well.

I did have one minor irritation. The first door bell switch was illuminated and had an internal resistance of 40 ohms and the Zen16 considered this as 'pressed' - I just had to replace the switch. But no false positives, no invalid/inconsistent state issues or other zwave flakiness. This has been in place for about 3 months.

[ecetron]

i just install a Zen17 to monitor my First Alert hardwired Smoke/CO alarms. It is working just fine at this point. But it is a little restrictive in that you can disconnect the inputs from the outputs, but then I you can't seem to get to the output relays at all. For my purpose that was just fine however. In addition, it has a special 'mode' for CO alarms and it works just fine. It gives me a binary on/off and a Notification feature as well. The only difficulty is to get to the CO alarm mode it takes several moves. Include the device first. Then use the 5 second button press to get into mode 3 (garage door) which is the only mode you can get to automatically. Then exclude and reinclude. Now you get enough child devices that you can use Parameter Setting in the UI to set it to all the other values. then exclude and include again and all is great.

[Steveo369]

i just install a Zen17 to monitor my First Alert hardwired Smoke/CO alarms. It is working just fine at this point. But it is a little restrictive in that you can disconnect the inputs from the outputs, but then I you can't seem to get to the output relays at all. For my purpose that was just fine however. In addition, it has a special 'mode' for CO alarms and it works just fine. It gives me a binary on/off and a Notification feature as well. The only difficulty is to get to the CO alarm mode it takes several moves. Include the device first. Then use the 5 second button press to get into mode 3 (garage door) which is the only mode you can get to automatically. Then exclude and reinclude. Now you get enough child devices that you can use Parameter Setting in the UI to set it to all the other values. then exclude and include again and all is great.

I'm using both dry contact inputs and both relays on a Zen17 for my garage doors. The dry contacts are separated from the relays.

There is a common issue with creation of feature/child devices if you are using secure communication modes; you need to add the Zen17 in unsecure. It has been reported that sometimes the child devices will appear after enough exclude/include routines in secure, but in my experience this wasn't the case.

Depending on how you are using it, if you add the device unsecure, set the parameters and exclude/reinclude as outlined in the Zooz manual, you should see all of the features you expect. In my setup, I find a total of (6) child devices. (2) dry contact/input/sensors, (2) relays, and (2) notification features (although the notification features are named differently and behave differently, so I have hidden/deleted these as I'm not using them.

There's also firmware updates available from Zooz (v1.2 is current for the Zen17), but you have to email them to receive the update.

[ecetron]

i did the unsecure and secure and both worked for me. I have a G3 Smartstick so that may have helped. But zooz is very clear that the child devices will not show up until the additional parameters are set... and since I don't need the relays, i haven't played with them... but i do have to make clear, even with the include/excludes (which sounds painful) it all told took about 15 minutes to be 100% ready to go.

[Steveo369]

i did the unsecure and secure and both worked for me. I have a G3 Smartstick so that may have helped.

Running a G3 Smartstick as well, and had moved the Zen17 very close when including

But zooz is very clear that the child devices will not show up until the additional parameters are set...

Correct/agree. Because the default setting is that the dry contacts are hard-coded to the relays, they don't show up; at that point the Zen17 is just a relay device with a sensor input. Only once you disconnect the dry contacts from the relay do they show up. (Personally, Zooz' decision on this to be the default setting is a bit confusing, I would have had it default to separate and parameter set to connect them).

and since I don't need the relays, i haven't played with them... but i do have to make clear, even with the include/excludes (which sounds painful) it all told took about 15 minutes to be 100% ready to go.

Similar issues here. The one time setup was a bit time-consuming and required carefully following the manual and updated online firmware/parameter settings to make sure things were correct. Trying to do all of this as a first time Z-Wave device and running the beta 4.x Z-Wave plugin took things up a notch further on the difficulty scale (for me).

[Bob-O]

I like the Zen17 – but I have an odd thing going on.

Two Zen17 units; each on a different HTPi.

#1 – same function as above on a garage door. 2 magnetic sensor that detect UP/DOWN. And one relay controls the door. Works great.

##2 – similar function, different application. It’s on a water valve. The valves has 2 contact closures to provide positive feedback on status; for OPEN and for CLOSED. And one relay is used to OPEN and CLOSE the valve.

Both setups I had to go thru all the gyration to get the relays separated from the contacts.

#1 works fine. ##2 does not. Once I separate the relays from the contacts on ##2 to operate independently, the contact no longer work. I worked with Zooz. They confirmed my setup was correct. They replaced the hardware. Same thing. I tried including secured and unsecured so may times I had the whole routine down blindfolded.

The only difference between the 2 PIs is:
#1 – HS4 Version: 4.2.8.0. Zwave plugin version 3.0.9.0.
#2 - HS4 Version: 4.2.13.0. Zwave plugin version 3.0.10.0.

I did get a warning when including ##2 in secure and unsecure......... did not respond to the Notification Supported request.

I’m waiting for Zwave plugin 4.x to settle down and try moving to that on ##2 and trying all over to include.

(and the forum insisted on replacing "#2" with the word 'Forum' with a link. So hopefully the double ## fixed that.)

[ecetron]

I vaguely recall that the latest (albeit beta) Plug-in is 3.0.11.0? There were a bunch of fixes in there, one of which might assist. But it is clear that the warning is indicating that the inclusion process is just not working right....