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    New Home Monitoring capability with Ecobee

    I opened the Ecobee app on my phone (Android) last Friday as we were going out of town for the weekend and I wanted to put the thermostat in Away mode. When I opened the app I saw a notificatio for a new "feature" which uses some Ecobee Door/Window sensors. These also have built in motion detection. They offered me a pair of these sensors, for free and did not take any credit card info. These are $79 USD for a pair. I figured I would see what they are and signed up. The sensors came in today and I have just played with them a little bit but here is what I found:

    Setup is easy enough. You open the Ecobee app on your phone and add a device. You scan a small QR code which is on a little tab that is attached to the unit. The app then tells you to pull the tab, which then engages the battery. (If yo do not have the tab, the QR code is inside the battery compartment as well as 2 alphanumeric codes you could use.) It says it is associating the unit with the thermostat. It took a while for the unit to associate with my thermostat but eventually it did. It asked me for information about where the unit is/will be placed and then I was on my way.

    The app does want to use your phone for automated Away/Home settings but I do not use my phone for any indication of where I am, so I am not using this portion of the capability. Plus I would have to install the Ecobee app on the phones of anyone else in the house and allow tracking and they have already said they don't need the app. So a manual setting it is.

    The app has 3 settings for Monitoring: Arm Away, Arm Stay, and Disarm. It offers the option to Edit each mode but there is no setting under Disarm to edit. In this mode no notifications are pushed to my phone. Arm Away and Arm Stay allow me to turn on/off notification for Motion and when the Door open is triggered. So for Arm Stay maybe you only want a notification iif the door is open. You know, for when the kids are sneaking out or Grandpa is breaking out and shouldn't be.

    Notifications took about 2-3 seconds to appear on my phone. The sensor is probably about 50 feet from the thermostat and there is drywall, carpet, plywood, metal duct work and beams and also floor joists between the two right now. Nothing out of the ordinary and well within any expectations I would have.

    There is no indication of the protocol used by the units to communicate with the thermostat. I had HOPED to be able to use these to then tell the thermostat that if something is open more than x seconds/minutes/whatever then stop cooling/heating the house. Would I spend $40 US for each window to so this? Maybe not since I would need 16 but it would keep me from building the Arduino units I was thinking of putting around. Just that with them I would also check other things as well, and use MQTT to report changes. Plus I wouldn't have phone notifications banging off.

    Anyway, a lot of stuff to say there is something new with the Ecobee stuff and is there any thought of supporting it, if even possible?
    Karl S
    HS4Pro on Windows 10
    1070 Devices
    56 Z-Wave Nodes
    104 Events
    HSTouch Clients: 3 Android, 1 iOS
    Google Home: 3 Mini units, 1 Pair Audios, 2 Displays

    #2
    Ecobee has had the SmartSensor for a while. This device is an occupancy sensor and a temperature sensor. That communicated directly back to the Ecobee t-stat.

    I think what you are referring to is the SmartSensor for doors and windows. It is basically the SmartSensor with the addition of a magnetic contact switch. I think you need the ecobee Haven product in conjunction with the t-stat and sensors. I don't think this is going to do what you think it will do.

    Comment


      #3
      Not worth it when you can achieve the same thing with a $11 Aqara zigbee door sensor and the free HS4 EcoBee plugin. That is what I'll be doing, I actually started testing out the door sensor tonight.

      Comment


        #4
        These are the door/window sensors. Just a magnetic switch and pir motion sensor which reports back to the thermostat. They were free so I figured I would investigate the system and, when done, see if I can hack the units to be something useful. Probably can't...

        I've had the ecobee thermostat for Scott 2 years. I've opened the app a few dozen times and this is the first time I had a notification about the monitoring program.
        Karl S
        HS4Pro on Windows 10
        1070 Devices
        56 Z-Wave Nodes
        104 Events
        HSTouch Clients: 3 Android, 1 iOS
        Google Home: 3 Mini units, 1 Pair Audios, 2 Displays

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by TC1 View Post
          Not worth it when you can achieve the same thing with a $11 Aqara zigbee door sensor and the free HS4 EcoBee plugin. That is what I'll be doing, I actually started testing out the door sensor tonight.
          Wait, what? Does ecobee come with signed built into the tsats? I have 2 of these in my house but don't do anything with zigbee yet...

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Tomgru View Post

            Wait, what? Does ecobee come with signed built into the tsats? I have 2 of these in my house but don't do anything with zigbee yet...
            Not sure I follow your question, could you rephrase it?

            Comment


              #7
              Ecobee and ZigBee do not talk outside a hub such as HomeSeer.

              I'm going to see if the node red ecobee contrib gets me anything and since I probably won't be happy with that will either sell these sensors or hack them apart for "projects."
              Karl S
              HS4Pro on Windows 10
              1070 Devices
              56 Z-Wave Nodes
              104 Events
              HSTouch Clients: 3 Android, 1 iOS
              Google Home: 3 Mini units, 1 Pair Audios, 2 Displays

              Comment


                #8
                Sounded like you were using the ecobee as the zigbee module, and then thru the plugin to see the aqara sensors?

                Comment


                  #9
                  Tomgru oh...... nope. All I was implying is that one could use *any* door sensor that HS talks to in order to control the HVAC on your EcoBee, since the HS EcoBee plugin can control the EcoBee. I plan on creating events that check whether a door or window sensor has been open for X amount of minutes, if so, turn off heating or A/C for that zone.

                  As many a father have uttered, "Shut that door!.... I'm not paying to heat the entire world...."

                  Comment


                    #10
                    And to answer your other question, I bought a ConBeeII Zigbee usb stick, great investment because I can now use a slew of cheap but very functional ZigBee sensors from China. Using the JowiHue plugin to integrate all the ZigBee devices, seems to be much more functional and support many more devices than the free HS4 one.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I'll be making my own POE Arduino multi sensors for each room and include window and door monitoring with reed switches. I don't use my phone for presence so these economy sensors are not going to work unless I can intercept their signal. Some they were free that was my main intention.

                      I would go with commercial sensors but want a small/invisible profile without batteries.
                      Karl S
                      HS4Pro on Windows 10
                      1070 Devices
                      56 Z-Wave Nodes
                      104 Events
                      HSTouch Clients: 3 Android, 1 iOS
                      Google Home: 3 Mini units, 1 Pair Audios, 2 Displays

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by ksum View Post
                        I'll be making my own POE Arduino multi sensors for each room and include window and door monitoring with reed switches. I don't use my phone for presence so these economy sensors are not going to work unless I can intercept their signal. Some they were free that was my main intention.

                        I would go with commercial sensors but want a small/invisible profile without batteries.
                        These ZigBee sensors are amazingly small and most users report 1 to 2 years of use.

                        Here's a comparison: One on the left is the typical Monoprice/Homeseer Z-wave sensor (about 3 inches long), one in the middle is the Aqara Zigbee sensor. I can easily put these everywhere with no WAF problems.

                        Click image for larger version

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                        Comment


                          #13
                          LOL. The small one of about the same size as the ecobee sensors and waf said they were too big.
                          Karl S
                          HS4Pro on Windows 10
                          1070 Devices
                          56 Z-Wave Nodes
                          104 Events
                          HSTouch Clients: 3 Android, 1 iOS
                          Google Home: 3 Mini units, 1 Pair Audios, 2 Displays

                          Comment


                            #14
                            I have an EcoBee room sensor sitting right next to me, these are smaller.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              I have the door/window sensors. I couldn't get the room sensors for free but I tried. I would use those. I'll be adding temperature to my diy sensors. Humidity (I'm in the Baltimuggy Maryland area)
                              Karl S
                              HS4Pro on Windows 10
                              1070 Devices
                              56 Z-Wave Nodes
                              104 Events
                              HSTouch Clients: 3 Android, 1 iOS
                              Google Home: 3 Mini units, 1 Pair Audios, 2 Displays

                              Comment

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