Testing Fibaro Smoke Sensor with Tellstick Znet Lite

Robert AndresenInternet of things, Reviews 7 Comments

I successfully tested the Fibaro smoke sensor with my (Telldus) Tellstick Znet Lite today.

Summary:

  1. Add it to Association Group 2 under Device settings in Telldus Live.
  2. Test it with REAL smoke, as test-alarm won’t trigger.

The Fibaro smoke sensor

…is actually a beautiful little thing, compared to other ugly smoke sensors. It has some nice features like tamper-protection/alert and built in temperature-sensor. The smoke-alert can also be triggered by high increase of temperature.

Here are some Norwegian online-stores that sells it:

Be sure to buy the FGSD-002 version and not the first. I bought mine from NetOnNet as it was cheapest there (499 NOK) and they also sell the second version.

Below you can see it compared to a smoke alarm from IKEA. I thought the one from IKEA was small and nice before I received the Fibaro smoke sensor 🙂

Fibaro smoke sensor

Fibaro smoke sensor Fibaro smoke sensor  Fibaro smoke sensor

Adding it to Telldus

Click plus to add a new device and then on your Znet-location/controller.

telldus_fibaro_add_01
Click on the standard Z-wave

telldus_fibaro_add_02
I didn’t take a screenshot when pairing the device, but that is just straight forward by following the Telldus-instructions.

After it’s successfully added, you will see it as an device under Devices and the temperature under Sensors.

telldus_fibaro_add_05

From the discussion in the Telldus-forum, you have to associate the smoke sensor with Group 2.

You can find this by clicking Edit device -> Associations -> Edit device associations -> Check Telldus Znet Pro. Not really sure why it’s written Pro, as I have the Znet Lite, but it’s probably a little bug from Telldus.

telldus_fibaro_add_04

Setting up notifications

I think you need a Pro-subscription in Telldus for this.

I added an Event to send me an SMS if «Røykvarsler01» (SmokeAlarm01) turns on.

telldus_fibaro_add_07

telldus_fibaro_add_08

Testing it

Getting this to work took me some time, because there was no change or event triggered in Telldus when I tested it with the test-button.

After some googling, I found a reply from Fibaro, posted in another forum.

Dear Sir,
First off all I would like to mention that “test” alarm does not send the alarm frame.

So after I tested it with real smoke from a candle today, everything worked!

IMG_1919

You can also view the history of the smoke sensor, to see when it triggered.

telldus_fibaro_add_09

Conclusion

The Fibaro Smoke Sensor is cheap, looks nice and it works – so I would absolutely recommend it, as it’s one of the best solutions for a home-fire-system I have found so far.

When it comes to using it with the Telldus, it works – But Telldus has a long way to go before it can be used as an smart home system.

Here are some reasons why I don’t think Telldus is the best system when using other devices than standard lights and/or temperature sensors:

  • It doesn’t have any method to group your devices by room or type.
  • The icons are light bulbs, but just half of my devices in Telldus are actually lights.
  • They are slow to update their software. In my iPhone app I actually have an on/off button for the smoke sensor.
  • I can’t figure out if it’s possible to configure the tamper-protection-alert with for the smoke-sensor with Telldus.
  • I can’t figure out if it’s possible to trigger multiple smoke alarms if just one triggers.
  • Bad notification-system. To get a notifications if there is a fire, you have to manually set it up to send an SMS. If you buy 20 smoke sensors, you need 20 events. You also need to have a Pro-subscription. If your SMS-credits are empty, you don’t get a notification. They should absolutely use push messages with their app instead.

Update 20.01.2017

I now have four smoke detectors, but have not had a full scale test yet – because of range issue in my house. I have bought some Z-wave on/off plugs to work as repeaters. Hoping to do a full scale test soon.

As for the conclusion above, something has changed since i first wrote the article. Telldus now supports push-notifications. There is also a parameter to trigger other smoke-alarms in the same network if one triggers. I’m not sure if this choice is added in an update or if it’s because I have more than one now.

There has been asked a question in the forum about how to reset the fire-alarm after triggered. This is a question I hope to answer when I start my full scale testing. The documentation has a BASIC OFF feature that can be sent in case of Fire Alarm cancellation. I probably will write a LUA-script for a Fibaro-button to send a alarm-cancel signal.