Outdoor Rain Sensor / Indoor Temperature sensor

[DarioH]

Is there a wireless rain sensor that has Control 4 drivers?  I'm looking for a simple detects water sensor type of a thing I can put on a roof and it would be wireless if possible. Solar rechargable maybe?  

Another topic is having indoor wireless temperature sensors.  I would like to place in multiple of them around the room to get a better room reading for the HVAC system. 

[RAV]

More than you asked for, but Tempest weather stations are awesome (and fully wireless). There's a not cheap driver too on Blackwire.

There is a <$10 board on Amazon with a relay output.

[DarioH]

On 6/9/2022 at 5:08 PM, RAV said:

More than you asked for, but Tempest weather stations are awesome (and fully wireless). There's a not cheap driver too on Blackwire.

There is a <$10 board on Amazon with a relay output.

I use Tempest weather stations already, I was trying to see if anyone had anything else without mentioning Tempest so not to steer the suggestions.  What I found out is that Tempest has programming set on the back end where if rain is not forcasted, the rain sensor turns off.  Also if its a light rain, it will wait 3 minutes before setting a notification.  I needed the Tempest to work as just a rain sensor primarily, and other variables secondary. I called them and what they did was get rid of the programming they had on their back end.  The good thing is that, any rain is immediately triggered by the sensor allowing me to close windows.  The bad thing is that a strong wind will pick up as rain as its a haptic rain sensor.  I thought it was collecting rain and somehow figuring out how much rain was collected.  But for me strong wind doesn't matter, the windows still need to close.   Either way, call the Tempest support, not Blackwire and give them your station ID, and they will make the changes.

[RAV]

3 hours ago, DarioH said:

I use Tempest weather stations already, I was trying to see if anyone had anything else without mentioning Tempest so not to steer the suggestions.  What I found out is that Tempest has programming set on the back end where if rain is not forcasted, the rain sensor turns off.  Also if its a light rain, it will wait 3 minutes before setting a notification.  I needed the Tempest to work as just a rain sensor primarily, and other variables secondary. I called them and what they did was get rid of the programming they had on their back end.  The good thing is that, any rain is immediately triggered by the sensor allowing me to close windows.  The bad thing is that a strong wind will pick up as rain as its a haptic rain sensor.  I thought it was collecting rain and somehow figuring out how much rain was collected.  But for me strong wind doesn't matter, the windows still need to close.   Either way, call the Tempest support, not Blackwire and give them your station ID, and they will make the changes.

good to know

[booch]

On 6/21/2022 at 12:18 PM, DarioH said:

I use Tempest weather stations already, I was trying to see if anyone had anything else without mentioning Tempest so not to steer the suggestions.  What I found out is that Tempest has programming set on the back end where if rain is not forcasted, the rain sensor turns off.  Also if its a light rain, it will wait 3 minutes before setting a notification.  I needed the Tempest to work as just a rain sensor primarily, and other variables secondary. I called them and what they did was get rid of the programming they had on their back end.  The good thing is that, any rain is immediately triggered by the sensor allowing me to close windows.  The bad thing is that a strong wind will pick up as rain as its a haptic rain sensor.  I thought it was collecting rain and somehow figuring out how much rain was collected.  But for me strong wind doesn't matter, the windows still need to close.   Either way, call the Tempest support, not Blackwire and give them your station ID, and they will make the changes.

For water -- 3m reaction time would be hard to beat, but you could drop a zigbee water sensor or two in your gutters for super cheap (e.g., Shelly) and see if that works.

For temp -- Shelly and many other third parties have devices but for ease you could use the native wireless contact sensor, which runs on batteries and is the size of a Z2IO.

[booch]

Just now, booch said:

For water -- 3m reaction time would be hard to beat, but you could drop a zigbee water sensor or two in your gutters for super cheap (e.g., Shelly) and see if that works. If the batteries are too much, just hack it.

For temp -- Shelly and many other third parties have devices but for ease you could use the native wireless contact sensor, which runs on batteries and is the size of a Z2IO.

 

[DarioH]

On 7/6/2022 at 8:13 PM, booch said:

 

Thanks for the info!  I wish there are some like the Ecobee thermostat with their Smart sensors, except without the thermostat part, or at least it doens't need all the thermostat features, just a hub to connect the sensors to.  Having a lot of the zigbee contact sensors doesn't come cheap, most of the time I suppose I can get away with a couple of them.  If Control 4 made just the temp and humidity sensor with batteries or wired, that would be awesome.  So much HVAC gets wasted because the temp only gets reported from the thermostat even if it has the "remote" wired temp sensor, its not enough in my opinion. 

[booch]

7 hours ago, DarioH said:

Thanks for the info!  I wish there are some like the Ecobee thermostat with their Smart sensors, except without the thermostat part, or at least it doens't need all the thermostat features, just a hub to connect the sensors to.  Having a lot of the zigbee contact sensors doesn't come cheap, most of the time I suppose I can get away with a couple of them.  If Control 4 made just the temp and humidity sensor with batteries or wired, that would be awesome.  So much HVAC gets wasted because the temp only gets reported from the thermostat even if it has the "remote" wired temp sensor, its not enough in my opinion. 

Check the link below out. This Z2C is just the first that came up when searching eBay, but for $59, it does temp. and humidity via battery power. It's also compatible with external temp. probes beyond the internal sensor.

Control4 Z2C