Contact Sensor Open/Close Issues

Products Ring Alarm
#1

Hi All,

I would like to see if I can get some contact sensor advise advise. Let me first articulate the issue, troubleshooting that has been done, and questions I have.

Issue: I have a specific contact sensor that does not appear to timely be communication when it is closed. The firmware for the sensor and all other components are up to date.

Upon research, also sometimes when it is open. This behavior has resulted in two false alarms when my wife and I set the alarm with a 180 second delay. Upon leaving the sensor sent an open log entry, but did not send a closed log entry timely.

In both cases when the alarm went off, we had it disarmed. When we returned hours later, the original close entry showed up around the time we reentered the house hours later. (Not the time the door closed hours before)

Additionally, while the contact sensor shows connected, while troubleshooting with ring we were unable to get either open or closed entry’s to log to history. This morning however, the same test worked flawlessly and I immediately got open/closed history and notifications.

I have now spoken to ring twice. In the discussions, it went down a path of cold weather. (Which is why now as opposed to 4 months ago… I live in Maine). The last support person is sending out a new magnet for the sensor although the magnet part is on a wood frame…but I am not convinced.

My questions:

  1. Are log messages held anywhere prior to showing in history? (My close was delayed by hours but did eventually show up)

2). Is there any way to see the z-wave traffic and measure saturation of that network. (Open/close didn’t work last night but did this morning)

  1. Is there a way to measure signal strength of a contact sensor? (Distance from repeater or base station)

  2. Could the sensor simply be bad or immature technology or Other thoughts?

thanks in advance for any help or thoughts.

Craig Doering

#2

How far is the sensor from the base station or range extender? I had issues with one sensor and was able to fix it by putting a range extender closer to it (within 10 ft)

#3

Thanks. I was wondering about zwave distance.

The base station is in the center of my house… perhaps 25-30 feet. When I originally installed it many months ago I was getting loss of connectivity every so often. I placed a range extender at the closest outlet to the door… perhaps 10 feet… that seemed to fix the connectivity issue. So… I was wondering if the extra hop through the range extender was part of my issue.

I think after your post, when I get back from a business trip I will try moving my base station closer and take the range extender out of the equation.

Thanks for the suggestion and letting me know you had a similar issue you solved by making components closer.

#4

I had a door contact sensor that did that and would disconnect from my system on a random but too regular basis. it was located about 10 ft from a range extender. I finally had Ring replace it as there was no logic to it. It had worked for about a year prior with no issues. Since the replacement, I have had no issues. Like all electronics, sometimes they just start failing and give weird signs.

#5

Thank you all for the assistance.

I took many recommended actions… updated firmware, I had the sensor replaced, placed a thin piece of styrofoam insulation between the metal door and the sensor, installed a range extender, replaced the battery… in the end I moved the base station closer (and put a new battery in)… and I have not lost connectivity in about 3 weeks.

I think my three key learning were that the z-wave protocol is sensitive to distance, the little glass tube in the contact sensors are sensitive to cold (I live in Maine), and a contact sensor once it looses connection will keep trying to connect which drains the battery.

Thanks for the help!

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