DB100Z Z-Wave
Doorbell Sensor
by Nexia
Price: $45
For anyone that may have followed my adventures in the Aeon Labs Aeotec ZW056 doorbell post, I’ve been recommending a smart doorbell sensor for awhile in the Must Have Home Automation Devices page, as a means to receive phone notifications and trigger other actions when your doorbell is rung.
There are more complex and expensive doorbells out there such as SkyBell and Ring that include cameras and two-way communication, but I really do not care for how bulky and obtrusive these devices are. I want my home entry to be clean and welcoming with a simple door bell. I still may have a discreet security camera in the corner of the entry-way ceiling, but it doesn’t scream “I’m watching your every move” to friends and family as does a camera-equipped doorbell.
“You can ring my bell.” – Anita Ward
I could not find a SmartThings Hub device handler for the DB100Z so I ended up writing my own (details and download information below). Aside from Nexia and now SmartThings, I haven’t seen that this device has yet been made compatible with other Z-Wave capable controllers, such as Universal Devices, or Vera. I tested briefly with HomeSeer Zee S2 and was able to get battery levels, but doorbell notification (power management notification, power applied) appeared inconsistently for me and I will need to investigate further. I verified that although it did pair with the Almond+, I was unable to receive notifications on the Securifi unit.
The doorbell saga
I recently reviewed the Aeon Labs Aeotec ZW056 Z-Wave Doorbell and although in general it worked fine for me, the Aeotec doorbell push-button itself was just not something I wanted to place in my front entryway from an aesthetics perspective. I also wanted to keep my existing conventional door chime; I did not want to rely solely on a wireless battery powered device to notify me of a doorbell press.
Although I did not end up using the Aeotec ZW056 as a doorbell, I did find that the included Aeotec doorbell speaker works well for me as a relatively inexpensive Z-Wave speaker for home event audio notifications. I am currently using this device to audibly announce events in my home, such as “water heater leak detected” and “garage door is open”. See the full Aeotec ZW056 Z-Wave Doorbell Review.
After reluctantly putting the Aeotec doorbell button on the shelf, I had to once again resort to recommending a roll-your-own doorbell device using a dry contact bridge and Z-Wave relay, even though I hadn’t ever actually gone to the trouble of implementing one of my own.
Is it – the One?
So far it’s looking like the Nexia DB100Z Z-Wave Doorbell Sensor may be just what I was looking for. At 3.25″ x 2″ x 1″, it’s reasonably compact (at least compared to a dry contact bridge and relay) and can be placed fairly discreetly within or around the doorbell box assembly.
My only complaint so far is that I wish there were an option to power this device using the low-voltage doorbell transformer itself, for those with easy access to the doorbell power source. The arduous chore of replacing device batteries flies in the face of the convenience that home automation systems promise, and I wasn’t looking forward to yet another device that needs continued battery replacement. I haven’t yet seen battery life projections for the DB100Z, but I’m hopeful that its two AAA batteries are more than adequate to keep this device powered for several years.
Installation
I was able to install the device in just a few minutes. Although it comes with two screws for wall mounting, I chose to mount the unit on top of the doorbell box using (not included) double-sided tape. It blends in fairly well with my doorbell assembly – and who really looks up at the doorbell anyway.
The device works by detecting the voltage used to power a conventional doorbell, and requires typical doorbell voltage between 14-40 VAC. The DB100Z is conveniently designed so that the wires from the doorbell connect to terminals on its back plate. It is the back plate itself, and not the main device assembly that is installed on your wall or doorbell cover, so that you can easily snap the main body off to replace batteries or to drag the device to another room for easy pairing.
If you have a Nexia bridge, the DB100Z is recognized by default during pairing. If you have a SmartThings Hub, you can save a step by first installing this custom device handler per the steps below before pairing. If you’ve already paired the SmartThings Hub with the doorbell sensor, you can change the device type in the SmartThings IDE to the Nexia Doorbell Sensor after pairing, and it should work fine.
Device driver, setup and pairing
With the DB100Z cover removed, pairing is accomplished with a single press of the install button on the device. When added to a SmartThings Hub with the custom driver installed, the device will be recognized as a “Nexia Doorbell Sensor” automatically during pairing.
Device exclusion is also performed with a single press of the install button. Although the manual states that resetting the device back to factory settings is accomplished by pressing and holding the install button for 10 seconds, I found that with my device, I had to press and hold the button for about 15 seconds until I received a blinking LED confirmation.
Here is the Doorbell Installation Guide, and configuration capabilities can be found here. The doorbell sends a version 2 Notification Report event 1 when current is detected and an event 0 when it stops. Battery level is sent in a Battery Report and is a simple integer percentage value.
SmartThings Hub device handler details
Writing the device handler was a little more complex than I was expecting – primarily due to an occasional missed message and the occasional out of order message sequence. I’ve implemented code to work around these cases.
DB100Z Z-Wave
Doorbell Sensor
by Nexia
Price: $45
Device Handler Download Locations:
The initial 1.0 Nexia DB100Z Doorbell Sensor Device Handler for the SmartThings Hub can be downloaded from the following locations:
Installing the Device Handler:
- Login at https://account.smartthings.com
- Select “My Device Handlers” and select “Create New SmartDevice”.
- On the “Create New Device Handler” page, select the tab “From Code”, and paste in the code from either of the above links into the IDE editor window.
- Click the “Create” button at the bottom.
- Click the “Save” button above the editor window.
- Click the “Publish” button and select “For Me”.
The Nexia Doorbell Sensor device handler is now ready for use.
There may be some oddities when used with different doorbell types, so please let me know of any issues. Any and all suggestions and updates welcome.
EDIT 17-Sep-2018:There have been reports of cases where the DB100Z does not signal events when the doorbell button is pressed and released very quickly, despite the chime itself ringing. I’ve personally seen this behavior with the DB100Z using both the SmartThings Hub and HomeSeer controller. While I haven’t personally tested the DB100Z with the NuTone transformer shown here, I have heard from one user that replacing his existing transformer with this transformer and using its 16V 20VA terminals solved the “quick-flick” issue for him.
Reference these related DarwinsDen.com Feature Comparison Tables:
Why can’t I pair Nexia doorbell sensor? Thanks a lot.
Thanks for the response. This is a community and I picked Smartthings because I’m a developer and a tinkerer. Time permitting, I may build upon your work and try to add a sensor advertisement. There are certain tools that cannot use the doorbell to kick off an action because it isn’t listed as a sensor.
Hi Robert. Just wanted to update that the latest device handler code on GitHub now advertises the Nexia Doorbell Sensor as having contact sensor capabilities as well as the original switch and button capabilities.
Also, I purchased the Nexia Doorbell Sensor recently, but might return it and get a Sage instead. Only problem is I’m having trouble finding one to purchase. Can anyone tell me where to actually buy a SAGE Doorbell Sensor?
Disappointingly, EchoStar has discontinued the SAGE product line on September 30, 2016 – shortly after its release. I keep hoping the SAGE Zigbee doorbells would be picked up by another reseller, but to no avail. My SAGE doorbell has performed flawlessly now for months, and I would willing to do what I can to help distribute inventory that might remain or be produced, but it doesn’t appear that they are being made available at this time.
New to the Smart Home scene, but been a software developer for over 20 years. Just curious why this Device Handler was implemented as a “switch” instead of a “contact sensor”? To me, a switch is something to be acted upon. A sensor is something which triggers an action. It is impossible to “turn on” the doorbell so there’s no action to be taken on the switch. Just curious why this was implemented as a switch instead of a sensor.
Hi Robert. Thanks for the feedback! It was a definitely an arbitrary choice on my part. In my mind, the Doorbell Sensor is an extension of the doorbell button itself and the device handler advertises both a switch capability and a button capability for which you can choose to perform actions on when triggered. For use with smart apps and other services like IFTTT, it seems slightly more intuitive to me to say the doorbell device was pressed or was switched on vs opened, but I certainly could have (maybe should have) also added a contact sensor capability as yet another option to complement the other two.
I also installed this in and quick door bell pressed do not register only longer pressed and released instances.
I have a basic button with a simple lighted button.
I also noticed that the smartthings app crashed once in a while after adding this device handler.
Could it be the version of the hardware device ? Maybe some people have new versions that fix the issue ?
Please let me know if there is any device handler fix that solved the issue.
Hi Dan. Sorry to hear you’re having issues. I was also wondering if some of the users that weren’t experiencing the missed short presses were using a more recent firmware version. My firmware version is 1.44. If anyone out there has a more current firmware version on their device, please let us know.
As far as the SmartThings app crashing, it’s certainly possible that an issue with this device handler could be causing this problem, but I haven’t experienced the issue myself. I’ll dig around a little. Please let me know if anyone else has seen this. Thanks.
Any other feedback on the quick press issue? I have a Nexia system and just installed this sensor to only find this problem.
I’ve not had a chance to try anything else, so the issue is still there. Quick presses still don’t register. If I come across something that fixes it, I’ll post here.
I just installed the db100z and I’m experiencing the same issues around sensitivity. Short button pushes that will make the doorbell ring will not be detected by the Nexia. It takes a strong button push in order for the Nexia to detect. I haven’t had a chance to see what transformer I have on my doorbell, so maybe that is part of the problem. I used the screw terminals on the doorbell to connect the Nexia, so I’m thinking of soldering the wires in order to improve the connection. Hopefully that will help improve the sensitivity. I’d be interested if Nexia ever gets back with you about a hidden sensitivity configuration.
Hi Kail. I was finally able to talk to Nexia support and they were not aware of any configuration capabilities to adjust the sensitivity of the sensor. I can’t say that the information was coming from a product engineer familiar with its Z-Wave configuration capabilities, so it’s possible that this answer was more geared to what the Nexia bridge supports than undocumented device capabilities. Regardless, the short press issue appears to be a fairly common one.
If you have a SmartThings Hub, I recently evaluated and wrote a SmartThings Device Handler for the SAGE Doorbell Sensor. So far, I’ve been much happier with the performance of this new SAGE device over the Nexia sensor. Feedback I’ve received from a few other SmartThings users with this device and device handler so far has been 100% positive. The SAGE sensor is also cheaper than the Nexia and supports two distinct doorbell buttons.
This works perfectly with my SmartThings Hub (version 2). I was able to associate the zwave device after adding the two AAA batteries and pressing one button on the Nexia. Then once I associated, SmartThings recommended using their “button controller” smart app. There you’re able to choose this device as the sensor, set a “custom message” text field, and then under “push notifications” choose both “pushed” and “held”. Then hit “next” through the other three buttons in the button controller smart app. This app was written to support the Aeon (sp?) Mini-mote (which I have 2 of and work great by the way) and so it has the option for a total of 4 buttons but just use the first.
You do NOT need to add custom smart apps to get push notifications of the doorbell press as you see in many reviews of this thing and SmartThings.
You do however need to have a 14 volts AC (up to 40 volts AC) transformer. I luckily had the door bell switch 2 conductor wire and the bell two conductor wires both coming to the transformer, so it was easy to find out how to wire mine up at the transformer and avoid an “ugly” extra device mounted up by the doorbell in the hallway. Much improved WAF ( wife acceptance factor).
Hi Justin,
I need some help with my Nexia DB100Z door bell sensor. I had no problem installing the sensor and adding it to my SmartThing Hub (V2). It show on “My Home” and is listed as “INACTIVE” The problem is, I can’t find a Smart app for this. The “Button Controller” does not have the Nexia listed and I can’t currently add this. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Dave
Thanks for the detailed post.
I was thinking about ordering the Nexia doorbell sensor but I was assuming it could be powered by the doorbell transformer. It’s a huge turnoff to rely on batteries when there’s a power source few inches away. Any alternatives to the Nexia sensor which can be powered by the doorbell transformer ?
I hear ya, Marc. It can definitely get tiring replacing batteries in these devices. I’m sure there were other considerations Nexia had to sort through, like the varying specs for doorbell transformers added cost, and then not all doorbell transformers are readily accessible – but I sure wish there was at least the option to power this with the transformer. I’ve been searching for a while, and actually, the Nexia product is the only dedicated Z-Wave or Zigbee device I have seen that is designed to connect to a conventional doorbell to receive triggers – regardless of being powered by it or not
If you are good with a multi tester you can purchase this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-DC-DC-Converter-Adjustable-Step-Down-Module-Power-Supply-Output-1-3-20V-/151235687526?hash=item2336597466:g:94AAAMXQSbtSN4jT
Use a multi tester to dial transformer D.C. Power to approx 3.0 volts then solder to the battery points.
You would never have to worry about batteries again.
Make sure to insulate step down module from the board.
It is so small it should fit in the battery holder compartment.
Have fun!
Thanks, I’m in for one SDT and will give this a go.
Tried one of these. It worked for like 2 minutes and then seems to have blows out. can’t get anything off the stepped-down side except 0.4VDC.
So, FYI, unless I’m not doing something wrong, the reason they have batteries is that you probably don’t have constant power at your doorbell. The doorbell is either “push to make” or “push to break”. In that case, either the power is off until the doorbell is pushed, or the power is off until the doorbell is pushed. Either way, you probably don’t have constant power at your doorbell. In you have a “push to make” doorbell, you don’t have power at your doorbell most of the time.