433 sensors updating sporadically

Questions & Help
1

Hi all!

First post on this forum and super noob with Homey (had it three days!).

I have several 433 MHz sensors from my last system (Tellstick znet lite v2) strewn across the house. With the Telldus system these sensors updated their values frequently, ranging from once a minute to maybe 15 minutes. This gave me really nice history graphs and I could use the values to do all kinds of automations.

With Homey it’s a different story. The sensors update really erratic and often hours apart. This makes them basically useless for automations. Lets say I want to use a temperature sensor to control the climate in a room. If Homey only register the sensor ever other hour the room temperature can sink to freezing before the heater is turned on.

I know that the 433-range of the Homey is not as good as the Tellstick (to which I had an external antenna connected) but this problem is not distance related in my case. Sensors a few meter from the Homey have the same behaviour.

Is there something wrong with my Homey or do I have to make any changes to the settings?

Cheers
Paxman

(Oh, I did find the thread about hacking the Homey for external antennas…but since my Homey is new I don’t want to void the warranty.)

2

There are many sensors that only send when something has changed. With some sensors you can set the timeout or the sensitivity.

3

433Mhz sensors are usually not paired to a controller, they just send out their data. It sounds like Homey just doesn’t receive a lot of messages.

4

This I know. However, as I stated in my first post, these sensors updated their values frequently with the Tellstick but not with the Homey. So this must have something to do with the way Homey handles data sent over 433 MHz. Possibly also the range of the receiver in Homey but to me that is unlikely since some of my sensors are just meters from it.

5

Yes, this is my thinking too.

What are the experiences of others that use 433-sensors with Homey?

6

There’s a reason why the antenna-hack exists :wink:

7

Of course…but everyones conditions differ, so for me to know if there is something wrong with my hardware or the settings I’m interested in hearing how others find their sensors working.

8

All working perfect here. No problems with range ( no antenna mod) and no problems with delays or something like that.
Homey version 3.1.0

9

I use all 433 and 868 sensors via rfxcom on homey because of this problem. On legecy firmwares 433 receives good until atom favoured klikaanklikuit signal defenition above all others to get better communications with klika was a political decision

10

Thank you Rocodamelshekima!

Could you describe your conditions a little? How big is your house, how many floors, what materials are there and so on? :slightly_smiling_face:

11

Only if u are running 3.1.0 also.
Every household is different and it has to do with such a lot factors that if u ask 100 peeps u get 100 different stories. Like moving ur Homey 5 cm towards ur soundbar and ur screwed.

12

I do have Rfxcom.2 but I used Wireless Weather Sensors app to include the sensors.

If I use Rfxcom.2 I get no new devices found.

13

Why do you think the antenna-hack exists in the first place? It’s not because everyone’s sensors were working fine and they just decided that they want to crack open their Homey and possibly void their warranty…

14

Robert,

If you don’t understand what I’m asking you don’t have to answer.

15

Let me answer your questions a bit more unsubtly then:

  • there might be something wrong with your Homey
  • there are no RF settings you can change
  • 433Mhz is hit-or-miss: for some people it works fine, for others it doesn’t. For some it starts working when they move their Homey around, others only got it working using an external antenna, yet others have resorted to external devices (Broadcom/Sonoff RF Bridge) because they never got 433 to work properly.