z-wave tempprobes

[rumb]

I'm searching for a zwave temp probes setup.  I need 5 temps and 1RH.  My greenhouse is @100ft from  main home  and I dont  have any extra wires running out there. I will be building a solar water heater  later on and want to bea ble to record and later graph temps.  I have OmniPro and Homeseer/Zwave
 
I tried the

FIBARO Smart Implant Z-Wave Plus Plugin Universal DIY Tool, FGBS-222
and apparently it does not work with Homeseer. Too bad as it would have been great.
 
For probes I have found

DS18B20 Digital Thermal Probe
Any ideas out there? 
 
 

 

[pete_c]

You have to utilize batteries with the ZWave sensors.  Not really sure how long they last.  My Zigbee first gen sensors only lasted about 8 months.
 
I have switched my 1-Wire temperature and temperature/humidity sensors to small up to 5 sensor wireless hubs.  Utilize cabled temperature probes here and soldered to wire sensors.

The DS18B20 sensors work well. I have been using these now for over 20 years. never fail.
 
You can use a wireless repeater with these.
 
Very easy set up using a SonOff basic (ESPXXX) with Tasmota or Espurina firmware that talk MQTT and can be used with Homeseer or Home Assistant.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Do you have AC power (120v) in the greenhouse?

 

[pete_c]

You can plug in the Sonoff and extend the temperature wires (3 per sensor) up to 50-100 feet.  Best of all is the price.  It does require a 120VAC outlet and you never have to change the batteries.
 
An unmodified Sonoff Basic is around $10 and temperature probes are around $2 each purchased in bulk and DS18B20's are even cheaper.
 
You can also purchase a Sonoff Basic Temperature module that uses ear phone sized jacks for the temperature probes and daisy chain the probes.
 
Here connected mine in a star like fashion with each wire home runned to the Sonoff basic.   I put one in the attic for the sensors on the second floor and one in the basement for outside and main floor sensors.  I also installed temperature/humidity sensors on my kitchen counter LED lighting controller (MQTT updated Magic Home RGB controller with a digital on and off pot), GDO combo sensor, button and temperature sensor.
 
Read here on my little project ==>
 
SonOff WiFi Basic temperature / humidity sensor project
 
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1430]
 

 

[rumb]

Do you have AC power (120v) in the greenhouse?

yes,  I also have 1 cat5 cable that could be used.  It currently has a temp sensor on it that could be migrated.

 

[rumb]

Been looking over the Sonoff Basic r2.  That seems to be a viable option for temp data collection as well as control of 2 H2O pumps that will circulate the heated water.
 
 

 

 

[LarrylLix]

You may want to consider a CAI WC8 board using the probes on it's 1-wire interface.
Transmit the temperatures to your system via the Ethernet REST support. I use one for temps and wind speeds.
Works very well with the ISY994 but not sure if your HA supports REST inputs. I dumped HomeSeer at vII.
 
CAO Wireless Tags work well and are easy to setup but you would be replacing batteries every 10 months in  each sender. They could also give you humidity, lux, and motion.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Since you stated that you use HomeSeer and that you have AC power with Ethernet (network) capability, I would look into an Arduino (I recommend the Arduino Mega R3 with Ethernet 2 Shield) with the HomeSeer Arduino plugin by enghmathearte.
 
I state this for a few reasons.  The Arduino has multiple inputs and outputs including analog inputs that you can use for other sensors plus one-wire temperature capability.  I use all types of sensors for my HomeSeer setup with my Arduino mounted in the garage.
 
You stated that you wanted to build a solar water heater project in the future.  You will need a lot of I/O capability and you can even have critical logic run in the Arduino 'locally' independent of HomeSeer.  I'm thinking you will need solar voltage levels so you can see the charge/discharge profile as well as alarms when this voltage is low, maybe even have things shut down automatically.  You will also want alerts via text/email.
 
I also use the Device History plugin by shill for HomeSeer to give me graphs of my temps (you could do this for any analog input or one-wire temp device) to see these needed profiles.
 
For a quick rundown of my system see posts #48-#51 in THIS thread.  I also attached a screen shot of a history graph of some temp sensors below.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

FYI...if you are interested in the Arduino solution, I found this post on a humidity sensor.