I’ve ordered the WYZE Sense starter pack and can’t wait to play with it … but I have a question.
I’ve never used window and door sensors. Thinking about using on my two garage doors … but today, I’ve noticed that in a 20 mph wind, my garage doors blow in about a 1/4 inch.
I’m not sure I’m even using the right terms … but how much “off-set” or movement between the sensor and the contact is required before the sensor will alert?
In other words, if I have everything lined up and attached and lined up correctly … and the wind blows the garage door a 1/4 inch or so, will it trigger the alert? Would a 1/2 off-set alert?
Just wondering what the tolerence is … and how much movement is required to alert.
typically the bottom of your door will move more than the top depending a bit on the door and the tolerance. maybe just mount them higher where there (should) be less movement… and I agree on the command strips 1000% its the best way to mount anything wyze if you plan on moving them at all. perfect for trying out positions for sensors or cameras.
I used this method for the contact sensor in my garage. I mounted one side of my ST sensor on a hinge and the other end on the garage itself. The hinge is weighted enough so that if the wind moves the garage, it wont set it off if it jiggles. The magnet and the unit are separated just enough that when the garage starts opening, and the hinge swings open for real, I’ll get a good alert pretty fast. I didn’t have any good spots to mount the two pieces normally around the perimeter, so this is what I did.
That’s a great idea! For those with roll-up style doors, you could mount it across the break between any two panels that remain apart when the door is up.
Wow! I never would have thought about doing that. You installed a dedicated hinge that swings open when door is up and shut when door is down. Great idea! Would also be weatherproof
Did you use auto-trim tape to tape the top hinge onto the garage door? Can you (or more importantly, my wife) hear the hinge bang against the door when the garage door shuts? I suppose I could put a bit of felt or something under the hinge to dampen the noise (if my wife objects).
I went with the longer hinge just so I could be sure the sensor would “open” and because that was the cheapest I found at the hardware store. you can hear a faint tap when the door shuts but only if you are really got next to it and it’s 3m taped to the garage panel. I didn’t put it on the middle metal bar because the magnet in the sensor was sticking to the metal to much.
Id say the small hinge like in the video thumbnail would work for the Sense contact sensor. What Ive seen in other posts (might have been the Sense discussion in the Shop) is that the Sense sensors need to be fairly close to work, so the shorter travel distance of the that hinge would be ok. But until we get our hands on them, we wont know for sure Soon my friends… soon.
I think I read that the two pieces had to be 2cm (about 3/4 inch) or less apart to make contact. Both pieces are fairly little … so I can hardly wait to play with them. I’m sure a gate hinge or something smaller will work. The “swing” will have to be strong enough to break the magnet contact also.
Yes, you will have to find the right separation between the switch and the magnet so that it is close enough to trigger the switch in the sensor, but far enough that the magnetic attraction doesn’t hold the hinge up when the door is open.
This may help with those wondering about how far the switch can be away from the magnet. I took a sensor and moved the parts far enough apart so that it registered as open, then very slowly moved them together. The photo below is at the point where the sensor just registered as being closed again. So you can see there’s a fairly good amount of latitude in the separation.
All that said, if you particular door installation is such that there’s a gap between panels when the door is fully open, it would probably be easier to just mount each half of the sensor to either side of that pair of panels.
Sorry, I should have stuck a ruler there before I snapped the photo. It’s not that wide. Measuring now off the photo, the larger piece of the sensor is about 3/4 inches and the gap is 15% more than that, which puts the gap pretty close to 7/8 inches.
Also keep in mind that this test was done with the sensor horizontal. I don’t know if there would be any effects of gravity on the reed switch with the sensor vertical. Although if there are, I would expect them to be pretty minor.
It don’t have to be across the break (between door panels) if you use a hinge. My Vitronic sensor is mounted below the hinge (on the door panel center frame), next is the magnet mounted on the lower piece of the hinge, the the top part of the hinge is screwed into the door panel frame. The extra hardware below all of that is a 2-AA battery holder. I put that up temporarily but the wires are too short because I changed it to sit on a shelf instead of double-sided tape to the door panel frame.
