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Smoke alarms, can I configure them to chain alert e.g. via MQTT?


Karl

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Have installed 7 Shelly Plus Smoke alarms in different rooms. Would like them all to sound the alarm in case one of them detects smoke. That may be difficult to achieve given that their WiFi interface mostly is in sleep mode to preserve battery power.
I am not at all familiar with MQTT, but I wondered if it would be possible to activate MQTT on all of the alarms and then somehow create a configuration that make them all wake up and sound the alarm if one goes off?
If possible it would probably drain the battery a lot faster than running in the default configuration. Any estimates on how much faster?

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Posted (edited)

Came across this page:  https://shelly-api-docs.shelly.cloud/gen1/#shelly-smoke-settings-actions
There are no actions that would activate the alarm.
It also appears that Smoke will only wake up and communicate once every 12 hours. That is great for saving battery power but of no use when you need to sound an alarm.

With that information I conclude that it is not currently possible to configure the alarms for chain reaction. Some of the needed features may change with future firmware upgrades, but battery life will probably restrict the smoke alarm from acting as desired. I will need to look out for a different method to alert the rest of the house when one alarm goes off. This is a bit disappointing given that these new alarms replaced some older ones that had the chain alert feature even when they came at around 30% of the price for Shelly Plus Smoke. Their downside was that they needed several batteries and those had to be replaced relatively often.

EDIT: The above information is from the Gen1 version. My devices are Gen2, the relevant information is here: https://shelly-api-docs.shelly.cloud/gen2/ComponentsAndServices/Smoke
There still are no options to sound the alarm, and - as far as I can tell - no options to wake up the alarm or setting short sleep intervals in order to communicate on demand. So, the conclusion remains for now.

Edited by Karl
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i have not tried it but when it in action but 

in a scene you can set the rule when a device detects smoke an alarm will go off this can then also be linked a another speaker like a normal alarm system. The issue I see is when you have a fire and all Shelly smoke go off at the same time you would not be able to isolate the location of a fire. This could do more harm than good. 

I would rather have a smoke detector setup a global alarm system, than make them all go off at the same time.  

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Agree, I could add a couple of speakers in the house and configure a scene to make them alert whenever one of the smoke alarms goes off. That would work but it certainly does not add to the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor)! And it adds cost to the solution. But it may still be the best option available for now.

Locating a fire is rarely an issue in a living house, it only takes a few seconds to check all the rooms once you are awake and alerted. So that is not an issue in this case. The primary goals are 1) to alert everyone in the house to allow them to get out safely, and 2) to save values if possible by giving people a chance to put out the fire before it gets out of hand and/or to remove valuable items before the fire gets to them. Therefor it is important that an alarm from one end of the house can be heard in the opposite end.

Technically it should be possible to activate the speaker in a smoke alarm without putting it in Alarm mode. That way you can still see in your app which smoke alarm is in alarm mode and which are only in warning mode. But as already discussed, the nature of the network setup does not really work for this scenario.

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Hmm yeah, I can think the WAF might be a critical one in many cases. 

I would be the wrong person to know the rules and regulations regarding this.
in both cases it makes sense. Having all the alarms go off at the same time could be useful. I just get concerned in a false positive situation one goes off and you have 10 or more you would need to deactivate them one at a time. 


in a large building having everything go off at once could have people think it's a false alarm and then they just turn it off. That's when I like a master alarm to go off in this type of situation. 

but again that's how I think and I am not an expert in the Laws of fire safety

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While we are at it: can you recommend any third party speaker or siren that could be used in the above scenario? I can't find any Shelly products that would cover that aspect. That is a bit surprising when they offer several alarm sensors. Quite often you would want to alert people nearby of the alarm independently of apps and the like.

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well from Shelly side there is nothing. What part of the world are you in? 

I would mostly just look into any standard security siren. I would then just attach that to a shelly 1 and when a scene is activated the alarm will also go on 


 

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I'm in Denmark.

There are a lot of indoor sirens on the market but it seems they all need an alarm unit from the same manufacturer to trigger the alarm. It is not quite as simple as attaching a Shelly 1 - at least not for all those I have seen so far. If you know of an affordable product that can be triggered from Shelly 1 I would appreciate a tip.

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I did this for a old project years ago 

I attached an Alarm similar to this onto an Arduino with a relay and a 12V DC power source, When the situation met the rules I wanted it activated the relay and the siren went on. 

31luRDBqFGL._AC_.jpg


Luckily for us all Shelly has the shelly 1 that does this very thing. 
all that's needed is to turn on the siren.  Im sure there are other units that work the same 

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This siren has a much better WAF, and it can be connected directly to a 240V outlet via a Shelly Plug. Then you just need to configure a scene.😀

710000113 | Auer Signal Signal Horn without Cone KDH 92dB Electro-Mechanical 230 VAC IP43 Screw Terminal | Distrelec Norway (elfadistrelec.no)

Still, I would recommend Shelly to offer a pretty siren that can be connected directly to the Shelly environment and respond to all types of sensors via user configured scenes. That would complete the available selection for an alarm system.

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