Help with First Alert Smoke and CO Detector

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  • Last Post 13 August 2018
monjod posted this 09 August 2018

Guys, I have a new First Alert Smoke and CO detector. I made a scene to get an email if the alarm is turned on. All works well, but I am having trouble turning the larm off. Seems you only get an trigger when the state is changed from off to on, and none if already on.

 One way to reset the state to off is to restart the Axial Control software. I think there is a better solution somewhere, I just can't find it yet. I try clicking the check box but it is not responding. Same with the mobile app.

Thanks for any help.

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jonnysax posted this 10 August 2018

I struggled with these for a year or so and finally found a solution.  these alarms need to be set up as multi level sensors, to do that, you need to exclude it from you z-wave network and then add it network wide.  once added, immediately do the auto config.  if successful, change the type of device to multi level sensor.  You should notice ever few minutes, it sends a level 13 signal, thats is the "all good" level.  the other levels are as follows:  12 is the test (button) level, 1 is the smoke detection, and 2 is CO.  I have several scenes set up to do different things based on the level it changes to.  These are great devices, but the documentaton SUCKS... you'd thing for a safety device first alert would want them to be used properly.  hope this helps.  let me know if you have any other questions.  

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monjod posted this 10 August 2018

Helps a ton. I will do that of course. I did get a level 13 signal and I thought it was a false positive. Now I know. Documentation is scant at best.

monjod posted this 13 August 2018

I did delete the device from axial and from the z-wave controoler. When I  try to add back in I have had all sorts of problems. It frequently will say unable to add device. If I don't get that, the auto config doesn't work. Not sure what I am doing wrong. I did upgrame to pro, which I thought you needed to do to use multi level sensors.

rscott posted this 13 August 2018

Ew, that z-wave smoke detector has got to be one of the most painful devices I've ever used, so I get what you are saying. 

Where you are having problems trying to add it back in, I suspect that means the device itself never fully "reset" when you excluded it. You might try to run a few exclusions on it again just to make sure, then try your add again. 

One thing that I found is that the only way I could get it to work properly was to do the include from within Axial Server and hope that the smoke detector stayed awake long enough to for Axial to finish the configuration. If you continue to get an alarm code 13, it means the device is working properly. The device tends to send code 13 on a regular basis to say "I'm still here and working properly."  If you trigger an actual smoke or CO alarm, the alarm code will be different. It's different still when you press the test button.

 

 

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