Over the weekend I went through the process of migrating all my devices from an Almond+ to the new Almond 3S (Guard). I have 15 Z-wave devices and 7 Zigbee devices and on the Almond+ I had it configured for Auto-Away and Auto-Home when our iPhones left and joined the network. When in Away mode, sensors would trigger notifications to our phones, and when home some would trigger a light. I had about 20 Rules set up and it worked well.
For the Almond 3S, I had to order a separate Z-wave transceiver since the 3S does not have one built in like the Almond+ did. I decided to go with an Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 since it got good reviews on Amazon.
First thing I noticed when I powered on the 3S is the screen is actually smaller than the Almond+ but I figured that wasn't a big deal since I don't use the screen often.
Next I removed (excluded) each device that was paired with the Almond+ using the Almond+. After that, I took the Almond 3S around my house and added each Z-wave and Zigbee device to it. Since the 3S has a built-in battery, this was very convenient to do. I had some trouble pairing some of the Z-wave devices so I made sure to put brand new batteries in each device. This helped but I still had one Z-wave door sensor which refused to pair, even after multiple excludes so I put it aside.
Now I moved the 3S back to the closet where my Almond+ used to reside. Here I went and tested all my devices and found out the 3S was not showing activity on several of my door sensors, it wasn't consistently able to control my light switches, and it was not showing temperature updates from my temp sensor. So I unplugged the 3S and walked around the house, trying all the sensors again. Here the sensors registered, so it seemed like a range issue. But I never had this issue with the Almond+. I figured moving the Z-wave plug-in modules around, which act as repeaters, would help this problem but it did not. In fact, I put one of the plug-in modules next to one of the switches that the 3S was having trouble communicating with and it made no difference. I could control the outlet but not the switch unless I brought the 3S close to it.
So I have to ask: are Z-wave repeaters being used properly with the Almond 3S and the Aeotec Z-stick Gen 5? Does the network "heal" itself?
Currently I am dealing with some sensors registering and others (such as door sensors) inconsistently or not registering. This has obviously prevented using it to reliably monitor my house while away. Sure, the LED and Siren are nice additions to the 3S but I cannot really use the ARMing feature whereas on the Almond+ I used AWAY mode reliably.
Some other things I noticed beyond my sensor troubles:
- The device locked up the third day I had it while no one was home. When I returned home it was unresponsive. The power button didn't help, even a long press. I had to unplug power and unscrew the battery to get it to reset. A few hours after it powered back on it sent me a notification that it was breached.
- Port forwarding cannot be set up in the web interface; it requires using the app which was more time consuming. In fact, the web interface seems to have a lot fewer options than the Almond+ did.
- The devices screen in the Almond app shows my Nest thermostat in the wrong mode--for example it says "heating" when it is off.
- In Rules, setting an LED hue does not seem to stick.
- The touchscreen interface (which I mentioned is smaller than the Almond+) also seems to be missing some features.
- The fact that the cheap monitoring solution with cellular backup in the U.S. never materialized is a bummer
Perhaps some of these features will get added/fixed later.
In summary, I purchased the Almond Guard for a much enhanced security solution but so far it is less capable than the Almond+ I was using. I really hope there is some reasonable way to resolve my issues (firmware updates?? network healing mode??) without buying all new sensors.
My devices:
5 - Z-wave Plus door sensors
1 - Z-wave temperature sensor
4 - Z-wave switches (in-wall)
3 - Z-wave plug-in outlet modules
2 - Z-wave Flood sensors
1 - Zigbee Motion sensor
2 - Zigbee light bulbs
1 - Zigbee light string
3 - Zigbee Almond clicks (buttons)
1 - Nest thermostat
