How to make Vera recognize Fibaro Flood Sensor v3.3 as a flood sensor and not as Generic Z-wave device?

Other Devices & Integrations Door Locks & Sensors
#1

Hello. I have two types of devices at home connected to Vera Secure (latest version):

  • Fibaro Flood Sensor v3.2 (everything works as expected);
  • Fibaro Flood Sensor v3.3 (problematic);

Instead of recognizing this device as “Flood sensor”, my controller Vera Secure recognizes it as “Generic Z-Wave Device” (with limited functionality, i.e. no triggering by water leakage) while paring process.

Questions:

  1. What’s difference between Fibaro Flood sensor v3.2 and v3.3?
  2. Why couldn’t the controller recognize the device correctly? (already reported to Fibaro Company, and I feel that most likely the issue is on Fibaro side)
  3. Can I downgrade this device from v3.3 to v3.2 somehow, or upgrade to next version 3.X?
#2

Did you try changing the device_type, device_file and device_json to match the one working as expected? Worth a shot, if that does not fix, easy to change those variables back…

1 Like
#3

Thank you. This workaround works! :+1: Now I see the enabled scene configuration: Whenever Flood Sensor is armed and detects flood

So far I’ve replaced:

  • device_file: D_GenericIO1.xml with D_FloodSensor1.xml
  • device_type: urn:schemas-micasaverde-com:device:GenericIO:1 with urn:schemas-micasaverde-com:device:FloodSensor:1
  • manufacturer: Fibar with Fibaro
  • model: empty with FGFS-101 Gen5
  • device_json: D_GenericIO1.json with D_FloodSensorWithTamper1.json

Nevertheless it would be nice if Vera would fix this in one of next release, because this is not still perfect. For example, I don’t see this device in Device → Type → Flood Sensor list, and in addition to, this device doesn’t present in Dashboard → My Modes → Choose sensors to arm.

#4

I just ran into this myself - 8 months later, same story.

Amazon sells the current generation FGFS-101 for $60 and it arrived as version v3.3 (labelled on the green circuit board) and is misdetected as shown above. But the changes shown above got it working.

Amazon also has an FGFS-101 with “2016 model” in the description for $35, so I ordered one of those, and I can’t tell what version it is (circuit board is black instead of green and doesn’t have any version number that I can see), but Vera recognized it as a flood sensor after pairing.

And finally, also as described above, there are still subtle differences between the autodetected device, and the misdetected but manually configured device, in Vera UI after making the above changes. As described above, it didn’t show up in “Device → Type → Flood Sensor” list, but I changed the category_num (to 4) and subcategory_num (to 2) and now it does. And the arm/disarm icons are different than the autodetected device.

Yes, it would be nice if Vera can add the device ID or whatever so the current hardware generation can be autodetected. But meanwhile, I get to save $25 per sensor by buying the old ones…

#5

I realized this Vera controller (VeraPlus, brand new out of the box this week) is running older firmware, 1.7.4150 aka 7.0.28 (What is the latest version - Vera Controllers & Cameras - Ezlo Community). It doesn’t detect any firmware updates available though.

My other Vera controller (also VeraPlus but I’ve had it running for a couple years) is running a different newer old firmware version, 1.7.4453 aka 7.0.29 (https://support.getvera.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021949813-UI7-Web-UI-7-0-29-GA-April-24-2019). It also doesn’t detect any firmware updates available.

#6

From https://support.getvera.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038208454-UI7-Vera-Software-Update-VeraProtect-Version-7-0-30-1-7-4832-1-7-4833-1-7-4834-November-20th-2019 it seems like the latest updates are

7.0.30 - 2019/11/20
7.0.29 - 2019/04/24 - my older VeraPlus is on this version and won’t update
7.0.28 - not listed on official updates page - my brand new VeraPlus came with this version and won’t update
7.0.27 - 2018/07/16

so it’s somewhat possible that this bug has been fixed since 7.0.28 whenever that’s from. What’s up with

  • not letting my devices detect newer firmware downloads
  • letting 2 different VeraPlus models get stuck on 2 different old firmware versions (the one that has it must have seen 4453 at some point)
  • using different versioning schemes in the UI and in the release notes
  • not listing all the firmware versions in the firmware versions page
#7

7.0.30 was released and immediately withdrawn since it created problems in the Vera Plus. I was lucky I did not upgrade since I hear support had to restore people’s Pluses. Here is the thread on this: UI7 ▾ Vera Software Update ▾ 7.0.30 - Nov 20, 2019 - Release Notes - Ezlo Community.

Perhaps try to do a factory reset? I think it should go to the Mios servers and download the latest firmware. I purchased a used Vera Plus on eBay, and when I plugged it in, I immediately did a reset and it successfully installed 7.0.29. That was around 11/7/19.

Another option is to contact Support. They should be able to give you the URL for 7.0.29.

#8

Fantastic, copied the information exactly as amdokamal says made my Fibaro Water Sensor now look and act like the proper sensor and not a generic Z wave sensor.
This forum has always been an invaluable source of information for us Vera users.

#9

Thanks for this thread! Helpful with my new device. One thing I noticed is battery level is not being detected. Can anyone confirm and/or provide suggestions? It does provide battery level when it’s included as a “generic”.

Thanks

#10

Update: I manually added the variable and it started updating the battery level.