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EDIT - Almost 4 years alter:

What a great little board. I am bumping this to the top on purpose.

4 years later, still running these little zunos in my PIRs. They have been nothing but stable. Running for years (1-2) at a time without any issues. Since these are inside my alarm connected PIRs, they are rarely rebooted unless by me. The alarm's power (battery and AC) was disconnected once when i did a full system swap in January of 2019.

I bring this up now because I went back to my PIR code and cleaned it up so I thought I would share. Code wise its all very simple, main loop checks to see if A1 (connected to the LED on the PIR) goes past 50%, if so... Send a report to the controller... If it drops back below 50%, send report to controller saying motion no longer present.

if anyone is on the fence about getting zunos don't think twice... Assuming QC is the same now as it was 4 (!!!) years ago, you wont be disappointed.

PS : I went this route because at the time I did not want to dig around the alarm cabinets since it was an absolute mess from the installer AND my previous alarm did not have a local API. When I did the swap (risco to satel) I cleaned everything up and the satel does have a local API... But this is still better as the response on motion is quite a bit quicker with the zuno then pooling the satel API anyways... So I still use them.

Zuno... Highly recommended!!!

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Hello.

Without going into much detail:

I would like to retrofit 9 of our alarm PIR (wired to our alarm) using z-uno.

The main reason I would like to go with z-uno is because of the low power consumption.

Each of the PIRs has a 12V line, but I was concerned about using something like nodemcu as 9 of those at peak would consume something like 100ma each at 12v. The alarm power supply would not be able to cope.

So, I stumbled upon z-uno. A bit expensive, but exactly what I will need.

So, my questions are as follow:

A) My electrical engineering skills are very weak: Am I correct in assuming that since @ 3.3v the z-uno consumes 50ma, at 12v it will be around 15ma+/-? I hope so, because if this is the case, that would be perfect.

B) I already have a razberry module in my raspberry pi. But my z-wave network is currently empty. The distance between the raspberry pi and the furthers PIR where a z-uno will be installed is about 30 meters, through some concrete walls. Will running these in "always on" mode (since they will just feed off the 12v lines at each PIR) allow for the z-wave to mesh network? Eg: The distance between each PIR is about 10 meters at most, but the furthest member will be 30+ meters away, will I have any "range" issues?

Would appreciate some help with the above as these are quite pricey, but it looks like this is the solution I am looking for. Would love to get my PIRs into my OpenHAB setup.

Thanks!

Powered at 12V Z-Uno will consume about 35 mA. See http://z-uno.z-wave.me/technical/
This is because we use linear DC-DC. Using switching DC-DC will do around 50*3.3/12 mA.

If Z-Uno is mains powered, it will act as mesh repeater in your network. This will help to solve your range issue

Heya.

Appreciate the response. Had a look at the technicals again. Judging by your profile you are someone who is involved, I'll probably be buying 9:

Power consumption on 7–18 V: in always listening mode ∼ 35 mA (can be lowered by using external switching DC-DC)

How does one go about lowering via voltage regulator... Eg: Is it just a simple case of throwing a 12v->3.3v on the 3.3 line? What kind of amperage can one get it down to. 35 is much better then the nodemcu, but still a bit high. Right on the borderline of what I would guess my alarm psu can take. I would not want to add much more then 300ma total.

Also, could I possibly sleep the furthest members and have them only wake / pulse my gateway only when one of the analog pins senses a change (eg: when the stock led on the pir lights up)? What kind of delay can I expect in this kind of setup vs having it 'always awake'.

[Edit : Moot point, I double read the initial reply and @ 50*3.3/12ma, there would be no power issues]
Also, this 35ma, does it peak any higher at startup? Eg: I am concerned a bit with 300ma being fine for the psu, but if at one point the power supply AND battery @ the alarm went offline, on power up there would essentially be 9 z-unos firing up at the same time, hitting their "startup peak" at the same time.

Apologize for my lack of proper terms, but you get the idea. Having 9 existing PIRs in essentially every room in the home would be a welcome addition to my OpenHAB.

35 mA is thw average. It does not change much on Z-Uno consumption as the rest is disipated in heat. So it is pretty constant. If you use own DC-DC and connect it directly to 3.3 V, you can get about 15 mA

Perfect.

Will be mailing our local distributor now regarding having 9 pieces shipped.

Thanks again!

*BUMP FOR EDIT IN ORIGINAL POST*

Just thought I would mention... my zuno gen 1s have been running 24/7 in my PIRs (all 10+ of them...) for over 8 (!!!!!!) years now. They are all still in there now giving me near instant motion on / off events vs. interfacing with my alarm system directly which gives a 1-2 second delay.

Cheers for making such a stable and all around good product!

Thank for those good words! You can support us by buying more Z-Unos

And check our new Z-Uno Shield Configurator: https://z-uno.z-wave.me/configurator/#/shield