Which hassle-free door opening sensor for Home Assistant? Sonoff SNZB-04

Door opening sensors with WiFi communication have already been discussed extensively on our forum. We even managed to find, with our joint efforts, a way to reprogram such sensors based on a module from BK7231 so that they could be activated locally and Home Assistant paired over MQTT. However, this proved to be a rather difficult and problematic task, so here I want to show a simpler and more reliable alternative.
For comparison - the aforementioned topics about sensors on WiFi:
Door/window sensor without TuyaMCU - deep sleep and energy saving, OpenBeken .
Energy-saving (?) battery-operated door/window sensor on WiFi DS06
So let's start with the purchase. It is said that products on Zigbee are a bit more expensive, but I only paid £35 for the Sonoff SNZB-04. Is there a catch somewhere?




The sensor is very small indeed. The transmitter measures 47x27x13.5mm and the magnet 32x15.6x13mm. The whole thing is powered by a CR2032 (3V) battery. Normally this sensor works with the manufacturer's gateway, so I'll post its instructions here, but I'll pair it myself with HA via Zigbee2MQTT:


Markings:

Pairing with Home Assistant .
There is not much to tell here. I have Home Assistant set up according to a theme from a couple of years ago, but updated of course:
Home Assistant tutorial - configuration, WiFi, MQTT, Zigbee, Tasmota .
Zigbee2MQTT I also updated:
How do I update Zigbee2MQTT Home Assistant to the latest version? Unsupported device? .
If we need to, we reset the device according to the instructions, at HA we make sure that pairing is enabled. The sensor should appear in our panel:

The sensor provides its status (open or closed door), battery status (separately true/false determination if low and numerical voltage) and signal quality:



And that's it, you can already do automation based on that.
Interior of the Sonoff SNZB-04 .
Now we'll take a look inside, essentially just for educational purposes. We remove the lid:

The PCB can also be removed, it is only held on by the clips:

PCB designation: RB-DS01 V1.0 2020/12/17




The whole is based on a CC2530, just like the relay shown in the past:
Sonoff Basic ZBR3, which is the famous relay version on Zigbee. Interior, schematic .
The whole thing runs directly from the battery, there's no inverter, so it's economical and efficient.
Summary .
For small battery-powered devices, just like door/window sensors or temperature sensors, Zigbee is in my opinion by far the better and more convenient choice, even more so if you want to pair the whole thing with Home Assistant. With WiFi-based sensors, this is problematic and the batteries wear out quickly anyway. I guess the only plus of the WiFi-based solution is that it can be scripted a bit more, e.g. such a WiFi-based door-opening sensor, after changing the firmware, can send an HTTP GET packet we specify to the server when an event is detected.... but to what end?
For most applications, what I have shown here will definitely suffice.
Finally, this Zigbee device, being battery powered, does not extend the range of our network. This should be kept in mind.
All in all, I recommend it - especially for this price.
And which door/window sensor do you guys use? .
Comments
Add a commentWhat is the estimated battery life? [Read more]
£35 for a ZigBee sensor is really not much. If there is nothing wrong with the design, the battery will last for 2 years. I use Aqara, although the price is high. [Read more]
It depends on how many times the door is opened, but more or less. The manufacturer's website about the SNZB-04P states that: https://obrazki.elektroda.pl/6305988200_1748067180_bigthumb.jpg . Overall,... [Read more]
I recommend AQARA - dimensions 41 x 22 x 11 which is even smaller. All AQARA products are characterised by exceptional aesthetics, which is no small matter when it comes to windows and doors. They can... [Read more]
Interesting idea with this redesign, basically you could send the state of any electronic device (even a complex one) that makes a momentary short circuit. Thanks! [Read more]
A good result for such small batteries, Zigbee is, however, highly energy efficient. For the more power-hungry, a rechargeable version has been developed in the CR2032 format: LIR2032H on Ali at £5... [Read more]
@pkaczmarek2 is there any chance to compare the dynamic power consumption to send one message in a sensor with WiFi and zigbee and the power consumption in standby? E.g. using a measurement resistor and... [Read more]
I personally use Shelly BLU Door/Window . https://obrazki.elektroda.pl/6541155200_1748170348_thumb.jpg . This is a bluetooth contractron connected to my HomeAssistant via an ESP32 Gateway.... [Read more]
BLE, also an interesting solution, 5 years on CR2032 is very good. I wonder how many times a day they report presence regardless of reed switch activity. [Read more]
From what I can see from the Logs in HA the reed switch only reports when there is an event. [Read more]
Is there monitoring of battery status in addition to events? [Read more]
The reed switch has battery control as much as possible. In addition, window angle + light sensor. https://obrazki.elektroda.pl/9928164900_1748243699_thumb.jpg . https://obrazki.elektroda.pl/9604609600_1748243860_thumb.jpg... [Read more]
Not bad, what time does it send status information when no events occur? [Read more]
Unfortunately, as far as I can see, this integration does not have a status entity for this device. There is only an option to tick regarding the cyclic querying of entities for the BTHome integration. ... [Read more]