Electric gate, office door, garage door, alarm system, boiler, switch… FRIENT’s IOMZB-110 is a Zigbee IoT module that can give intelligence to an infinite number of aspects in a house or building and we are going to see how to use it and take advantage of it.
Why is Frient dry contact Zigbee module have this price?
Frient is a Danish company that designs quality products and this io Zigbee module can be used for multiple uses simultaneously thanks to its 4 digital inputs and 2 NC NO outputs.
So although its price may seem high, given that it fulfils multiple functions at the same time, it is an interesting option.
Advantages and disadvantages of Zigbee dry contact module
Advantages
- Multiple uses: You can use it to control an electric gate, a boiler or a door and at the same time know the status of a door, a switch, a motion sensor and much more.
- Multiple parameters: You can set different parameters such as ON/OFF modes, pulse modes with a defined time and much more.
- Size: Easily installs behind a traditional switch or any other zone.
- Compatibility: Works with the most popular home automation systems such as Jeedom, Home Assistant, Homey or Smarthings Edge.
- Zigbee router: Using Zigbee technology allows you to repeat the signal in your Zigbee installation.
- Quality: Frient is a European company (Denmark) that takes care of the details of their devices so it can be a factor to take into account.
Disadvantages
- Needs a Zigbee hub: If you want to use this non-i/o Frient module, you need to use a Zigbee compatible hub.
- High price: Zigbee modules are usually cheap in the market and this Frient module has a high price but it is justified as it is a quality product with multiple functions.
- Does not work on 230V: You must use a 9-30V adapter to use this Zigbee module.
IOMZB-110 Zigbee i/o module tutorial
In a house or even a building, there are different aspects that we want to give intelligence to in order to have a remote control from our phone or with the voice thanks to a voice assistant or also to be able to create routines according to different criteria.
And for this, you usually use smart modules that you will add to your installation.
One of these modules that is very interesting due to its unique features is the IOMZB-110 module from the Danish company Frient.
What I think is fantastic about this type of Zigbee smart device is the flexibility it gives us because we’re going to be able to bring intelligence to a wide variety of traditional devices.
For this, this IOMZB-110 module has 4 dry contact inputs and 2 dry contact outputs.
The 4 dry contact inputs allow us to retrieve multiple information such as knowing when someone rings, knowing the status of an alarm, knowing if we have a door or window “closed” or “open”, knowing the status of a motion sensor, i.e. knowing if there is a movement or not detected in our house, using it with a traditional switch to turn it into an intelligent switch that can activate scenes in our house and can also be used in professional environments to know different states of machines.
The 2 dry contact outputs allow us to control different aspects in our home such as opening the door of a building thanks to a dry contact relay, opening or closing an electric gate, controlling a boiler and any other aspect, even in professional environments.
Of course, an essential detail that the Danish company Frient has implemented is to be able to choose how to wire between NO or NC, i.e. Normally Open or Normally Close, which means a normally open or normally closed contact.
Generally, when you are going to wire this IOMZB-110 module to your traditional device such as an electric gate, a boiler and more, you will see the NO or NC information indicated on the circuit so you will be able to know which one to choose.
In addition, a very interesting and essential detail in some contexts is to be able to set a pulse time for your dry contact outputs directly on the IOMZB-110 module.
For example, if you want to open a door or an electric gate, you probably need to set a pulse time of half a second.
This means that, for half a second, the IOMZB-110 module switches ON and then OFF again, which will allow the door or gate to be opened.
We will now see how to adjust this pulse time.
This smart module IOMZB-110 communicates with the famous Zigbee wireless technology.
This means that you will need to use a Zigbee compatible home automation hub such as Jeedom or Home Assistant.
And to wire this Zigbee smart device electrically, you will need electrical knowledge, electrical qualification and adequate protection.
If this is not your case, you should contact a professional to avoid any material or health problems.
Be careful, this Zigbee smart device is not connected directly to the 230 Volt power supply.
You need to use a power supply between 5 to 28 volts to use this device.
So be careful not to wire it directly to the 230 Volt power supply as you may damage the device.
And an interesting detail is that this IOMZB-110 module, in addition to having ports for wiring it electrically to the power supply.
It also has a micro USB port that you can use with a 5-28 volt power supply like a plug, which may be more practical in some contexts.
And before wiring your IOMZB-110 module to a dry contact device, you should check the technical characteristics such as the maximum voltage level and the maximum current allowed for the electrical contact.
Now that you know the technical data of this device, let’s look at some very interesting use cases for intelligence to a house or a building.
Thanks to this IOMZB-110 module, any traditional device that you are going to connect, will become an intelligent Zigbee device, that is to say that you will be able to control this device from anywhere in the world on your phone and be able to create routines where this device will interact according to defined criteria.
To start with, a first use case is to know the status of 2 doors or windows by connecting 2 door or window sensors to the inputs of the IOMZB-110 module and also to wire with the 2 other inputs of this module, the anti-tamper cables of these sensors so that, if someone tries to damage the sensor, you can know this information.
Another alternative would be to use up to 4 door or window sensors on this IOMZB-110 module without wiring the anti-tamper cables.
For example, if you have a smart home with Zigbee technology and you want to know the status of your electric garden gate, open or closed, since you may not be able to find an outdoor door sensor with this Zigbee technology, you can buy a wired outdoor door sensor and connect it to the Frient IOMZB-110 Zigbee module, which of course, will have to be protected in a waterproof box if you use it outdoors.
And since it has both dry contact inputs and outputs, this double function could be useful, for example in an electric gate, to be able to open and close it thanks to this IOMZB-110 module and also to be able to know the status of the electric gate at all times, open or closed, by adding a door sensor in this module.
Of course, there are other solutions such as the intelligent Zigbee module NodOn that we have seen in other content precisely to give intelligence to an electric gate that unlike the Frient module, the NodOn module connects directly to 230 Volts so you do not need to add an additional power supply, when the Frient module works on 5 to 28 Volts so you must use a power supply that converts 230 Volts to for example, 12 Volts to use this module.
But since this Frient module integrates several functions such as the ability to use door sensors, you may find this module more interesting.
Because as you have seen in other content, to know the status of the electric gate, open or closed, since the user has chosen the Zigbee module of the NodOn brand, he had to additionally add a camera to monitor this electric gate.
So perhaps, in your case, the Frient module would be more interesting if you need to know the status of this gate and want to add a sensor.
And it should be noted that, to use this module on an electric gate, you need to set a pulse time, which is usually half a second.
To adjust this pulse time, once the Zigbee smart device is included in your home automation hub, if you use ZHA, you must modify the Logical ID of output 1 or output 2, depending on whether you use output 1 or output 2 in your electric gate, as a pulse.
If you want to set a pulse on output 1, you must replace 116::ON_OFF::ON by 116::on_off::on_with_timed_off::0::5::0, the value 5 represents a half second pulse, if you put 10 it would be a 1 second pulse, 20 would be a 2 second pulse and so on.
And if you want to set a pulse on output 2, replace 117::ON_OFF::ON with 117::on_off::on_with_timed_off::0::5::0, with the same types of values.
Now, if you press “ON”, the module turns its output “ON” for the time you have defined.
And return to “OFF”.
Of course, you can also use this iomzb-110 Zigbee module with Zigbee2MQTT in Home Assistant or Jeedom.
With Zigbee2MQTT, you have the states of the 4 Inputs (digital inputs) and the control of the 2 Ouputs (dry contact ON/OFF or pulse outputs).
and in “Report”, you can modify the commands such as the pulse time of each Ouput of the device.
Speaking of this pulse, another example of the use of this module would be to give intelligence to a door that has an electromagnet for access control.
This is the case in the building where I work, where we have RFID card access control.
But additionally, by adding this Frient module to this door, we can open it from our phone without using RFID cards.
For this, we have to use a home automation hub like Home Assistant or Jeedom and with this Frient module, after having configured the pulse time of, for example, half a second to be able to open the door, we can also create a link that corresponds to the action of opening this door.
This link can be used directly from your phone to open the door at any time or also on your computer as, for example, in a favourites tab, to open the door for a person when you are in the office working without moving.
Another simple use case is to know the status of a garage door.
Wired garage door sensors are available, but we don’t usually find smart garage door sensors with Zigbee technology directly.
If you want to know the status of your garage door, you can use a traditional garage door sensor and wire it into the Frient module.
And when you have your Frient module connected to your home automation hub, you will know the status of your garage door at all times.
Another use case would be to give intelligence to a traditional motion sensor, turning it into a Zigbee smart motion sensor.
And so, modernise it without having to throw it away if you had in mind to use a Zigbee motion sensor.
As you can see, the status of the module changes depending on whether there is “movement” or “no movement”.
And one last example I would like to share with you is to give intelligence to a switch to control everything you want in your home.
This switch does not need to be connected to the power supply, simply connect it to the IN inputs of the Frient IOMZB-110 module.
For example, if you want to control from your switch, the closing of all the blinds in a house, turn off all the lights and adjust the heating in Economy mode, a simple solution is to use this Frient module behind a switch and you will be able to create scenes where any device that you have chosen to hit this switch will interact.
This switch could activate the music, activate the alarm system, the watering of your garden and much more, you can choose what use you are going to give to this switch that will be intelligent thanks to this Frient module.
We have seen just a few examples of uses and of course, there are other cases such as retrieving the status of an alarm, knowing the status or control of systems and machines in industrial sectors, controlling a boiler and much more.
All in all, this Zigbee smart module from Danish company Frient is a gem in the smart home market as you can use it for multiple applications where no suitable smart devices exist and in an instant, these traditional devices become Zigbee smart devices.
