YoLinkLoRa Smart Outdoor Contact Sensor, Gate & Shed Door Sensor, Universal Contact-Closure Sensor, Email/SMS/Push Alerts, 1/4 Mile Range, Alexa, IFTTT, Home Assistant (Hub Required)

Yo-link - Features, Range, Extender, LimitationsPROFeaturesDiversity of product lineIntegration capabilities as a smart home deviceLow costBattery LifeCON1/4 Mile range advertised likely clear line of siteIn wooded area reliable range was more like 300 feetAntennas, range extenders not availableUnsupported range extender works but limits featuresSome limitationsFor house monitoring of crawl space temp/humidity, water leak detection, motion in attic etc., the product line works extremely well and has excellent smart home integration.The goal was to simplify install, minimize/eliminate wiring for sensors, and to gain smart device capabilities. When working for external device monitoring such as driveway gates, package delivery box notification at a range of 450 feet through wooded areas challenges were uncovered. For the package delivery box, the original concept was to mount a garage door sensor flush (horizontal) on the bottom of the lid that would toggle when the lid was opened. From what I could glean the device is designed to be installed on the inside of a garage door (vertical) with door closed. There was not a software option on this sensor to alert on normally open vs normally closed. Therefore a bracket needed to be assembled to mount the sensor in a vertical position for the device to operate. Would be nice if the device offered this option. During the process the range was learned to be a challenge. Moved hub outside, tried different orientations to try to optimize internal antenna (vertical / horizontal) different sides facing device and was not able to mitigate signal limitation. Yo-link does not offer an antenna, and/or range extender. Found a helpful "non-supported" solution to create a signal relay solution. This uses a yo-link Security Siren & Alarm controller and yo-link Outdoor contact sensor. Between these two devices a relay is required. I found and electronic relay with NO normally open and NC normally closed output contacts; "OONO DPST 1NO 1NC 8Amp Power Relay Module, AC/DC 12V Control Voltage" which worked perfectly. Configure the remote device to trigger the Alarm controller. Replace with siren with the input to the relay module. Attach the contact sensor to either the NO/NC contacts as appropriate for your project. This solved the range issue in this case. However, the ability to monitor if the device remains open and is not closed is lost. A goal was to add this solution to the driveway gate and obtain a notification if the gate was not closed. At this time I do not know a solution to the range challenge combined with some of the additional features yo-link offers.I am using these devices outside of their intended design, so I will still rate them highly. However, it would be nice for yo-link to have an extended range solution that supports all of the device capability as well as a tilt sensor (garage door sensor), that allowed the NO/NC configuration to be modified.Overall I have been impressed.

I used this sensor to signal when the garage door opens. It does require the Yolink hub to operate. The app was easy to install and the sensor paired easily with the app. Works everytime.What is really nice about the sensor is that is works in tighter spaces and is more tolerant of the distance between the contacts. A regular Yolink door sensor would not work on my garage door.

I used this on a yard gate, so it's not left open, which would let my dogs escape. Nice gasketed box that hopefully keeps water out. The normally closed magnetic switch opens when magnet moves away, setting alarm off. Would have been nice to have mounting ears on the box like the switch has, to allow securing with two screws, instead of tape, but a handy person can easily improvise a sheet metal bracket. Love the Yolink system sensor availability, at a reasonable price on Amazon - they work great!

These are fantastic except for one fatal flaw. If someone can reach them, they can simply remove the batteries without triggering the alarm.I reported this flaw and offered a very simple upgrade. I hope they take this to heart and fix it in future designs. There is already a push button to reset these built into the device. A second push button should be added inside the box. When the battery door is open that new switch would break the sensor connection and report an OPEN connection just like the door/window was opened. Then when closed (the normal position) then the sensor switches would decide if the door/window was open or close.We use these as outdoor gate sensors. We realized someone could reach over the gate and open the battery box and pull the battery. Then they could open the gate and the system would never know. If that simple internal switch got added, the alarm would sound the moment they opened the battery box. Our solution for now was to build a protective box that we placed over the battery box. Someone could still unscrew that but that would be so very hard to do while reaching over the fence.So except for this one flaw, these devices are fantastic! Very simple and very functional.

I used this on my mailbox door, which is almost 700 feet from the house. It works great.I originally just installed it inside the mailbox and drilled small hole to run the antenna wire out. This worked but whenever the postal person delivered the mail they would sometimes shove in the bigger boxes which would rip the unit from the mounting tape.The wire between the main unit and the magnetic switch is about 6-8" too short to allow the unit to be mounted on the back wall of the mailbox, so I had to modify it by adding some extra wire to lengthen it so it could reach the entire length of the mailbox.It's been fine ever since.Still gets 5 stars, I just wish the wire length was longer.

I got this system to replace my old sensors for my driveway and sidewalk. They worked so well, I got sensors for the 2 fence gates, the shed and 3 water sensors, all connected to a single app where I can quickly check status and get notified immediately when an alarm gets set off. Many are hundreds of feet from the base and work perfectly. I will mention that the app can be tricky to manipulate but I called support and got a real person that was great help getting me started. I’m very impressed and highly recommend this system.