YOLINK LoRa 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)

This sensor is part of a number of Yolink smart appliances I use. It performs perfectly, reliably, and installed relatively easily. The electronic part of installation is easy, as part of the Yolink suite of sensors. The mechanical part was relatively easy. I'm using it as a steel gate monitor, and it apparently is intended for wood gates and doors, so the included wood screws weren't used. In my case, to mount the unit I super-glued the magnet portion to the swinging gate and zip-tied the Hall-sensor portion to the static frame of the gate. It is AA battery operated, and batteries were provided. It has been in place for nearly a year and it has worked without missing an opening of the gate or alarming for a false opening the entire time. it maintains a history of openings and closings. An Open reminder can be set, so the user is notified if the gate remains open for a settable period of time. This feature is the primary reason I purchased the unit. After nine months the battery level shows as full. The signal intensity also is shown by the app, and it shows Strong (-59 dBm) in my case where the receiver is 25-30 ft away and inside the house. The receiver (hub) connects wirelessly to my AP. As with all the Yolink sensors, I have no complaints. The cost was reasonable for the quality, reliability, and satisfaction it provides.

Yo-link - Features, Range, Extender, Limitations PRO Features Diversity of product line Integration capabilities as a smart home device Low cost Battery Life CON 1/4 Mile range advertised likely clear line of site In wooded area reliable range was more like 300 feet Antennas, range extenders not available Unsupported range extender works but limits features Some limitations For 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.

It works. Without issue. The YOLINK eco system is really good.

I’ve tried a number of different hubs and smart home devices and Yolink wins hands down. With over 72 Yolink devices ranging from switches to hubs to fobs to smart plugs and more. Many of which have been in service for 2+ years. Yolink devices are extremely easy to deploy and easily integrate into Google home and Home Assistant – but I use the Yolink app 95% of the time. Battery life is unbelievable – changed my first battery yesterday. Most of the devices are still showing 50%. Even more impressive is the range – even with the device inside a metal postal box and hundreds of feet from the house. Also like the fact you can add fault tolerance by adding a second hub by simply scanning in the barcode on the device. Customer tech support is also top notch.

I’m totally blind! Let’s start out with saying the wire magnetic switched is about 1 foot or so long. The magnet and switch both have screw holes for mounting. The package comes with screws and double sided tape. There is no screw holes in the box and electronics. So you would need to use some other way to attach the box. Really double sided tape for something that could be outside in the weather and maybe on wood? I don’t think so. But anyway. What I like! The batteries are very easy to get to and the sensor doesn’t come with them already in it. You have 2 lock down clasp to undo and then you lift up the top. On the bottom of the top is the QR code label that you need to scan to bring the sensor online to YoLink. The sensor takes 2 AA batteries. To bad other outside sensors that YoLink doesn’t have easy to replace batteries like this one. I don’t like the fact the box doesn’t have a screw mount. Now I wanted a way to have my old Magnetic driveway transmitter and receiver setup works with the Alexa service. Thought about it a lot and kicked around some ideas of how to do it. My STI-V34100/STI-V34150 system has a 12V output when it triggers. So knowing that needed a way to trigger some other device. Thought about using a electric magnet. But that pulls to much power. So thought about using the YoLink outdoor sensor being it has a wired connection for the magnetic switch for Open/Close status. Figured that would work. Needed a way to be able to tie that into the driveway receiver. So pick up a 12V relay that doesn’t require much power to be able to change the connection. So pick up the YoLink Outdoor sensor and the relay. Then I sat down and using my light detector and talking multi meter along with my talking cell phone was able to determine what wires whir what for the relay and guessing what was hot for it. Then wired up the power first to the relay to ensure it worked with the driveway receiver. Herd a click when the receiver was turned on. So that was good. Cut the magnet off the YoLink door sensor and touched the wires together to ensure the sensor said it was closed. Yep that worked. Then unplugged the relay and attached the YoLink wires to the Open side of the relay. Plugged the relay back into the receiver and triggered it! The YoLink sensor went from Open to closed as I wanted. Yea! That worked. Now created the routine for Alexa to say when the Outdoor sensor names (Driveway Monitor sensor) is closed! Then announce through all Echo’s in the house that there is a vehicle in the driveway! Tested again by triggering the transmitter and the Echo announced what I wanted. So with my own thoughts and ability to figure out things! I was able to make this work. This is in some way much better then the YoLink outdoor motion detector. Why! Is because this will not trigger off of people, pets or things like that. It will only work on vehicles. It works off of magnetics and detects the iron in the vehicle. Yes every now and then; You’ll will get a faulse reading! But not near as many as a motion sensor and also sun light doesn’t impact how it works at detecting vehicles. P.s. You could also use the YoLink water sensor 2 or 3 to do the same thing in place of the outdoor contact sensor. I used the contact sensor being I could feel the 2 wires side by side and on teh water leak sensor! It was a round wire and would be harder for me to strip the wires. I didn't have an 3.5MM male Mono jack with wires on the other end. If I had, I probably would have used the water leak sensor instead. Just some other options for people who may want to do something like I did above. After all, not like I can see someone in my driveway!

Outdoor Contact Sensor: $23.99 at the time of review I’ve been using YoLink temperature sensors in the garage fridge and freezer for over two years now. They are a handy tool to know if/when someone left the door open and they are super reliable. So when I needed a sensor to know when our side gate (which can’t be seen from any window in the house) is open or closed. It would have saved me a bunch of chasing after one of our dogs who loves to run the first chance he gets. *TL;DR Review Haiku™* Trusted sensor shop Easy install and great range Hey, the gate’s open *What I liked*: Like all the other Yolink sensors I’ve bought, this is a great quality tool. It’s easy to install, easy to add to the Yolink app (which I, of course, already had setup), and just as reliable as the other sensors (so far, at least). The range is good. It’s on the opposite side of the property and opposite side of the house from the Yolink hub and I never have an issue with signal. The price is great (though, you need the hub so if you don’t already have one there is that extra cost). *What I didn't like*: Nothing, really. *The Bottom Line:* This is exactly the sensor I was looking for. The installation was a piece of cake (thanks to some zip ties I had laying around). The setup in the app was literally as easy as pushing one button (on the back of the sensor). And so far it’s been 100% reliable. This is as clear an example of a five star item as I’ve seen. I’d absolutely order this over again, and in fact, I’m considering one for my front gate so I know if someone comes though.

We have this gate sensor installed on our mailbox door. The mailbox is over 400' from the house where the hub is installed, but it's working perfectly every time. When the mailman opens the door to deliver the mail, we get an audible alert on the hub and a message from the app on our phone that we have mail. No more going out to the mailbox to find it empty. No more coming down the driveway and stopping and no mail. It's a very handy device!

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 have been using YoLink products for 4 years now. This is another great product of theirs. Simple to install, great battery life and does a great job of what it’s supposed to do. Best thing is the long range. No more worrying about whether your Wi-Fi signal is going to be strong enough, YoLink products use LORA, which is a low frequency, long range radio wave system that gives up to 1/4 mile range. I have YoLink sensors as far as 800’ from my hub and no problem. With the 40 or so YoLink sensors I have, I’ve had to deal with YoLink tech support a few times and have always found them to be over-the-top excellent in their response, even going so far as to send me replacements as long as several years after my purchase. I’m an electrical engineer with a specialty in digital communication and I design radio frequency communication products among other things. I have nothing but good things to say about YoLink products and support. I have over 180 smart products of various brands in my homes and boat and YoLink products are among the easiest and best. Their app is also very comprehensive and feature rich. I use this contact sensor to interface some of my own circuit boards with my IoT devices.

great security feature that doesn’t cost a fortune. Extremely easy to add via the QR code on the product. The signal is great given the hun is in the basement while the door sensor is on the shed 18 ft from the house. Works extremely well and is a great add on to the other sensors/monitors that I have operating. Definitely with its price. Highly recommended.

All the YoLink stuff is good. I had to design and 3D print a bracket to mount this on my overhead door but that was no biggie. The app saw it immediately and it was working within a few minutes. I need to spend more time with the app as it would be great if I could set it to remind me the door was still open at night. Not the switch's fault, it works sweet!

Works great, but they expect you to use a sticky to attach this. That does not work on an outside gate. At the very least everything should have mounting holes for screws. Apart from the mounting kerfuffle, it works great.

Works well so far - we have a number of these now and all of them have worked with no issues and at decent range from Hub. Have not had them installed long enough to see how they handle outdoor weather (for the ones installed outdoors) - so will see how those survive after a year / the season changes - should be OK as they seem to be fairly well sealed units. Would buy again if we find we need more.