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)

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.

Great product line, with fantastic range, and flawless proformace. It’s an easy install and the app is intuitive and without glitches. I would recommend this line of products to anyone. As a lifelong electrical installer, I was impressed by the seamless installation ease and integration.

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.

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 installed the hub and Contact Sensor. Both installed easily the first attempt. The minus one star came about for two reasons. It wasn't quite clear how to setup notifications for SMS (texts) and, if you want a text sent to you, like I needed for my mailbox alarm, you need to PAY if you want to receive more than 15 text alert each month. My mail box will be accessed twice each day except for Sundays. That 32 texts for the mailbox alone. I was planning on monitoring two gates also. That would be another twenty or so SMS's per month. Email messages are limited also, but allow 250/mo free. I believe the subscription plans start some where around two dollars a month for 200 SMS's and 5000 emails. This information is difficult to find, by the way. My Smartthings hub SMS's are free, just saying. I can afford $2.00 per month, but I just wasn't expecting this bump in the road. The signal range is amazing, as others have stated, My mailbox to hub distance is about 200 yards, my Contact Sensor is mounted inside of my metal mailbox, I drilled a tiny hole in the side of it to externalize the antenna. It worked beautifully instantly. It is 110F here in the summer, let's see if this device can take it. Both my wive and I need to receive these notifications, the app allows you to share an account. It had me send her a link, with turned out to be a QR code. Now it was quit awkward for her to receieve this code which she was to scan, also on her phone , with the Yolink app...how is she supposed to do that? So I took a photo of it on my phone and she scanned it in on her Yoling phone app and it set up almost everything for her. If she wants to receive SMS, she had to find where in the app to enter her phone number, it wasn't obvious, I don't know why the app didn't just ask her for it when she indicated she wanted SMS notifications. So functionality is great, the app is pretty good, but not always intuitive. Everything was received today and installed today. We'll see how it works over the next few months.

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.