UPDATE: We recently reviewed a better Zigbee-based alternative to the Neo 90db siren. Heiman Zigbee 95dB Siren and Strobe Review.
Last week I reviewed the TuYa ZigBee Smart Plug 16A which turned out to be a positive surprise for such a cheap smart plug. In this review I am going to test the Neo Tuya ZigBee Siren 90db which is one of the cheapest siren alarms on the market. It features a small led light, a built in temperature and humidity sensor and operates on ZigBee 3.0. In this AliExpress Review, we are going to disassemble it, take a peak inside and integrate it with Home Assistant.
Neo TuYa 90dB Siren NAS-AB02B0
*N/A links will be added when available
Technical Specification
- Power Supply: Micro USB 5V/1A
- Battery Backup: 2 x CR123A-3V x 2
- Standby Current: 61uA-180uA
- Sound Intensity: 90db
- Sound Types: 18
- Detection Temperature: -10℃ ~ 80℃
- Detection Humidity: 0% ~ 100%
- Wireless Frequency: 2. 4GHZ
- Communication protocol: Zigbee 3.0
- Size: 68x68x32mm
- Certification: CE/FCC
Note: No batteries are included with the product. Only a 3 feet ~ 90cm MicroUSB cable. Batteries are used as a backup, so they are not necessary for operating the gadget.
What’s inside?
The battery cap is removed by turning it clockwise. Once out of the way, the pairing button is revealed along with three Phillips head screws that hold the whole thing together.
Once I opened I, I noticed this thing has a 2W 8Ohm loudspeaker which surprised me how loud it was for such a small speaker. It featured a Silicon Labs EFR32 Wireless Microcontroller which officially supports BLE, ZigBee and Thread connectivity. See HERE.
The PCB was well built, I noticed no hazards or bad placement of components. The wires connecting the speaker were a little flimsy, but this gadget is not meant to be opened in any case.
It was marked as model NAS-AB02B0-V3. What the V3 meant I had no idea, nor it seemed important, as it worked fine with Home Assistant.
Integration Compatibility
There are two variants of this Neo Smart Siren floating the market. One is the NAS-AB02B0 model and the other is marked as NAS-AB02B2. The second is a cheaper variant which doesn’t have a temperature & humidity sensor. In this review, we are looking at the NAS-AB02B0 model which has the temp & humidity sensor and is supported in ZHA & ZigBee2MQTT.
ZHA Integration
This smart siren is compatible with ZHA, and a custom quirk has been implement for it. To pair it, hold the button under the battery cap for around 7 seconds until the LED on the front starts blinking fast. When I paired the siren with ZHA, it was discovered immediately and exposed three entities.
- Alarm Switch
- Temperature Sensor
- Humidity Sensor
Some users still report issues with ZHA not exposing its entities at all, even after applying the quirk. Others were able to pair it successfully and all entities worked without issues.
In my case, It did not create an entity for volume selection or selection of sound type, as this smart siren comes with 18 different types of alarm sounds. To change the sound type, we must use ZHA clusters:
- Open the Neo Smart Siren in ZHA
- Open clusters
- Select “TuyaManufClusterSiren”
- Select “melody” and click Get ZigBee Attribute to get the current value
- Change this value to a number from 1-18
- Click Set ZigBee Attribute
- Sound the alarm via the switch entity to test
Experiment until you have found one you like. For changing the volume, select the same cluster but instead of “melody”, select “volume”. Click Get ZigBee Attribute, change it to whatever level you like and click Set ZigBee attribute.
ZigBee2MQTT
As I expected, pairing the Siren in ZigBee2MQTT presented no issues. It paired immediately and exposed a bunch of entities in Home Assistant. More than were needed actually, but the more the merrier. Check the photo for the full list.
I went ahead and disabled some of these entities, as they are not needed and were pointless. I only needed the alarm switches, duration, melody and volume selection, readings of the temperature and humidity sensor. Everything else was useless to me, because I can make my own automations of those min/max values.
The alarm switch worked as it should, melody selector worked, but the volume entity bothered me because it only had 3 levels: low, medium, high. It was not possible to fine tune it from the entity. You could also set the duration of the alarm, which was not possible in ZHA.
Verdict
In experimenting with the siren, I found it was pretty stable in my ZigBee mesh. All the automations I tested worked fine with its entities. I tested many service calls, like setting the volume to High and sounding the alarm when it was triggered by a motion sensor for example. The siren responded fine and without delay.
I placed the siren next to a Xiaomi Temperature & Humidity sensor and surprisingly, the built-in temperature sensor was fairly accurate, with an offset of 0.3~0.4°C.
In my opinion, I think it is capable of deterring the occasional porch thief just fine if placed outside. You could pair it with a motion sensor and arm it while you are away. If you place it inside, It may be capable of scaring away burglars, but it is definitely not going to alert your neighbours. On the other hand, this could have many use cases if you pair it with some other gadgets in Home Assistant. For example, you could pair it with a smart plug on your dishwasher so it alerts you when the laundry is done.
In any case, although it is a fine gadget I would not label this as “Siren” in the true sense of the word, it is more like a very loud sound alarm. I would not rely on it to protect my home and integrate it in any alarm system.
If you want to test it, you can order it from one of our affiliate links. You would be supporting this blog at no additional cost to you.
Neo TuYa 90dB Siren NAS-AB02B0
*N/A links will be added when available
Hi, Thanks for the great post. I bought one NAS-AB02B2-V2, and I paired it with ZHA, but the alarm switch doesn’t do anything nor the clusters configuration to change the melody or volume. What can I try more? Thanks for your help.
Hello, I will help you. Check your inbox I’ve sent you an e-mail
I have the same issue as Hugo…
You must update Home Assistant and ZHA to the LATEST release. Than repair the siren.
If it does not work, please follow this guide to apply a custom quirk:
https://github.com/zigpy/zha-device-handlers/issues/1379
Cheers!
This is the problem with ZHA being integrated into HA, it gets updated with the rest of HA. If you need a ZHA update but there are bugs in a new HA release (which there always are lots of), you are kind of hosed.
Zigbee2mqtt didn’t have this problem at all. It and HA can be updated independently.
Nice review. I am curious as to how this will work as a doorbell chime. I’m looking for such a device to replace the dumb doorbell I currently have. My thought is to use some (any) zigbee button, add notifications when not home and quiet hours for when the kids are asleep for example. Are they suitable sounds on this “alarm bell” for use as a doorbell, and is the volume “low enought” to just act as a “louder notification”/doorbell’?
Hello Phillip,
Its perfectly doable with a Zigbee butoon and HA but the siren itself is very loud. Plus, the built melodies are more “alarms” instead od chimes. So I dont know if these would be pleasant enough as a doorbell.
Hi,
thanks for your tutorial! I’ve got the version without temperature and humidity here. Integration into ZHA works. Also switching alarm on and off. I’m struggeling with adjusting melody and volume. Reading of values seem to work (NeoAlarmMelody.melody_05, NeoAlarmVolume.high) but writing doesn’t take any effect. Any ideas?
Cheers!
Hello Alex,
I suggest you enable ZHA logging to see what the issue is. Check here:
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha/#debug-logging
You can mail us the log admin@smarthomescene.com. We’ll try to help.
Cheers!
Out of curiosity, given the issues with the Heiman and Z2M (and the lack of response on the ticket about that) … would you recommend this siren instead now, or another siren entirely?
I have model NAS-AB02B0
and hub SmartThings (Aeotec)
objective: use for Doorbell
SmartThings hub cannot use. It is possible to pair but nothing more. There is no driver for this device.
However, you can find an Edge driver on the web. And this one is working.
https://github.com/w35l3y/EdgeDrivers/tree/main/personal-tuya-devices#how-to-use
Hi,
I am not familiar with SmartThings edge drivers and the ecosystem in general so I have no clue.
Cheers