YoLink Outdoor Security Siren & Smart Alarm Controller Kit - Loud 110 dB, Wireless, Battery-Powered, 1/4 Mile Range, Android-iOS App, Alexa, Google, IFTTT, Home Assistant, Hub Required!

I have many Yolink products and this was one of the essential reasons I got into Yolink in the first place - building an alarm system with no subscription fees that was 100 percent under my own control and which doesn't require Internet connectivity or cloud dependence. Like my other Yolink products, (water shut-off valve, leak detectors, temp sensors, outlets, etc) this is well-made and solid and not some cheap piece of plastic. A hub is required to get any of it functional, but they practically give those away with their equipment bundles so it's no big deal. I have this siren indoors and it's loud enough for that purpose, but it's inaudible from outside and I don't think would be very useful if even mounted outdoors. But inside it works fine, for outside I put two (non-Yolink) outdoor sirens that are VERY loud when activated by two Yolink power outlets, which are set to power on when the system is armed and tripped. I originally purchased two Yolink "alarm fobs" which - to my complete bafflement still to this day - are not capable of arming/disarming the alarm system. For that I needed a "Flex Fob", which I purchased instead and returned the first ones. The Flex Fobs do the arm/disarm task, plus they not only have two additional buttons available for other tasks, (I use the others to open/close my garage door), but they also have short & long-press configurations for each button, so there's actually 8 actions available for each fob. (4 buttons x 2 actions each button.) All of it can function independent of any wi-fi network or Internet connection, although obviously Internet would be needed to send out notifications. The Yolink app can be somewhat confusing, especially when it comes to configuring an alarm system. I needed to consult quite a few of their support documents to get this dialed in correctly, but once you understand the mechanics of the Yolink app and how it wants to do what it does, it gets easier to work with. It's far too complicated a process to go into here, but basically it amounts to enabling or disabling an alert policy, therefore "arming" or "disarming" the alarm system. (Disabling makes alerts do nothing, enabling makes it trigger other devices and send out notifications or whatever you configure it to do.) Yolink support documentation is there for help, and their tech support is also very good - twice I had to contact them regarding linking devices and why the original "alarm fob" wasn't arming my alarm. Both times they responded quickly in English and got me through my problems. I don't use any motion detectors so I can't attest to them, but I assume they work as well as the rest of my Yolink devices. Their contact sensors, temp sensors, and leak sensors have all worked flawlessly, hub configuration was painless, integration with Alexa was equally painless, and although it took some puzzling on how to configure everything in the alarm system, in the end it's been money very well spent.

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.

This is a nifty, simple and cost effective alarm. It’s decently loud, small/low profile and easy to setup. I don’t like that there is no LAN only support- your app and hub both have to travel all the way to the cloud to activate or deactivate the alarm (support says it’s in USA, not China, but I haven’t verified this yet). This causes lag and the app sometimes claims the siren command failed but a few seconds later the siren does activate/deactivate. I contacted their support team about this and they admit it’s a problem but they had no real solution other than exchanging for a new hub. Not great. This hub/siren does integrate with home assistant, despite what someone else said in the comments. I have it activated with a zigbee push button through an open source hass integration. To create a hass automation, install the integration and then tie it to a service call, selecting the installed service.

Great product!

This product is advertised for sale in the UK but it is not compatible with the UK hub due to different frequency set up This should be removed from the UK Amazon store

Excellent product!

ok

From 1 to 10 the sound is loud about 7. Enough to alert neighbours and may be worry an intruder. Needs to hide it, because it is battery operated, if the intruder spot it, will be easy to switch it off. Require a hub, expensive as well. It does the job.