The Basics:

The Firefighter is a white puck just a few inches across that really won't look out of place in your home. The below left image shows the Firefighter next to the mounting plate that can be attached to your ceiling via either the included double sided tape or the two screws. The below right image shows the device with the cover removed so you can see the pre-installed CR123A battery, as well as the features of the circuit board. Of note are two features located just to the right of the battery, near where the red/black wiring from the microphone is terminated on the PCB. There is a small black button located on the PCB, which to me initially looked like an electrical component, which is for the inclusion process. There is also a strip of metal which serves as the intrusion sensor, which will let you know if someone is tampering with the device.



In Use:

As mentioned, my previous method of integrating my home's seven interconnected smoke detectors with SmartThings was to wire in a relay and a Z-Wave contact switch that features internal wiring terminals. This would work well for weeks on end, and the custom device handler I used would respond very quickly to any test button presses initiated on any of the smoke detectors in the house. But, there would be frequent false alarms where none of the actual smoke detectors would sound, but where SmartThings would trigger a separate alarm for smoke. I replaced all the smoke detectors (which was a good call since they were all 10+ years old), and I replaced the contact sensor and relay. I relocated the relay and sensor, and still there would be occasional false alarms. The image below shows the previous setup, which followed the basic steps found in this discussion in the SmartThings Community.



The new setup now looks like the image shown below. I chose the smoke detector in my basement since the installation was the easiest, required no damage to a drywall ceiling, and places the Firefighter about six feet from my SmartThings hub.



The key with the installation is that Ecolink states that the Firefighter must be within six inches of a smoke detector, and that the microphone must be facing the smoke detector.