What we’ve learned installing SuperLink

SuperLink on real jobs

A SuperLink Gateway sits on the network and talks to battery-powered sensors and alarms around the building. Everything shows up in UniFi Protect beside the cameras, and recent console updates have made it even better, with an updated Sensor Manager.

• Entry Sensor. Doors and windows, in surface and recessed versions.
• Motion Sensor. Movement in a room.
• Glass Break Sensor. Breaking glass.
• Environmental Sensor. Water leaks, temperature, humidity and light.
• Siren. An indoor/outdoor 110 dB alarm with an LED light ring.
• KeyFob. Custom actions from a six-button remote.
• Relay. Two customizable inputs and two outputs.

We think it’s excellent. We’ve tested entry sensors, the relay, key fobs and the environmental sensors, and every one connects reliably and responds quickly. SuperLink is becoming part of our standard recommendation for business customers.

Ubiquiti rates the gateway for up to 96 SuperLink devices at a range of up to 2 km. As we expected, the range in a real building is well short of that. We tested with the antenna that comes with the gateway. Ubiquiti also sells a SuperLink High-Gain Antenna, which we haven’t tried.

Some surprises

Many of the devices have a programmable button of their own, which can trigger an action in UniFi when it’s pressed.

The Glass Break Sensor also has a motion sensor built in, so one device covers the windows and the room. We now put a glass break sensor where we would have used a motion sensor.

When a gateway won’t adopt

On our first deployment, we spent an hour trying to adopt and readopt the gateway, and it failed every time. In the end, we got it adopted by pointing it to the console manually. The same thing happened at a second site. It’s likely a firmware issue, and we hope a future update fixes it.

If it happens to you, open the gateway’s IP address in a browser, point it to the IP address of your Protect console, then adopt it. After that, it works without any trouble.

Wired devices in Protect

Protect also works with wired devices, and they show up in the same app as the SuperLink sensors.

The Alarm Hub connects up to 32 wired sensors, and a SuperLink Gateway can mount inside it, for a hybrid system of wired and wireless sensors. Wired sensors are the better fit when sensors are hard to reach, when there are many of them, or when tamper resistance matters most.

A few other devices run on PoE, powered from a network switch.

• Siren PoE. A 110 dB siren powered over PoE, with emergency LED lighting.
• AI Speaker. An indoor 100 dB speaker for alarms and AI alerts.
• AI Horn Speaker. An outdoor 120 dB horn speaker for alarms and AI alerts.
• Vape Detection & Air Quality Sensor. Detects vaping and monitors air quality.

Thread and Matter

When the SuperLink Gateway HA was first announced, it was listed with Thread and Matter support. Its tech specs no longer list either, but UniFi Network 11 brings Matter devices into UniFi, with each one’s battery, firmware and signal, and shows Thread devices in the network map.

We suspect it’s an early step toward smart home devices in UniFi, or toward smart door locks that work directly from the platform. We’ll write more when Ubiquiti says more.

What’s still missing

A few things are still missing for most businesses, and alarm monitoring is the first. Protect can already report alarms over SIA DC-09, but few monitoring companies will work with it and the setup is tedious, so for most businesses it isn’t practical today.

There’s also no keypad for staff to arm and disarm at the door, and alarm profiles, which decide what arms when and what happens when a sensor trips, are finicky to get right.

The SuperLink Gateway HA, announced with a built-in battery and a cellular backup, hasn’t been released yet either. It’s the gateway we’d rather install, and we’ll likely make it our standard gateway for business customers once it’s out.

Ubiquiti is expected to have a lot coming with UniFi Protect 7.4, including its own alarm monitoring, powered by Noonlight, and that announcement mentions arming with a keypad.