Any interest in a thread listing battery devices that ARE NOT coin/button cell?

Getting fed up of replacing these coin cells and it might be helpful to have a list of devices that use the larger cells like CR-123a. I know this isn't directly addressing the issue, that being "finding devices that sip vs slurp power"...but it might be a reasonable surrogate as it seems these larger batteries last longer no matter what HA device they're in.

Maybe the battery spec would be better as a column entry in the HE Device Compatibility List ? (https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=List_of_Compatible_Devices)

Function / Device / Protocol / Battery
Motion / Visonic MP-840 / Zigbee / CR-123a

4 Likes

That page is a wiki, but even when logged in I don't have edit permission.

Agreed on the general annoying battery life with devices using coin cells.

2 Likes

+1 on "Battery Type" being a column in the devices wiki, but I'd take it a step further and make "Compatible?" a column as well. Then, the community would be free to add ALL devices from the universe of Z-Wave, WiFi and Zigbee modalities, and mark accordingly as integrations and drivers get developed and tested.

Seems like a good idea for a wiki post if there is community interest in maintaining it (and you/the collective community likes the idea)--that way, even community-supported devices can be listed, it can be scoped to just battery-powered ones, and Hubitat staff don't have the burden of being responsible for data that has little bearing on the platform itself.

That being said, battery size alone isn't a good indicator for me, as you hint at. For example, I have coin-cell Zigbee devices that last longer than some CR123A-powered Z-Wave devices (which is I think why coin cells weren't even practical until 700-series Z-Wave and its lower power draw). Even within the protocol, it probably depends a lot on device features and configuration. But I could still see this being helpful for anyone, even if they just want to know what size to buy for their dead sensor without taking it off the wall first. :smiley:

If you are interested: staff may have to make your post a wiki. Not sure if we can edit ours into one...

2 Likes

....advise on how/if they'd like to accommodate this, integrated with the table they are keeping or something separate that the community can maintain for the community. @mike.maxwell "the device-man"

Many of our generic drivers cover devices that use up to 4 different battery types.

Isn't that basically what this page is? Could really benefit from some formatting...

That page dates from the early days of the platform when staff weren't sure exactly what devices would work with built-in (or community) drivers and relied on early adopters to report their findings beyond just the devices staff had on hand or had personally tested. The official list (https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=List_of_Compatible_Devices) did not exist yet, and that is probably where I'd look now, though that may still be useful for finding untested or community-only devices.

But...that's about what I envisioned with my suggestion above, except scoped to only battery-powered devices and perhaps in a tabular format that, as you suggest, is easier to view and sort. (Sort of like the actual docs page, but again with this different scope--and possibly different responsibility or lack thereof for maintenance.) What staff or anyone thinks of the proposals above, we'll see. :smiley: