replacing a battery will cause the device to scan for parent routers again to get back to the hub, its possible it's picking a bad or worse router than it had before.
Have repeaters changed since the device was first deployed?
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When you replace batteries in a device, try to do so in the near vicinity of the hub to which it is connected. It should also work if you are near a repeater, but being near the hub is better.
I have had some issues with old Smartthing presence sensors when replacing the batteries in the fobs.
I used to have this issue with my Visonic contact and my Iris motion. I have a routine to reset the sensor and pair it again when it's time for battery change.
I have a Visonic contact outside in a metal mailbox and it was killing my battery every few weeks. I installed a ZigBee repeater 5 feet from it and it's once a year battery change out now. Even with pretty cold winter and my battery is still 100%.
Strong mesh and routing play a huge part in battery life.
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I just added a few of these:
Along with 6 Sonoff contact sensors. Every device in my route table has an lqi of 250 or better. They were cheap and easy to flash.
Sorry to go off topic, but what do you mean by this.
Have you just installed these at various points through your house using a usb 'plug' in a mains O/L?
Do they then pair with HE as a device?
Just wondering how you have done it.
Thanks.
Yes. I added a usb extension cable so I could place them more discretely. The links I used are in this thread Market for High power ZIgbee Routers
They pair as a device after flashing the firmware. I used the TI software to flash them.
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I ordered them with express shipping and received them in North Carolina about a week and a half later. They were ~$15 each, and the contact sensors were ~$7 each. No issues with any of them so far. I actually like the sensors, very minimalistic/unobtrusive and take 2032 batteries. I did add a small folded piece of the sensor’s packaging on top of the 2032 battery before snapping the lid back on each of them to help hold the batteries in place, but for the price I was more than okay with that.
Let me know if you have any other questions or if you buy them.
I had a few of these but after around 6 months started getting false motion detection from some of them. Changed batteries (various manufacturers) and tightened the battery connection but couldn't stop them from doing it. Flogged them on ebay in the end.
Still have 2 that I keep playing with. Even put one in a matchbox and it would give false motion detection every couple of days. Real shame.
I have one of those routers for the last 3 months sitting on my desk, wondering which firmware is best to flash with. I'll assume it's the one from this link?
I'm going to add this to my 6 xbee's/2 tradfri repeaters/2 Tuya USB minis/4 Iris plugs.
Can you say "too many repeaters"?
I used that firmware, but in the “develop” branch. It increases the output to +9, and fixes a couple bugs from what I gathered.
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This is so flimsy that I didn’t feel like it would hold the contact. That’s why the folded over piece of the box it came in was brought in to assist. With 4 kids, and these being on bathroom and shower doors, I will know pretty quick if they stop working. I’m using some of them to keep the ML instances from turning off the lights when closed, and set the time out to zero 
.
Good to know other people were having the same issues. I wasn't sure if batteries I have been trying were just going down hill in quality. I removed most of my peanut plugs, so that may have been causing some of the lower battery life.
Mine were causing trouble with my Zigbee mesh. I ditched them a couple years ago and also set up a separate Zigbee mesh just for battery devices and Samsung plugs, leaving lights on there own network. No issues since.
Hey Ken, I followed that link but didn't see develop branch. Might you have a direct link?
Thanks
This is the repot. The first file is the one that you want.
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HA !
After similar battery drain escalation I JUST bought a replacement and repeated the hack to wire something external to the contact switch. I thought for sure my year plus luck had ran out on the old unit functioning well (including battery life) after a) hacking it, and b) it getting wet once 
.
So there seems to be a trend.
This is the hacked one I was having problems with: Visonic MCT340E
(of course the un-hacked one in the metal mailbox still continues to give excellent battery life even 50' from the nearest repeating device; lemme tell yah THAT'S the unit that has surprised me especially with the high high to low low temps it has tolerated)
This is what I replaced it with: Xfinity XHS2-UE
(which is a Visonic design and I have one of these hacked that is looooong on battery life).
Thanks, Finally figured it out. 2 things have to take apart dongle to get at boot button, no where does sonoff say that. And Github, well I'm no expert there, but a video helped me.
Highly Reccommended Video:
Are we 100% derailed at this point?
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Well, not 100%, since the cause of rapid battery drain for these is likely a weak mesh.
Did you figure out that you have to hold down the boot button while inserting the dongle in your usb port for it to be flashable? That would have been good information as well.
Yes, the video was excellent, covered every detail. I can't get it to pair. Plug in to USB press reset button for 5 seconds, HE shows initializing but never finishes. Xbee scan doesn't show dongle participating even after taking the intialized data and creating virtual device. HE also never displays the "unknown" device it was creating, where did it go?
dev:7962022-03-03 12:34:40.601 pm infoMotion 2nd Floor Hue is inactive
dev:7692022-03-03 12:34:32.591 pm infoMotion Front Door Hue illuminance is 82 Lux
dev:2022022-03-03 12:34:17.958 pm infoApplication ID Received
dev:1732022-03-03 12:34:15.098 pm infoApplication ID Received
dev:8302022-03-03 12:34:13.232 pm infoDoor Slider🚪 temperature is 54.29°F
sys:12022-03-03 12:34:13.081 pm Initializing Zigbee Device 000D6F0001071B9A, 5779
sys:12022-03-03 12:34:11.190 pm Zigbee Discovery Running
sys:12022-03-03 12:34:07.830 pm Zigbee Discovery Stopped
dev:7962022-03-03 12:33:35.097 pm infoMotion 2nd Floor Hue is active
dev:7972022-03-03 12:33:33.232 pm infoMotion 2nd Floor is active
dev:512022-03-03 12:33:30.191 pm infoMotion Breezeway Hue illuminance is 2 Lux
sys:12022-03-03 12:33:25.124 pm Created Unknown Zigbee Device
sys:12022-03-03 12:33:07.825 pm Zigbee Discovery Running
sys:12022-03-03 12:33:06.826 pm Zigbee Discovery Stopped
dev:7012022-03-03 12:32:57.139 pm infoMotion MBR table is active
dev:1732022-03-03 12:32:45.082 pm infoManufacturer Name Received
sys:12022-03-03 12:32:22.086 pm Initializing Zigbee Device 000D6F000106C40C, 29C5
Mine each took the full time to initialize, and I actually had to reboot the hub to get the first one to pair.
I don't have an xbee to scan the network with, but all of my repeaters have very high lqi, even one's that are farthest from the hub, since adding these.
Sonoff zigbee repeater 3 is out in the garage, and Kenny's bedroom Samsung outlet is in the bedroom over the garage.
