Battery Type by Device - Would LOVE to see this in the Compatibility List

🛎️ Get Help Devices
1

Hello,

Wish List for the 'Compatible Devices' list

  1. Add a column for the device is Battery Powered
  2. Add a column for the device uses (Qty) Battery XXX

This is hopefully a "Help Others Post". In dealing with recent notification issues (solved in another post with GCal API App and Pushover) I wanted to document my battery powered devices by battery type so that I can add that to the Email Alerts for Low battery. Also, so I can potentially buy devices that use batteries I have a lot of, or like (CR123, AA, AAA, CR2032. I have found multi-function motion sensors like the Aeon MultiSensor 6 using it outside was "terrible" at battery consumption. I think due to it having too many functions for outside, temp, illumination, motion, etc. Similar with a contact sensor that did temperature. Maybe configuration to turn off features might be needed, but I have not gone down that route yet,

So I wanted to build a list so I can better choose products by battery type, yes you have to go find the manual online or contact support to find the battery type to use. If the battery type and count could be added to the 'Compatible Devices', then we could choose products by battery type we like, or by posts like this. And of course identify devices that are powered by batteries. For example the CR2477 do NOT do a good job at battery level readings.. 100% or Empty so false data and I get notifications to replace the battery that isn't dead yet... I would avoid this battery type in future buys personally. Guessing similar thick watch batteries types may have the same issue with this type and chemistry batteries.

My take on Performance ratings I used below:

Good= up to a year
Fantastic= over 1 year
Poor= under 1 year
Terrible = Less than 6 months or two batteries draining fast, worse than terrible

Below are items I am using and the Perf Rating, I have retired the "terrible" items as I have better options.

Leak Sensors:

Dome - CR123 Perf=Fantastic
Zooz ZSE42 - CR2450 Perf=New
EcoLink FLF-ZWAVE5-ECO - Generic Z-Wave - CR123 Perf=Good
ThirdReality Generic Zigbee - (2) AAA Perf=Good

Motion Sensors:

Dome - CR123 Perf=Fantastic
Ring - (2) AA Perf=Fantastic
Aeotec TriSensor - CR123 Perf=Good
Aeon MultiSensor 6 - CR123 Perf=New

Contact Sensors:

Ring - (2) CR2032 Perf=Fantastic
Dome - CR123 Perf=Fantastic
Aquara Zigbee (no temp) - CR2032 Perf=Good

Tilt Sensor:

Ecolink Tilt Sensor - CR123 Perf=Good

Smoke Alarms:

First Alert - Generic Z-Wave Smoke/CO Detector - (2) AA Perf = Good
First Alert - Generic Z-Wave Plus Smoke/CO Detector - (2) AA Perf = Good

Tempature Sensors:

Aeotec Aer2 - CR2477 Perf = Poor
Zooz ZSE44 - CR2450 Perf = New

Switches:

Zooz Zen34 - CR2032 Perf = Good

I hope this gives some folks an idea and to track their battery types and include the type in the notifications for low battery so you can order more when you find you are out... BEFORE the device dies :wink:

Lets expand the list for others and maybe Hubitat will add the 2 columns into the Compatible Devices list.

Cheers

2

This sounds like a good project for the community to maintain. A wiki forum post might be best. You are not the first person to suggest it, but so far, no one has actually wanted to do it. :slight_smile: The official compatibiltiy list is unlikely to be a good fit for this, as it is simply intended to note what devices are known to work with built-in drivers, and sometimes manufacturers change things between hardware revisions that are not always apparent, among other concerns.

3 Likes
3

Just a note, the Zooz devices I have tend to show markedly superior battery life in the differing Z-wave versions they use. My Zse41 700s get significantly worse battery life than the 800s. So for Zooz at least, noting the chipset is worth doing in an effort like this!

S

4

I have implemented these Battery Notification Emails, also Notifications (iPhone not working well ATM (known bug) and PushOver Critical alerts. I may change PushOVer once I see them generating the triggers. I have a switch that will need a new battery soon to test it all. Now I can direct whomever if I am not home to replace this device battery with this specific battery:

image

Now I can know which battery to grab to replace it....

MG

5

It dawned on me while doing the above Notifications that it would be easier if you just added the Battery Type on the Device Label when adding a device, or after like I am doing now so you could make more generic Notifications.

Device Label
Leak Sensor - Master Sink - Dome CR123

Then you just let the variables tell you what the battery is in the Notification/Alert/Email/SMS

Notification message to send
%device%, %value%, %text%, %time% - %date%

Ranch Notification

to me

LEAK DETECTED - Leak - Guest Toliet - Dome CR123, wet, 08:04 PM - 11/13/2024

And you would get the battery type... Then whenever you add a battery device you just make sure to add the battery in the Device Label when you add it.

The things you think about and discover AFTER you finish,,,

;-D

P.S. - I changed all my Labels and deleted the extra notifications by Battery

1 Like
6

Food for thought about battery notifications in general... Alkalines have a pretty linear decline, so monitoring those %s makes reasonable sense. But lithiums just have that fast steep decline near the end, and (in my own experience) the lower %s near the end can be quite deceiving...

In some cases, a lithium can literally go from a decent % to completely dead overnight. OTOH, I've had some lithiums that worked perfectly fine for even several months after they started showing 0%.

I use lithiums exclusively, so for my few must-always-work devices (locks, smoke alarm backups), those get replaced annually no matter what. But for the vast majority of my battery devices, those all "fly to failure" -- I just replace the batts when they stop working. To monitor that, I use Device Acivity Check -- it works like a champ.

So I don't bother monitoring any battery %s anymore -- it's just not reliable or useful information to me.

ETA -- I do keep a spreadsheet of all my battery devices that includes #/type of battery and the last-changed date. That's helpful to make sure I maintain a decent stock of spare batteries, and tracking the dates will help identify if I have a device that's chewing through batteries at an odd rate (knock on wood, I haven't had that happen yet).

2 Likes
7

Some device don't report battery at all until they change level or very infrequently.

image
image1144×732 113 KB

Reporting is somewhat dependent on the driver in some cases, I think.

3 Likes
8

I'm curious as to what lock you have that works properly with lithium batteries. Schlage recommends not using lithium - "Lithium batteries may cause undesirable operation".

9

I've had 2 Yale locks (currently YRD-256, and whatever similar looking version they had before those -- 246 maybe?) for many years now and have always used Energizer Lithium AAs in them (for better cold weather performance) -- I've never had any kind of issue with them.

2 Likes
10

I have lithium in my be469's and don't see any issues. Since the battery doesn't get read correctly because they're lithium, I simply use device activity check to see if I need to change the battery.

1 Like
11

I've also run lithium in my Schlage Z-Wave 469's in the past. Currently on alkalines as I was out of lithiums at last battery change. That is the bad news, as noted, lithiums are good and then boom they are not. You have to make sure you have spare batteries around when they suddenly die. Not a great thing if it happened while you were away and someone (e.g., dog walker) needed access to your house.

1 Like
12

Install dates and guess-timation of battery health/life and other associated "ready reminders" is common ground to keeping a functional environment.

It would be worth reviewing at all the ideas folks have proposed over the last few years (and in some cases have built solutions for) and finding that collection of things that can become built-in components to Hubitat.

This is one of those things that can differentiate one Home Automation system from another in the sense of being HELPFUL to use...vs just being CAPABLE.

This is arm waving, and ignores what the devices are capable of, but imagine a world where one could open up....
a Device Status Table seeing all your devices,
the last entered date of a battery change,
a drop down battery type & specific brand menu selection (maybe focusing on 10 brands),
an AI based estimation of remaining life based on:
a) that specific battery (and performance data collected automatically across the HE sphere of users),
b) the battery's running average daily low voltage,
c) the ambient temperature around the device if available,
d) the average daily use that device incurs,
e)....more relevant inputs perhaps.

If such a display was overly conservative by even a month's worth of use it would still be helpful. The alternative "Easy Button" is changing batteries in everything on some regular rotation regardless of the state.

And spare me the "just build a spreadsheet like I do" replies, hell the general public couldn't even keep up with their Smoke Alarm batteries until those devices got a lot better about knowing and telling you when they were sippin-the-end of their battery's life.

I see stuff like this in this driver and I wonder what steps will move us towards more help in this area; better drivers, better devices, a more informative Zigbee standard (Matter)? @mike.maxwell

image

image

image
image1095×185 7.24 KB

2 Likes
13

Second this request for battery dates! I would be happy to have just a "last installed date" and then be able to generate alerts based off that.... I have a bunch of zigbee contact sensors (Sengled) that are horrible with reporting battery % (and will sometimes change upwards over a few days and then back down).

1 Like
14

I will give recognition to HE User Interface improvements that are allowing more and more obvious "watch" over this stuff...and yes...the cool Custom Apps, but I'm right with ya on having this built in; both the date entry field in the standard drivers AND flexible alerts off of this for those devices that report just as you outlined.

Yes I know we could keep a spreadsheet, but that's not "a system", that's a crutch.

1 Like
15

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.