Device battery level reporting

[mick.taylor]

I was starting to have issues with a SmartThings motion sensor (GP-U999SJVLBEA). It was paired directly with the Hubitat hub but would not always trigger on motion. I moved it close to the hub but it was hit and miss whether it activated. It was paired as a Generic Zigbee Motion Sensor and has a displayed battery level of 62.
I uninstalled it from Hubitat and paired it with the SmartThings hub. The sensor still failed to show every activation but the battery level displayed 29. From past experience anything below 40 can cause issues with ST's. I replaced the battery and motion activations were good again and battery showed 100.

I uninstalled from ST's and paired again with the Hubitat hub. Motion activations are still good but the battery level is still showing 62.
I upgraded the Hubitat hub yesterday, the details are:

Does the battery level take a certain time to refresh within hubitat?

Many thanks

[ronv42]

Yes battery levels on these Samsung devices can be unreliable. I have a quite few buttons and one will stop reporting battery at about 47% and stay like that until I get the alert that it's no longer responding. Or another will have the 80% to 5% in one day.

I haven't found anything common but did read an article on some of the "cheap" coin batteries that have a fast fall off can cause this. I usually stay with Duracell or Energizer and have very little issues with falloff on those. What I do now is keep a battery log for each device of when I replaced and the brand of battery. It's been showing I can get about 18 months out of buttons that are used multiple times a day and about 3 years out of ones that are rarely used.

I do know that the batters that came in the box have terrible endurance and I had to replace within 6 months of putting the devices into service.

[mick.taylor]

Thanks for the reply. I replaced the battery with a Duracell Cr2
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Duracell-Lithium-CR15H270-Designed-Flashlights/dp/B00011PJDQ/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=cr2+duracell&qid=1605619773&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFWS1ZXQ1FHVExUN0cmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA3MDAwODkzQURGU1lSQzA1SzNHJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA0NDgxMjEyU1RFR0VNSEtZU1NJJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

SmartThings reported the level at 100 but Hubitat gave it the same level as previously, 62.

[velvetfoot]

Here's another.

[mick.taylor]

I'm not sure if this was the same prior to 2.2.4. Only had this hub a few days and still on the bottom of a steep learning curve.

[ronv42]

Here is one where I saw the draw down on the battery really quick. And it only seemed to report on large battery changes:

[lewis.heidrick]

Lithium Ion batteries have a steep drop off. They report basically the same throughout their lifecycle and drop off steep at the end. Alkaline batteries typically report better because their falloff is pretty consistent. Not all, but most devices battery reporting capabilities are calibrated for the Alkaline curve.

[Terk]

Whenever I replace batteries in my devices I go into the device properties and click the Configure then Refresh buttons to get it to update the battery % and other info like Temp, Humidity, State to verify it is communicating again. Re joining the device after the battery was replaced should have updated the battery % as it should have affectively performed the Configure step as well.

[mick.taylor]

Thanks to all who replied. Today I updated to 2.2.4.141 and all the battery levels correctly displayed.
(I compared with what ST's was reporting by unpairing and pairing with the ST's hub)

[JohnRob]

I keep an Excel file with all my battery operated devices, the battery type and last replaced.

It helps me be sure I have a fresh replacement when it is needed and I don't loose the driver saved battery last replaced if the device is excluded and re included for some other reason.