27% is quite low for such a new device. I don't know how either HA or HE is calculating battery (I'm sure @mike.maxwell could give a good explanation). I would think though that HA is the issue on this particular problem.... But face it.... Battery reporting on ANY DEVICE is almost as erratic in behavior as my ex-wife...
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Oh I absolutely agree and is not a deal killer for me.. I can probably play some games with event reporting date/time to alert if something died.
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Well they look liked they're reporting in roughly every 8 hours for battery do easy enough for Device Activity Check to keep an eye on them.
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Where the heck is the battery compartment? Are we covering it with the double sided tape?
It is pretty easy to get to it, just slide the cover.
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Thank you,
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I have one of these Xfinity XHS2-UE contact sensors installed 7/22/23 per my log, using the original Panasonic battery.
- It's last battery report, 2 days ago, was 100% battery.
- Yesterday it totally stopped responding.
- Today I replaced the battery with a Toshiba 2450 and the device immediately began responding again.
Conclusion:
- Low cost, thus reduced "barrier to entry" device. I paid $6.50/ea
- Battery Reporting on HE definitely DOES NOT WORK for this device, using the Generic Zigbee Contact Sensor driver
- Medium cost to operate. I paid $1.34/ea for a pack of 5 batteries
Yep, all of mine always report 100%, even when the battery is totally dead. This isn't a "lithium steep-drop-at-EOL" thing, it's absolutely an issue with the devices themselves.
However, battery life is excellent (at least 1 year for me, even on the heavy-use ones), and I just use Device Activity Check to let me know when one is dead.
I don't have any critical security stuff hinging on these things, so if a battery dies and I don't find out for 24-48 hours, that's no big deal for me.
For the price, reliability, and excellent battery life of these things, I can happily live with this battery idiosyncrasy.
On the Xfinity, the one I have in use stopped working yesterday. The battery was less than a year old, but I replaced it anyway. Didn't help. Then, because it seemed to light up when I jiggled the battery, I bent the battery clips a little to make better contact. That did the trick. It's been in service for years, so maybe that's a thing, over time.
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Mine also.
Is it a device thing, or a driver thing? Probably a device thing because the reddit HA says they have the same issue with these sensors on HA...
Doubt it's a driver thing, since there don't seem to be similar complaint with other zigbee ctc sensors
When a device has not responded for a long time, (on the Device Activity Check report), it may be that the battery is gone, or that it fell off the mesh.
You can't tell which just by looking.
If you test the battery and it shows that it down, then (and only then) do you know that it's the battery. If you don't want to test with a multi-meter, I recommend getting the following battery tester:
Tenergy T-333 Universal Battery Tester AA/AAA/C/D/9V/CR123A/CR2/CRV3/2CR5/CRP2 851197001383 | eBay
Well, jiggling the Xfinity didn't last.
It died today.
Replaced with another.
