Hue Battery Sensor Reporting

[sean1]

I recently noticed some strange battery reporting on my Hue Motion Sensor. It's been reporting battery levels in the upper 90% range for a while, but a week ago, the reported level dropped down to 43% over the course of about four hours. Twenty-four hours later, it was only reporting 20%. Four hours after that, it had dropped to 6% and had fully dropped to 0% twenty-four hours later. It's actually been running at 0% for two days, but I haven't seen any change in responsiveness. Pulling the batteries out and putting them back in yielded no change, but new batteries immediately bumped it back up to 100%.

Now it has been a while since I've had to replace the batteries in that sensor, so it wouldn't surprise me if they are about due to be replaced regardless, but that it reported a drop from 98% to 0% over the course of just a few days makes me wonder if it was ever reporting correctly to begin with.

I'm using the built-in driver and am currently running 2.3.4.132, but I only installed that after the battery percentages started dropping (although I hadn't noticed it at that time). Has anyone else seen battery reporting like this?

[jtp10181]

Common issue with Li-ion batteries. They hold voltage output for a long time so the device has no idea they are getting low until they are nearly dead.

If the devices are not mission critical I would use this app: [RELEASE] Device Activity Check - Get notifications for "inactive" devices

Setup activity AND battery alerts for all the battery devices. That way in case the battery dies suddenly you will get a notice the next day the device has not been reporting in anymore.

[sean1]

Thanks, that does make sense.

I do use the Device Activity Check, which is how I caught the issue to begin with. But I had my threshhold set just high enough that it didn't trigger a notification until a couple days into the reported drops.

[jtp10181]

I have a temp sensor in my garage that uses a CR2023 button battery, which is cold right now (Wisconsin). It has been reporting 1% since winter started and still going strong. The cold also messes with Li-ion batteries and they will have decreased voltage output. Had to turn off the low battery alert for that one, if it ever stops working the activity check will get it.