Inaccurate Battery Level

[charlesrblack]

I have a Zigbee glass break sensor that's only a few months old. I started getting low battery level notifications recently. I pulled the batteries and tested them - they're still good.

The logs show the battery level at zero, but the device is still reporting out as normal.

Is there any way to fix this?

[ritchierich]

@charlesrblack

Is there any way to fix this?

Unfortunately battery reporting is up to the device and not the HE hub. It is very inconsistent and super frustrating. My Iris motions die around 15-20% but my Centralite/Samsung water sensors will report 0% for over 4 months. This topic has been discussed and there are community solutions to help you know when they finally fall off the network.

Here is a recent post with community solutions mentioned:

Battery report inconsistency

Battery level reporting is inconsistent. I have an alert set to let me know when batteries are below 50% since below that, I have seen devices become unresponsive. Over the past few days, my Iris V2 Smart Fob has been reporting battery life of 49%. However, when I checked this morning, it is reading 62%. I replaced this battery not that long ago (Energizer ECR2450BP with a best by date of 03-2029, so the batteries should be good. I try not to replace batteries too often since that gets quite ex…

I personally use an external solution using NodeRed to send me a Pushover notification every 12 hours letting me know if a device hasn't reported in the last 12-24 hours. More complicated than it needs to be for most but it is leveraging a database I already have in place for external logging.

[aaiyar]

@charlesrblack

Is there any way to fix this?

You could try re-pairing the device without deleting it.

1. factory reset the device
2. start zigbee pairing on the hub
3. put the device in pairing mode

[rlithgow1]

Take what a device reports for battery with a grain of salt. They lie like a politician or your SO caught in bed with someone else...

[StephenH]

It is the same with the Mopeka propane gauges I purchased for my camping trailer's propane tanks. They are indicators, but if one wants accuracy, don't count on them either. Consider the battery level as an indicator, not an accurate measurement and you will be okay.

[rlithgow1]

Well said. In my case I have HSM monitor all my battery devices and notify if any of them get below 20%. I figure that's close enough +/- to just replace the battery

[arnb]

In a word "fugetaboutit."

I currently use the "Device Watchdog" app reporting Battery Levels and (missing) Activity, but mostly ignore the Battery Report. When a battery powered device shows up on the (missing) Activity Report, the battery is changed. I've had (non critical) devices operate for over 1 year at 0% and other devices give up at 25%.

Proposal: Updated and improved battery reporting

This proposal is for a standardized, user adjustable, battery percentage reporting algorithm, to be used with all battery powered devices supported by HE. For existing drivers the updated logic would be added as time permits. Consider this a starting point, feel free to improve it. Why As many of us know, battery percentage is perhaps the most arbitrary unreliable piece of device information, yet almost all of us rely upon it to keep our battery powered devices up and running. For example:…