Revisiting Schlage BE469 battery drain issue

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1

I have been diligent & read all the threads here including the discussions about buying the aotech zwave range extenders. I put fresh batteries in my front and back locks a week ago and the back lock is still showing 100% and the front lock has started to fall off a cliff...down to 76%.

There is a Jasco/GE zwave dimmer switch literally 6 inches away from the front lock. The hubitat is on the other side of the house but I have NO issues communicating with the lock. Everything is instantaneous so far and whether I'm using Alexa or Hubitat dashboards I haven't had a single issue issuing commands to either lock as far as I've observed.

I looked at perhaps the 'high power mode' being an issue (made sure the bolt had no resistance) but as an experiment I am not doing any automation with the lock at the moment. Doing everything including lock/unlocking it by hand so I'm not even using the lock's motor right now.

This lock used to be my rockstar. It never EVER chewed batteries. For years it was a soldier but even on Wink2 it began to chew up batteries about a year ago.

Front Lock firmware version is 6.8. Back Lock is 7.2.

Here is the logging from the front lock..is there a way to get additional logging from it? This doesn't seem like enough communication to cause the drain so maybe there is additional logging I'm not aware of I need to pull.

Also I have probably 6 wink v1 hubs..lol an angry mob of friends returned them to me after the Wink debacle that I could use as repeaters if that would help. Happy to buy a few aotechs but I hate to throw away perfectly good hardware if it can be repurposed.

Any thoughts?

dev:1972020-05-28 12:58:12.955 am infoFront door lock battery is 76%

dev:1972020-05-28 12:58:12.952 am debugBatteryReport: BatteryReport(batteryLevel:76)

dev:1972020-05-28 12:58:12.933 am debugparse: zw device: 10, command: 9881, payload: 00 80 03 4C , isMulticast: false

dev:1972020-05-27 10:22:17.749 pm infoFront door lock was locked by thumb turn [physical]

dev:1972020-05-27 10:22:17.745 pm debugalarmv2.AlarmReport: AlarmReport(alarmLevel:1, alarmType:21, eventParameter:[], numberOfEventParameters:0, zensorNetSourceNodeId:0, zwaveAlarmEvent:1, zwaveAlarmStatus:255, zwaveAlarmType:6)

dev:1972020-05-27 10:22:17.626 pm debugparse: zw device: 10, command: 9881, payload: 00 71 05 15 01 00 FF 06 01 00 , isMulticast: false

dev:1972020-05-27 06:57:04.516 pm warnskipped alarmType:5

dev:1972020-05-27 06:57:04.513 pm debugalarmv2.AlarmReport: AlarmReport(alarmLevel:0, alarmType:5, eventParameter:[], numberOfEventParameters:0, zensorNetSourceNodeId:0, zwaveAlarmEvent:2, zwaveAlarmStatus:255, zwaveAlarmType:7)

dev:1972020-05-27 06:57:04.433 pm debugparse: zw device: 10, command: 7105, payload: 05 00 00 FF 07 02 00 00 , isMulticast: false

--- Loading Past Logs... ---

2

Oh - I lived this issue. Locks were the reason I lost sleep at night. Batteries dead in a week. You name it, I've tried it with my schlage BE469 and with my two Alfred z-wave locks. My thoughts were the same as yours. But, the issue is that switch sitting right next to your lock does not support beaming. Beaming is what you need to get your lock to work. Doesn't need to be an aeotec repeater. One of my locks bounces off of an enerwave plug. El Cheapo plug that supports beaming. Also, the trick is to convince the lock that that plug/repeater is the best route through placement. Might be anywhere in the house, but once you get it, you'll see it right away. Your lock will get zippy and report correctly and things will run better. I really feel that if you find something, anything with beaming and get it placed right for that lock, you'll solve your issue. Placement is important and run a repair when you move the device,. It's time consuming, but in the end, you'll solve your lock issue.

Look up FLIRS devices and beaming. I understand it, but I'm terrible at explaining it.

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Thank you!! I wonder if a wink hub v1 supports beaming? I guess I don't have anything to lose trying it.

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There will be differences between platforms no matter what we do. Sometimes devices use non standard protocols that make it difficult to communicate. I know that's the case with the Schlage BE469. It's actually been removed from the compatibility list for that reason, but they left the driver with a use at your own risk warning. Mine works great on a beaming repeater. I have the aeotec 6's and an enerwave plug. One lock chooses that cheap enerwave. ha! Should've known.

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Yes. And I think you can still add Wink hubs as repeaters to Hubitat. Place one repeater very close to Hubitat, and the others positioned around your house.

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Hello, its me again.

Well i was able to pair one of my Wink Hub 1s to hubitat as a repeater and put it on a shelf in my office that is about 3 feet (through a wall) from the lock in question. I did not initiate a zwave repair because I wanted to give it time to 'settle in' first. I thought I read in the documentation to give it a day or so before doing a repair when you add new zwave devices.

However I just noticed my lock is down to 34% from 76% in a single day. Could this be caused by the hub causing issues without a proper zwave rebuild?

I just initiated a zwave repair in hubitat but it looks like the batteries are going to be completely shot in this thing by the time I get this sorted out.

The other lock is still reporting 100%.

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So maybe let it settle for a day.

After that if it is still draining, could you switch front door and back door locks? If the drain follows the lock, it is likely a bad lock. If it happens to the same position with opposite lock, then it is a signal/mesh issue.

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i should point out this lock hasn't moved in 5 years. I installed it the same time we moved into this house. For the first 4 years i never had a problem but in the last year it started draining rapidly on wink and is continuing in hubitat. I posted the specifics above but I can't move my door (lol) so i'm trying to work with repeaters & stuff to get a better signal. I just found out the GE/jasco lightswitch thats about 7" away from the lock doesn't support beaming so added the wink hub slave to do that.

i repaired the network today after having the hub in place for about 24 hours so i'll see if the drain continues.

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So that is why I think it is a bad device.

And you cannot move the lock? Why?

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i said i cant move the door lol so its important to have a working lock in this location. i am troubleshooting a lock that used to be great and there's no way to update the firmware so nothing has changed there. before i go to all the trouble of disassembling both locks i'm trying to follow a logical path. Here's what I've done

  • moved from wink to hubitat
  • put fresh batteries in both locks on same day
  • worked on the lock plate to ensure the bolt action is frictionless
  • gave everything time to settle; did a repair of zwave network a couple days later
  • deliberately did not use the motor on the lock (either manually or in any automation scripts) to isolate if the motor action was the cause of the drain
  • 2 weeks later lock was at 76% so i added a hub 1 as a repeater
  • waited 24 hours and examined lock again and it was down to 34%
  • just initiated zwave repair w/ new hub in place and waiting to see what effect that has

i'm not opposed to swapping the locks around but i am scared of screwing up my other lock in the process which is working great so i'm hesistant to mess with it.

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Well I'm down to 18% today. Repairing the zwave network didn't seem to help. I managed to drain over 50% of the Lock's battery in 48 hours by putting a wink hub 1 near it. So that didn't go as planned. I wish there was a way to see what's going on with the zwave traffic.

I have yet to actually lock the door using the motor since I swapped batteries 2 weeks ago. Maybe I'll yet the aeotech repeater next and decommission the wink hub completely.

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First thing you'd want to try to do is to ensure that the lock is actually trying to repeat through that old wink hub. You can't force it to do so. You just have to make that path looks better than any other path.

Also, your lock is NOT going to just wake up and talk to anything until you actually spin that lock a few times. Because it's a FLiRS device, so I'd reboot the lock by unplugging the battery pack and plugging it back in and then spin it locked unlocked etc 3-4 times. Looking in your ide to see if the status is changing in the schlage device page. Then see how it acts. If you have a zniffer, it would be a great time to bust it out.

Otherwise, I think it's a possiblility you have a bad zwave module in the lock. I've seen this drain as I had a bad module in my lock. Like it's constantly searching for the signal, but never getting it. It would be the same symptoms of a lock that never had a good path to the hub.

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Well apparently the 18% was the last dying message from my lock lol. I am following your advice (hadn't thought of unplugging the batteries) since I have no choice :smiley: I put in fresh batteries and the lock response is nearly instantaneous so I'm hoping maybe it will pick the wink over the jasco zwave switch this time.

If I unpaired the lock entirely the battery drain issue should go away if the assumption is that this is the zwave radio correct?

Is a zniffer a software or hardware tool? I'm guessing the latter.

EDITED TO ADD : whoa! the zombie wink hub just sent alexa a 'new light is connected' message! I think maybe thats the lock because it appeared at the same time i replaced the batteries! Maybe the 'zombie nodes' appearing in my eunuch wink hub are actually helpful after all. in this case it appears this alerted me the lock is now passing through the wink hub because i didnt touch touch the hub; just put fresh batteries in the lock. CROSSING FINGERS

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14

Don't unpair the lock just yet. Reboot the lock and run a repair. Then spin the lock a few times because the lock won't wake up and find a path until you do that. Then see if it can be controlled by the ide. If so, let it calm down a bit and check after a couple of hours that the lock is still responsive. As long as it's paired secure and that wink hub acts as a repeater, then you should see a difference.

a zniffer is hardware and software that you can use to tell what routes your devices are using to get messages to and from the hub. it's about $30.
Here is the link with the instructions

Also, if you had an aeotec, you'd be able to see when it's repeating as the light flashes when it repeats signals. It's a nice little feature. I have two of the aeotec repeater 6's. FWIW

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see my edit above!! i think i just made progress!

i'm afraid to run another repair now for fear of messing up the wink hub's newly acquired friend. if this turns out to work for all devices, keeping the wink app on my phone might not be such a terrible thing after all..at least until wink bricks it.

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16

Oh I do hope it's working for you. I believe wink does support beaming. I think I saw it mentioned here before. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
:crossed_fingers:

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17

Ok .. you can't tell me you haven't noticed anything by now. Like mine was obvious right away. So ... sound off

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Hi @april.brandt! Lol I've been superstitious and afraid to say anything but so far so good! Lock is still at 100% today so the rapid drain is gone. I'll report back in a week. The back door lock still reporting at 100% several weeks after battery swap so we'll see where this lock is in 7 days.

I hope this did the trick! Thank you for all your advice and tips.

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19

It's amazing how improving the communication helps with that. Mine drained the batteries like we drank beer as teenagers! Still keeping :crossed_fingers:

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Might want to eventually consider adding a repeater with beaming to your mesh instead of that wink in case they brick it on you. Wouldn't be a bad idea to have some good established paths on your network as a backup.