Is there any way to "test" notifications? I have created a notification (in the app, not RM) as a "Low Battery Alert". I'm trying to test this out by setting the threshold to send a notification when the battery level is < 99%. I know that the battery levels of the 4 devices (2 locks, 2 buttons) are < 99, but I haven't received any notification.
Not sure if an "event" (lock/unlock or button press) is required for the battery % to register or if there is some polling in the background or ??? Is there a preferred approach to creating notifications?
BTW - I have validated that my phone is getting notification by sending a notification from the device page.
In my very limited experience I didn't need an RM rule and was able to get what I wanted with the Notifications app. I found that it only sent a notification when the value changed and it then met the criteria.
I think your notification will occur when the battery level changes.
If you want to force a report/notification for this, then you’re going to need to use RM. otherwise its only going to occur when something changes for the value your tracking like @LosinIt mentioned.
You can create a RM rule and send a notification based on time or some other trigger if you like.
While not exactly what you asked (but as noted, you'll indeed need a battery event--just just any event or an existing battery level that matches your criteria), it sounds like you might be trying to monitor battery level. I don't want to stop you, but I think it's worth mentioning that many people have found this unreliable, probably due to several factors combined (but probably mostly the fact that many devices use lithium batteries with a non-linear discharge curve and also report battery levels binned into tiers instead of an exact "raw" level). Therefore, many people prefer to monitor activity instead. Device Activity Monitor, Device Watchdog, and Device Activity Check (which I wrote for myself) are three apps I'm aware of that can monitor device activity, which for devices with predictable behavior (e.g., most of my motion sensors and non-Lutron button devices also do temperature, and I'd get concerned if they haven't reported in in more than a few hours) might be more reliable than batteries.
Back to the issue at hand, for many devices, a "Refresh" might cause a battery event to be generated. This is less likely with Z-Wave devices (Zigbee ones always seem to be listening for this in my experience) and almost certainly won't work unless it supports beaming or you wake it up (see the manual, usually a certain kind of button press). It's also not something I'd do on a regular basis, but one time for testing would probably be OK. Some devices may still not do this, in which case it's back to just being a waiting game.
That makes sense - I think I'll stick with is and see if the notifications work. May set the threshold a little higher than I want (50 instead of 30), wait and keep
Yes - I was trying to monitor battery levels in 2 Kiwkset locks and 2 SmartThings buttons. Not a "critical" activity in any way I will check out the other apps to see if they meet what I am trying to do.
In any case, the Kwikset locks "unlock sound" changes when battery is running low, so even though my previous hub showed battery levels and sent alerts, the sound was what would typically initiate the check!
I will check out the other apps to see if they meet what I am trying to do.
