They can be stuck anywhere with a sticker of course, or they can just be 'mobile' - I programmed one for the GF so she can enable/disable and increase brightness of the kitchen strip lighting. Just a simpler way then remembering the commands -
Anyways. While working on a dashboard tile, I was using @bptworld Average + (and Tile Master 2) to create a single tile that showed Indoor and Outdoor temperatures in a nice way. Lo and Behold one of the devices that identified itself as a temperature sensor were my Samsung buttons!
Really nice to know you can set down a button device anywhere in the house and get a reading of the temperature. It may be overly obvious to many, but in my dashboard, it was showing only as a button by default and I never saw the feedback on temperature until I stumpled on it by accident!
Since all my motion sensors are up high, they report a somewhat unrealistic temperature. These buttons allow me to offset the average a bit, since I can set them 'low' - on desktops, counters or tables and pull down the house average to be more real!
I think there was a firmware update that addressed the battery life. Of course, a Samsung hub is required to update them, but mine last about 6-9 months on average before the battery dies. I have one in the garage refrigerator just in case someone doesn’t shut the door all the way. Having repeaters nearby also helps.
All of my contact sensors (Visonic) and motion sensors (99% Iris v2/v3) report temperature. I also have several Iris v1 buttons that do also do temp. Having a device do double duty is highly preferred.
Hey, I’m that guy on the SmartThings forum who helped you with konnected.
if you’re feeling a bit adventurous, you can make the SmartThings button hardwired itself. You’ll need to crack the button open, solder off the battery holder (since it’s nearly impossible to solder to a battery terminal (from experience) - they are coated in some metal where the solder doesn’t stick), and solder in some wires. DO NOT solder wires directly to a button cell. From there, you can hook some long wires up to the nearest outlet, where you can plug in a 3v adapter, or you can connect it to a 2-battery AA or AAA holder. This should considerably increase the lifespan of your devices simply by having more watt-hours (or infinite)
Here is another idea of using alligator clips, and it shows that the concept works.
funniest thing hearing about battery life - I had to go check my amazon account - I bought this in Feb of 2020, replaced the battery once mid 2021 and it's still going - currently reporting 81%. Must be related to how often you use it or something cuz I think I've pushed it 20 times in 2+ years...
I think it’s also related to how much the temperature fluctuates, since it reports temp.
I did this, but just drilled a hole into the battery compartment and clipped wires to the contacts. This seems to last for years in the refrigerator on a set of AA lithium batteries.
I've seen people make that claim, but it seems unfounded. The buttons are always "sleeping" except for periodic temperature checks and whenever the button is pressed to trigger an event.
