A ZEN34 was putting out a lot of Battery 100% messages this morning.
This was strange, because I noticed that the batteries had started to go somewhat low on that device.
Replaced batteries, back to normal.
Replaced batteries, C2032, were around 3.02 volts, whereas the new ones are 3.33.
When a battery is nearly dead, the RF signals from the device are likely to be garbled. Thus, there is no telling what kind of data the hub might receive.
Remember that battery levels are seldom accurate. If the device is designed to use standard AA alkaline batteries, the discharge voltage will decline slowly over the battery life, so battery life is easily predicted. With lithium batteries, including coin cells, used in many devices, the voltage stays fairly constant throughout the life of the battery and then plummets. Thus, for any critical application, you need to change batteries as soon as the battery life indicator starts to drop. For non-critical applications, you can just wait until the battery dies and the device stops working.
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I wonder what's a good number to choose.
I had it at 10%. Just bumped it to 20%. Maybe 30% ?
As a side note, the device still worked, but for how long, who knows?
Like I said, it depends on the nature of the application. If the application is critical, select a higher number. If it is non-critical, leave it at 10%.
I usually just wait for the device to stop working and get picked up by my setup in the Device Activity Checker app. I watch when the battery gets low for it to stop working. Probably the only things I would replace just off low battery is the Ecolink Firefighter, garage door sensor, and locks (if I had any). Everything else can just run it dead.
this:
I believe CR2032 are always lithium.
I haven't yet checked out your app.
I have a bunch of Utilitech leak sensors that sleep like the dead.
Last time I checked this out, they kick out a battery needs replacing message, which I figured works out to 'null' in a rule test.
A couple detectors were totally dead, so, I replaced all the batteries (it had been a while) except for one which read 60%. It's been a couple of months, and it's still 60% so my rule has yet been tested, lol.
Not my app, but highly recommended. I would consider this an essential app if you have battery devices especially. I even have it setup on switches in case any of them lock up.
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Yes, there are some devices that do not routinely check in with the hub. One such device is leak detectors. I have leak detectors under each sink and toilet, and at several places in the basement. If one of the leak detectors triggers, Hubitat will send a signal to my main water cutoff valve to close to prevent a leak from causing damage. Thus, the leak sensors are a critical application.
Every couple of months, I have to disable the water cutoff app and test each leak sensor in a puddle of water to make sure it is still functioning. Since the sensors are not routinely sending signals to the hub, such tests are the only way to insure it is still viable. However, the battery live for such devices will be a few years.
The problem with lithium batteries is they stay 100% till they're almost dead whereas alkaline shows a graceful decline. I mean for the most part I just said HSM to monitor batteries to 15% and combined with Device Activity Check, keeps things churning.
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