Battery status not reported correctly?

Hello,
I just had a flood sensor (Utilitech TST010-1/ST812) run dead on me even though I had a trigger to warn me at 70% battery level. Batteries were down to 1.05V each. So I went and checked my other battery operated Z-Wave devices (more Utilitech TST010-1/ST812, Tilt Sensors ZG8101, Everspring SM103 sensors, Smoke/Carbon Monoxide Alarm ZCOMBO). All Utilitech TST010-1/ST812 and all Tilt Sensors ZG8101 report 100% even though the battery has been in use for a year at least. The Everspring SM103 reports 99%. The Smoke/Carbon Monoxide Alarm ZCOMBO reports 85%.
So least the Utilitech TST010-1/ST812 and the Tilt Sensors ZG8101 reports are not correct. Did anybody else notice this behavior?
BTW I just upgraded from 6.1.10 to 6.1.11 to see if that fixes the issue but it did not.

Thanks
-Roland

[jay (support)]

Unfortunately, battery status reporting is notoriously poor in just about all smart home gadgets. Not sure why this is, but I've never really found one that was particularly good at it.

The only battery status of mine that seems halfway accurate is my Kwikset door lock. Everything else seems to report 97-100%.

Hm-all devices used to report correct battery level before when I had a Vera as the controller. Strange.

Hm-all devices used to report correct battery level before when I had a Vera as the controller. Strange.

I was a Vera user until about 2 months ago. Whether it was Vera or Indigo, my door sensors always seem to report 100%. My door lock seems to be the only one that shows any drainage. My door/window sensors have shown 100% for several years. Of course I would expect the door lock to drain faster since it operates a little motor.

Agree with the door lock showing rapid battery drainage. I have to replace the batteries in my Kwikset lock every 4 month. But I paired the door with my alarm panel (Ademco Tuxedo Touch) since Indigo does not support secured devices so I can no longer monitor the battery level.
Vera did report battery levels like 80% on other devices so I assume it worked. Switched to Indigo about 10 month ago and haven't looked back.
So I guess I will just replace all batteries yearly and problem solved

since Indigo does not support secured devices so I can no longer monitor the battery level.

It does now, in Indigo 7...

You serious? Cool. Can't wait to upgrade.

I have a related question about battery level. I have placed warnings for my ZSMOKE detectors to let me know when the batteries are low. Even though I have been increasing these limits over time to warn me sooner, the devices still start beeping in the middle of the night when they are low . I believe I have never received a notification from Indigo. I guess it is possible that it is device inaccuracy and there is not much I can do, but I wanted to confirm: when I set the limit should the Trigger say Battery Level "Becomes Less Than" 60? or 0.6? or 60%? I assume it is the first one, but since it has never worked I thought I should ask.

The only battery device I have that reports accurate battery levels is my Yale door lock. Everything else I just have to guess that it's dying when it fails to perform regularly or properly.

[matt (support)]

I too have found that the battery levels reports by most modules range from marginally-acceptable-accurate, to not-useful-at-all. As to the Trigger, you are correct it would be: Becomes Less Than 60.

Thanks for confirming, Matt. I found another forum where there was extensive discussion about ZSMOKEs and everyone complained about them chirping at a very high threshold (high 70s). There was a recommendation to use lithium batteries instead so I think I will try that next. This problem is becoming ridiculous, we have woken up to the chirping at least four times in the last year and it has always been between 2 am and 5 am,

Regarding battery in smoke alarms, I have learned from an expert why it always is at nighttime. In most households the temperature drop a degree or two during the night, that will cause the battery to perform just a tiny little bit less and that will take it underneath threshold and trigger low battery.


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Is Indigo polling the battery reports correctly during wake up? When using Z-Way I configured it to poll the battery reports once a week and all my z-wave devices are showing the correct battery levels.

[matt (support)]

I believe so. Indigo limits its polling of the battery level to approximately twice per day (to reduce the number of commands the module has to send, thus conserving the battery) but based on our testing it is working correctly:

Code: Select all

   Z-Wave Debug                    RCVD nodeAwake: 01 08 00 04 00 0C 02 84 07 7E
   Z-Wave Debug                    . .  nodeAwake: node 012
   Z-Wave Debug                    SENT nonceRequest: 01 09 00 13 0C 02 98 40 25 FC EA
   Z-Wave Debug                    RCVD nonceReport: node 012, nonce B1 F6 A6 1E 39 D2 35 D9
   Z-Wave Debug                    SENT requestBatteryLevel: 80 02 (encrypted)
   Z-Wave Debug                    RCVD nonceReport: node 012, nonce B5 A0 1B 56 4C 82 B2 7F (saving)
   Z-Wave Debug                    . .  nodeAwake: inhibit count++ to 1
   Z-Wave Debug                    . .  nodeAwake: started inhibit sleep timer
   Z-Wave Debug                    RCVD nonceFetch: node 012
   Z-Wave Debug                    SENT nonceReport: 01 11 00 13 0C 0A 98 80 10 35 04 49 A6 A4 52 AE 25 FE AE
   Z-Wave Debug                    RCVD encryptedPacket: 00 80 03 2E (decrypted)
   Z-Wave Debug                    RCVD requestBatteryLevel: 01 09 00 04 00 0C 03 80 03 2E FF
   Z-Wave Debug                    . .  requestBatteryLevel: node 012, level 46
   Z-Wave                          received "012 - Door/Window" status update battery level 46%
   Z-Wave Debug                    . .  nodeAwake: inhibit count-- to 0
   Z-Wave Debug                    . .  nodeAwake: stopping inhibit sleep timer
   Z-Wave Debug                    SENT goToSleep: 84 08 (encrypted)
   Z-Wave Debug                    RCVD packet: 01 07 00 13 FF 00 00 02 16 (hex)
   Z-Wave Debug                    RCVD nodeInfoFrame: 01 0F 00 49 84 0C 09 04 07 01 5E 86 72 98 EF 5A BD