Somfy Autoview Shade Battery Level Reporting

Also, scanning the Bali/Somfy docs for info, I noticed this (possibly nothing more than z-wave "boilerplate"):
The current product controls may establish two Association Groups. Association Group #1 is a dedicated lifeline for secondary controls, primarily used for battery status reports, central scene cc, local reset cc. Association Group #2 is dedicated to slave shades nodes, with a maximum of 12 slave nodes. Normal shade control command will use Association Group #2.

That's not "boilerplate" as such, it's specific to this product - though the same concept of a lifeline group for main commands, then other groups for other operations is used widely. I did read that earlier tonight and checked it; battery commands are all using AG #1 as it says, so nothing further to investigate in this regard.

I set up a watcher device for one of the Somfy remote devices. For this type of device, unlike the shades, I can't just do a "send status request", so I had to wait a while to see the next status report message go by. Here it is:

Z-Wave Watcher Debug Raw command sent (Node 59): 01 09 00 13 3B 02 84 08 24 32 46 (True)
Z-Wave Watcher Debug Raw command received (Node 59): 01 08 00 04 00 3B 02 84 07 49
Z-Wave received "059 - KIT Shades Remote" status update battery level 55%
Z-Wave Watcher Debug Raw command received (Node 59): 01 09 00 04 00 3B 03 80 03 37 7E

This may be completely irrelevant due to it being a different message type, but how a different model Somfy-brand device reports status/battery, for whatever that's worth.

That's exactly what we should see. 80 03 37 xx is a battery value of 37 (55%). Ignore the 7E. that's a checksum to make sure the command isn't corrupt.

I've installed Z-wave watcher on my system and ran a couple of commands on Indigo to capture the result.

Code: Select all

 Jul 8, 2019 at 10:21:31 AM
   WebServer                       request to execute "MBAir" control #119 from 192.168.0.28
   Action Group                    Royal Blinds Down
   Z-Wave                          sent "Front Blinds" set brightness to 0
   Z-Wave Watcher Debug            Raw command sent (Node 38): 01 0A 00 13 26 03 26 01 00 25 D2 13 (True)

Jul 8, 2019 at 10:21:52 AM
   Z-Wave                          received "038 - Front Blinds" status update battery level 72%
   Z-Wave Watcher Debug            Raw command received (Node 38): 01 20 00 04 00 26 1A 80 03 48 2C 2A FF FF 85 0D 00 00 05 5E 00 00 05 64 FF FF C5 35 AA 00 C2 00 00 00
   Z-Wave Watcher Debug            Raw command received (Node 38): 01 0B 00 04 00 26 05 26 03 00 00 00 F6
   Received INSTEON                "Laundry Motion" off (button 2)
   WebServer                       request to execute "MBAir" control #118 from 192.168.0.28
   Action Group                    Royal Blinds up
   Z-Wave                          sent "Front Blinds" set brightness to 50
   Z-Wave Watcher Debug            Raw command sent (Node 38): 01 0A 00 13 26 03 26 01 32 25 D3 20 (True)

Jul 8, 2019 at 10:22:24 AM
   Z-Wave                          received "038 - Front Blinds" status update battery level 17%
   Trigger                         Front Blind Battery
   Z-Wave Watcher Debug            Raw command received (Node 38): 01 20 00 04 00 26 1A 80 03 11 26 D8 FF FF 85 0D 00 00 05 5E FF FF C5 35 FF FF C5 35 AA 32 C0 00 00 00
   ZEAL Warning                    Received "Front Blinds" battery level below trigger threshold, battery level 17%
   Below 25%                       Front blind battery low
   Z-Wave                          received "Front Blinds" status update brightness 51
   Z-Wave Watcher Debug            Raw command received (Node 38): 01 0B 00 04 00 26 05 26 03 32 32 00 F6
   Email Sent                      to "jalves.gog@gmail.com"; subject "Front Blind Battery Low"


FWIW, looking at the actual device in Indigo currently reports 17% battery. I'm suspicious of this result as it was much higher than that when I looked a few days ago.

Thanks, Jeff. That's definitely useful input, definitely looks different from what I'm seeing. Perhaps I have a bad batch of hardware or something. When I do "write device details to event log" from the device settings dialog, I get:

Indigo Z-Wave Version: 2.0.121
Node ID: 42
Model: Motor Control Class C
Model ID: 43535A31
Manufacturer: Unknown
Manufacturer ID: 026E
Protocol Version: 4.33
Application Version: 11.02
Model Definition Version: 0
Library Type: 3
Class Name: Motor Control Class C
Class Hierarchy: 04 : 11 : 07
Command Class Base: 26
Command Versions: 20v1 80v1 25v1 26v4 72v1 73v1 5Ev1 59v1 7Av1 5Av1 86v1 85v1
Encryption Status: Not Supported
Multi-Endpoint Types: - none -
Multi-Endpoint Classes: - none -
Multi-Instance Counts: - none -
Features: routing, battery, beaming, frequentWaking
Neighbors: 25, 27, 62
Associations: 1:[1]
Config Values: - none -

I use Grafana Home Dashboard plugin and store the history of all my measurements in influxdb. All of my Autoview shades have been reporting 100% until two days ago, when one device reported 0%. As an interesting twist, that one device went back to reporting 100% as of this morning. I didn't adjust or change anything. The blind was opened this morning (as it does on most mornings) - I haven't touched the device or changed batteries or anything.

My battery level graphs for z-wave devices do often show some up/down movements over time - typically only around 5%, but one of the little "button" size Somfy remotes often often makes brief dips of around 20%. Somfy remotes definitely show the noisiest of all my battery signals. My Somfy shades obviously show the "quietest", in a degenerate way.

My device reports this:

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ul 8, 2019 at 11:12:35 AM
   Z-Wave                          Indigo Device "Front Blinds" Z-Wave Properties:
Indigo Z-Wave Version: 2.0.124
Node ID: 38
Model: Motor Control Class C
Model ID: 43535A31
Manufacturer: Unknown
Manufacturer ID: 026E
Protocol Version: 4.33
Application Version: 11.01
Model Definition Version: 0
Library Type: 3
Class Name: Motor Control Class C
Class Hierarchy: 04 : 11 : 07
Command Class Base: 26
Command Versions: 20v1 80v1 25v1 26v4 72v1 73v1 5Ev1 59v1 7Av1 5Av1 86v1 85v1
Encryption Status: Not Supported
Multi-Endpoint Types: - none -
Multi-Endpoint Classes: - none -
Multi-Instance Counts: - none -
Features: routing, battery, beaming, frequentWaking
Neighbors: 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 43, 44
Associations: 1:[1]
Config Values: - none -

ok so the differences are:

Code: Select all

                                dduff617       jalves
indigo version:            7.3.0             7.3.1
indigo z-wave version:     2.0.121        2.0.124
application version:       11.02            11.01


Quick followup (I'm the original poster).

It doesn't look like there is going to be a very satisfying end to this saga. My errant shade went from reporting 100% for about 9 months, then reporting 0% for about 2 days, and is now back to reporting 100% again (with no battery swap). It gets operated up/down typically 2-4x/day.

I'm guessing that i'll see similar battery level reports when the other batteries eventually work their way towards 0%. I contacted the tech support unit for Bali/Somfy/Springs Window Fashions and got the following response:

Hello David,

Lithium batteries tend to hold their charge until right before they expire, which is when the voltage will drop off quickly. This is the main reason they are preferred for electronic devices. Only when using alkaline batteries will they show a slow decrease in voltage (which is not recommended for our products).

If we can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at the phone number below, or by replying to this email address.

Thank you,

Kate
Motorization Customer Service Representative
Springs Window Fashions LLC
Motorization.Support@springswindowfashions.com

I started to write back and say "but I have lots of other devices that can do this", until after thinking about it for a while, I realized that I mostly don't. Most of the battery operated devices I currently own either don't report battery at all (just using heartbeat-type signals) or report only a single low-voltage threshold (like Insteon motion detectors). Newer devices (usually z-wave) that actually seem to accurately report battery level (locks, motion sensors, remote controls) almost all actually use alkaline and not lithium batteries.