xiaomi aquara battery reporting ?

[jbfoster]

I'm curious as to how often should the battery powered devices report battery level. I have 2 water and 2 temp sensors. One of the temp sensors last reported today. The other 3 last reported on March 2nd and 3rd.

Jim

[langenet]

I bought 5 of these and noticed only 2 are updating their battery level. Checking in Phoscon, I see that updates are happening regularly. So I'm not sure if it's a plugin issue.
My concern is if the reporting doesn't happen back to HS, that time may go by and the batteries could actually die rendering the device useless.

[jbfoster]

I am still having a issue with battery reporting. I have 2 temp sensors, 2 leak sensors and a switch.


1 Temp Sensor - Last reported battery 3/17
2 Leak Sensor - Last reported battery 3/2
3 Leak Sensor - Last reported battery 4/2
4 Temp Sensor - Last reported battery 4/2
5 Switch - Last reported battery 3/23


If the Leak Sensor is reporting the battery level I am assuming its working fine but if it's not reporting the battery level how would I know if the sensor stopped working ?
Both Temp Sensors report temp so I can tell the one Temp Sensor is working even though the battery is not reporting. I use the switch every day so I know it is working even though last battery report was 3/23.

Any idea why some report battery level more often than the others? Anything I can do to correct this?

Thanks
Jim

[w.vuyk]

Jim,

Battery levels are only reported when they change. If the other devices (like the switch, temp, Humidity and pressure devices) are changing, you can be sure that the battery is still working fine.
When you are having doubts of the reported battery levels (100%) you can check the properties of the parent devices in the deviceutility page. On the JowiHue tab you can find the JSON reported by the REST API of deCONZ. The battery value here should match the value of the battery device. If they do not match, make sure ot let me know.

The batteries of many Zigbee devices perform very well, compared to Zwave devices, you can pretty much trust on them to last long. If I check my current battery state, I have batteries (Philips motion sensors) that are at 23% now after almost 3 years of use. I have Xiaomi motion sensors where the oldest is now 16 months active and is at 83%.
Also, I have several IKEA motion sensors, the oldest also 16 months old, at 60%.

Just saying, it can really take some time before a sensor reports below 100%?

Wim

[jbfoster]

The first temp sensor and leak sensor show 100% battery so the battery has not updated. The second leak sensor is still at 91% battery but the battery reported today even though the battery didn't drop since it reported yesterday. See my last post. The second temp sensor battery dropped from 95% yesterday to 91% today. The switch is still at 100%. I wonder why 1 temp and 1 leak sensor is dropping in battery that fast. I've only had the sensors a few months. What's weird is that one of the sensors was 85% brand new out of the box. I don't remember which one it was. I reset everything when I switched to a new laptop and now it's above 90%. I assume it's one of the sensors below 100%.

[jbfoster]

Jim,

When you are having doubts of the reported battery levels (100%) you can check the properties of the parent devices in the deviceutility page. On the JowiHue tab you can find the JSON reported by the REST API of deCONZ. The battery value here should match the value of the battery device. If they do not match, make sure ot let me know.

Wim

Not sure what the deviceutility page is. If this is it, am I reading it correctly the last update was April 4th 2019 at 3:12(today is April 3rd)? The device management page says last update was today at 4:51pm. I'm confused.

[w.vuyk]

Jim,

Do not compare the lastupdated field with the time of Homeseer. The lastupdated field is an internal time for deCONZ. If you are using deCONZ on a raspbee, it might mean you have to recheck the time on the raspbee, maybe this is not set correctly? But even if the time would be corrected, deCONZ will show a different time then the Homeseer system itself as deCONZ is using UTC timezone for reporting I believe?

The update time on Homeseer is the only time that is correct for you, the plugin handles the deCONZ time internally when needed. The only reason I send you to the deviceutility (=Manage devices page, but check the link where you go - deviceutility) page was for comparing the battery values, so you might gain some trust in the plugins reported values?

[w.vuyk]

As for the battery devices updating to 100% and others not, I think the one or two updating are now and then reporting 99% and resetting at the next report to 100%. the others are just not yet on the changing values yet.

Batteries do tend to report a higher value once resting for some time. I see this quite strong at my zigbee thermostats, If a thermostat has been opening the valve short ago, the batteries report 80%, once resting for 5 minutes or more, they report 85% again.

[logman]

Keep in mind that batteries are typically over-charged at the factory in order to increase shelf life. For instance, a 1.5 volt AA battery will actually test around 3.2 volts when brand new. If you put that into a device that reports battery condition as a percentage of 1.5 volts, it will read 100% for a long period of time before the voltage finally drops below 1.5 volts.

From that point forward it will seem as if suddenly the battery is discharging much faster, when actually it's been discharging at the same rate all along. In addition, the device may have a cut-off voltage of .75 volts, so the battery reporting scale in that case would be based on a range of only .75 volts (1.50 - .75 = .75).

I would prefer that devices report actual battery volts and device cut-off voltage, but apparently both Z-Wave and ZigBee alliances decided that battery condition should be reported as percentage of rated voltage capped at 100%.

BTW, I replace my Z-Wave device batteries when they drop below 50% because I don't trust the device manufacturers to correctly account for cut-off voltage. Schlage door locks are a good example of this. Zigbee devices seem to report far more correctly, so I replace those batteries when they drop below 20%.

--Barry

[jbfoster]

I have an update to my battery reporting.

My outside tempsensor:
April 4th at 12:40pm reported 91%
April 8th at 1:42am reported 95%
April 9th at 4:32pm reported 95%

How could the battery level go up? I thought the battery only reported level if the voltage dropped? Will it report if the voltage drops less than 1 volt?

I'm not worried or concerned just curious is all. Looks like this is the only sensor acting this way. Seems weird to me.

Jim

[w.vuyk]

I already told the batteries can go up.

As for the battery devices updating to 100% and others not, I think the one or two updating are now and then reporting 99% and resetting at the next report to 100%. the others are just not yet on the changing values yet.

Batteries do tend to report a higher value once resting for some time. I see this quite strong at my zigbee thermostats, If a thermostat has been opening the valve short ago, the batteries report 80%, once resting for 5 minutes or more, they report 85% again.

It is more eminent probably for the themostat as batteries have moments of heavier load. But batteries can also report different (and rising) loads based on the temperature they are in. As a sample, I have a Xiaomi weather sensor in my freezer. It reports 45% here at the moment. If I take it out, it climbs up to 60% again...

Wim