Low battery notifications

[electron]

So I decided to implement something which e-mails me when my DS10A batteries run low. Last week, I finally received my first notification, saying my mailbox DS10A had a low battery (confirmed by the fact I haven't been getting new mail alerts).

I replaced the batteries, and I am still getting the low battery warnings for this sensor. Since it started getting colder, I switched out the new set of batteries with a new set of Lithium AA's (1.5V), and I still get these alerts, eventho the sensor is working just fine.

I now have to disable my low battery alerts until I can figure out how to deal with this. What triggers this signal? Is the sensor reporting an actual low battery status, or is this a plugin feature?

[falconresearch]

The low battery is triggered by the SD90. But as this device is only reporting a status every 80 mins, you have to wait a long while before the status come back to normal. Also if you are using the ACRF status like me to capture the low batt event, the problem is that it stays with the last error condition, even if the eror is not present anymore. You thus have to force it to "normal". I have the same kind of script around the low battery status.

[Uncle Michael]

The low battery detection function is the DS10 is not very sophisticated, and it can be activated for other reasons than a low battery. I've found that if I take out the batteries and short the leads together for "a while" (I have left it overnight), the warning goes away. Unfortunately, it may come back.

In the end, DS10s are not very expensive, so it probably pays to have extras on hand and swap out one with an erroneous low battery warning if it is causing you a problem.

PS. I have two of them than have been giving me low battery warnings for months. I just ignore it.

[drozwood90]

Electron / Falcon,

I was about to write something, but decided to search the board. Do you mind sharing your script?

I'm to the point (wow, after 2 years) of finally re-implementing this. I had something a LONG time ago, but apparently lost the script.

However, most of my sensors are using the original batteries that I put in 2 years ago, so I thought this might be a good time to run a script similar to this.

--Dan

[electron]

I was using the my.Trigger plugin, but it's difficult to rely on these warnings since it will report low battery even when there isn't a low battery issue, so I gave up. My good morning announcement will mention if there was a low battery event, but that's about it.

[Oman]

Temperature will affect the nominal voltage of a battery. Also Lithium Iron Disulfide batteries are not quite the same voltage as alkaline when not under load (the load is miniscule in the sensors). Therefore depending on the brand and age you might get low battery warnings when using Lithiums.

Usually the outdoor sensors will start reporting low battery at night, indicating that the voltage is dropping below the threshold when the temp gets colder. You might actually have a cell that is more sensitive to the cold than another.

Jon

I was using the my.Trigger plugin, but it's difficult to rely on these warnings since it will report low battery even when there isn't a low battery issue, so I gave up. My good morning announcement will mention if there was a low battery event, but that's about it.

[jlrichar]

I am having a similar issue--but with some differences.

I demoed the ACRF2 plugin, and then waited a full month after the trial period ended to purchase a license. During this time the two ms16a's that I have report their status as needing batteries. They seem to function just fine, but will not display status correctly (only replace batteries).

So if the plugin cannot communicate with a device for a while (such as when no license is entered) then it will set the status to "replace batteries".

My question is what removes this status? How do I tell it that I replaced the batteries?

[Uncle Michael]

I do not think it is the plug-in that is generating the low battery warning. I think it comes from the device, but I was not aware of the MS16a having a low battery detection circuit either. Have you tried just taking the batteries out for a while and then replacing them?

[jlrichar]

Yes, tried that.

Perhaps it is because I was testing blradar at the same time? I have not purchased that license yet--although I intend to.

I seem to recall that it had some type of low battery detection.

[Uncle Michael]

Perhaps it is because I was testing blradar at the same time? I have not purchased that license yet--although I intend to.
I seem to recall that it had some type of low battery detection.

I think it's more likely a BLRadar warning. You should be able to reset whatever it is (I'm guessing it's a time with no signal, but I haven't actually used that plug-in). You might want to raise this question on Blade's forum.

[drozwood90]

jlrichar / UM,

I've used BLRadar (have it disabled at the moment). The low battery is time without contact.

Since Light / Dark and motion are on separate device codes, I made sure to use the feature "connect" the two together. This allowed you to "get" two "device" calls per day. If you get no contact from a sensor for a specified amount of time, then the sensor is triggered as low battery.

The DS10A and MS actually "tell" you that their battery is low.

--Dan