paulbates Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 I have an Insteon MS that has been watching my back deck and driveway for 3 years. Until now, its done a great job of catching cars, people and critters moving in this area. Now it frequently triggers motion when there isn't any. The lights it controls are on a lot. This started happening a few days after the normal ~8 month battery change. I've done the restore, factory reset and re-adding it procedures. I took it all the way apart, cleaned everything. I even to took a try at the jumper settings, putting on the one that cuts sensitivity by 33% Nothing I can come up with changes its trigger happy ways. Anyone else have this happen before? I'm taking it as a sign that it's time to go get a new one. Paul
Techman Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 It's either a bad MS or a bad battery. I use lithium batteries in all my sensors which last a long time.
paulbates Posted January 5, 2015 Author Posted January 5, 2015 Good point on the battery. The battery came out of a pack of duracell li that I had been using in the MS before, date was still good. However, I did make an assumption that is was good, I'll need to try swapping that out when I get back home. Thanks Paul
Teken Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Good point on the battery. The battery came out of a pack of duracell li that I had been using in the MS before, date was still good. However, I did make an assumption that is was good, I'll need to try swapping that out when I get back home. Thanks Paul Its always good practice to measure any battery prior to installation. Even with the current batches of batteries indicating ten year shelf life etc. You want to measure and know for a fact the state of charge. As the other member indicated using more expensive lithium cells provide longer run time and much better low temperature operations. I have found when a MS battery is at that critical low threshold it will send a constant ON so this is why I never link them to any mission critical infrastructure elements in the home. I use them solely for lights and notifications. In the future I won't even have to worry about missing a low battery node alert from the ISY. As the actual 9 volt battery will send me a message indicating the battery level etc. I also have the added benefit that its independent of MS and can be labeled as to which battery is at a critical level.
Techman Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Teken, What batteries are you using that talk to you? paulbates, Being that your weather is below freezing I would take a hard look at the battery, they don't like cold weather.
paulbates Posted January 5, 2015 Author Posted January 5, 2015 paulbates, Being that your weather is below freezing I would take a hard look at the battery, they don't like cold weather. Techman Yes, the MS had sent its battery alert a few days before I ended up changing it. That was coincident with the temps dipping before the change. This MS is out in the open, but has made it successfully through a few michigan below zero winters operating fine. It sometimes has raised the battery alert on the coldest nights, but if the battery was only a couple of months old, I ignored it, and things went back to normal after a warm up. I would use an AC adaptor but there is no power near this MS, and the MS position is ideal..(based on years of ms14a placement trials ). I'm now fairly convinced that you are right and the new battery is too low of voltage and the constant triggers is the MS panicking because of low power. I'll test & swap the battery later this week when I'm home. Thanks Paul
Teken Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Teken, What batteries are you using that talk to you? This is a new battery that is being developed via KS. I am one of the first Beta users to test and trial this new device when its released this year. It was intended for 9 volt battery operated smoke detectors which basically made a dumb smoke alarm smart. I already have First Alert One Link system attached to my alarm security system which would indicate the area, zone, floor. Coupled with the Smoke Bridge this provides another fail over mechanism for alert notification etc. The selling point of this smart battery is that its WiFi enabled, can silence the low battery beep of the Smoke Sensor, and also indicate which unit is in an alarming state etc. Will come with push notification and counters to track battery health and install date etc. My plan is to repurpose these smart batteries for the Insteon MS and related 9 volt devices in the home to make them smart!
larryllix Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 I have a remote thermometer sensor that does this with the usual alkaline batteries outside. It seems to die just as the temperature dips to 0C (32F) each time. I have been told that the alkaline batteries contain water and freeze at 0C but the darn thing comes back just below zero and has lasted about four years now (3 years since despite doing the blank out each year a few times).
Techman Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 This is a new battery that is being developed via KS. I am one of the first Beta users to test and trial this new device when its released this year. It was intended for 9 volt battery operated smoke detectors which basically made a dumb smoke alarm smart. I already have First Alert One Link system attached to my alarm security system which would indicate the area, zone, floor. Coupled with the Smoke Bridge this provides another fail over mechanism for alert notification etc. The selling point of this smart battery is that its WiFi enabled, can silence the low battery beep of the Smoke Sensor, and also indicate which unit is in an alarming state etc. Will come with push notification and counters to track battery health and install date etc. My plan is to repurpose these smart batteries for the Insteon MS and related 9 volt devices in the home to make them smart! Interesting concept but I would think the Wi-Fi option would cause the battery to drain a lot sooner than if it weren't there. Did they reduce the current rating on the battery in order to fit all the extra goodies into the same size package or is it a custom size designed for custom applications?
Teken Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Interesting concept but I would think the Wi-Fi option would cause the battery to drain a lot sooner than if it weren't there. Did they reduce the current rating on the battery in order to fit all the extra goodies into the same size package or is it a custom size designed for custom applications? The device will come with a custom high output lithium (replaceable) battery cell that is rated for 5+ years of service. Only time will tell if the electronics will impact the battery life and this is why I pushed for the project to support either rechargeable or replaceable cells. I guess in June of this year there will be more factual data to present and share. I will be tracking this project in my install thread and will provide technical feed back to the company.
paulbates Posted January 10, 2015 Author Posted January 10, 2015 ...Now it frequently triggers motion when there isn't any. The lights it controls are on a lot. It was a flaky motion sensor. It was so far gone that when I went to unlink it and held the set button down, it sent alternating on off commands. I wasn't able to get it into linking mode to complete the de-installation cleanly. The battery was ok at 7.8 volts...its 10 degrees where its mounted. There was definite condensation on the battery when I took the old one down. I'm thinking that was part of the problem. I left the new one outside for a few before closing it up and mounting it. Any suggestions on the "darkness sensitivity setting in the admin console? Making the value higher does what verus making it lower? Paul
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