bjhanson3 Posted February 9, 2015 Posted February 9, 2015 Has anyone ever had the low battery indicator work on the Motion Sensor? I have programs written to text me if the low battery indicator ever turns to on, but they never do. The battery dies the indicator still says off and I eventually realize the motion sensor isn't working and I take care of it. I can live with it, but it would be nice if there was a solution.
Jimbo.Automates Posted February 9, 2015 Posted February 9, 2015 Yes, they work for me. But the low battery seems to only be sent one time, so if that communication is lost then you will never know. There was a thread a few days ago where someone figured out how to have the MS send the actual battery and luminance level more often. Hopefully UDI will add that as an option. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
AgentAR9 Posted February 9, 2015 Posted February 9, 2015 Glad to know I'm not the only one. When the battery is low on mine, it just goes on and off every minute or so (sending a text message every time, too) until I change the battery. It only says the light has been triggered, it doesn't say the battery is low. Not so cool in the middle of the night, light flashing and constant texts.
LeeG Posted February 9, 2015 Posted February 9, 2015 The Low Batt message from the Motion Sensor occurs once and it happens before the Motion Sensor battery is too low to function correctly. Because it is a single message, having RF comm issues can interfere with receiving the Low Batt message. The suggestion about querying the Motion Sensor for current battery level may work but it reduces the life of the battery asking for that information on every motion sensed.
Jimbo.Automates Posted February 9, 2015 Posted February 9, 2015 Glad to know I'm not the only one. When the battery is low on mine, it just goes on and off every minute or so (sending a text message every time, too) until I change the battery. It only says the light has been triggered, it doesn't say the battery is low. Not so cool in the middle of the night, light flashing and constant texts.That sounds like an issue with your program that sends the sms.
Jimbo.Automates Posted February 9, 2015 Posted February 9, 2015 The suggestion about querying the Motion Sensor for current battery level may work but it reduces the life of the battery asking for that information on every motion sensed. I completely agree Lee, but it would be nice to have it as an option and the user could make the tradeoff.
Techman Posted February 9, 2015 Posted February 9, 2015 I have the low battery node(s) turn on a scene which lights a "low battery" button on a KPL. The button stays lit until I manually turn it off.
jca001 Posted February 10, 2015 Posted February 10, 2015 I have a program that increments a variable when the low battery control message is received. Then there is another program that checks if the variable is greater than 0 each morning and sends me an email if it is. Then when I change the battery I just query the MD to clear the status and manually set the variable to 0. I did it this way because sometimes emails don't get sent from ISY for some other unknown reasons. This also reminds me each day and the variable indicates how many days I put off changing the battery. There is still the problem of the MD either not sending the low battery message or it just being missed for what every reason, noise, ISY happen to be off because I was doing something, power outage, etc. So it would be nice to be able to query it, but because it is a RF device only that sleeps, that is probably not going to happen. My MDs do things that I would notice when they are not working, lights not coming on when we enter the front door, but I have been thinking of adding some more programs to check the last run time of the programs they trigger and if it has been over 24 or 48 hours, then sending me an email. But I would have to take into consideration of times we may be gone for the weekend and they would not be triggered.
Jimbo.Automates Posted February 10, 2015 Posted February 10, 2015 Looks like another user is looking into it: http://forum.universal-devices.com/index.php?/topic/15079-Motion-Sensor-Low-Battery-Event-(or-lack-thereof) Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
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