I posted this same question several months ago. There have been a few firmware updates since my last post. Has anyone been able to get the aeon labs door / window sensor to display the correct battery percentage?
Thanks,
Is it not working for you at all, or some other issue?
I just observed the Z-Wave communication from an Aeon sensor and saw a battery report come in for 62%, which was properly shown on Vera’s Dashboard. Don’t know if the battery is actually at 62%, but that’s what the sensor is reporting to Vera.
I just installed a bunch of the Aeon Labs door/window sensors. On the Vera dashboard, some sensors display the battery as a black battery with a “?” next to it, while others show a green (for full) battery icon. When I go into their settings individually, all sensors are reporting 100%. Is anyone else getting the black battery icon with the question mark next to it? Why would some sensors display this and others are showing the normal battery icon?
This usually means that the device hasn’t reported (updated) the battery status over some time. Have those sensors been triggered lately?
- Garrett
Thanks for the reply, Garrett.
No, those sensors haven’t be triggered lately which would make sense now. When the battery level is reported under the settings of each sensor, were those the last reported levels and the sensors would need to be triggered before I can get an accurate battery level, or does Vera still poll these devices for the battery level on a regular basis?
Vera would normally only poll the device when it wakes up (this goes for battery powered devices). If the device has not woken up in some time, the battery icon that you see will show as it has not had an update in some time. Trip one of the sensors and it should update and the icon should change back to normal.
- Garrett
On the device’s [tt]Advanced[/tt] tab, there should be a variable [tt]BatteryDate[/tt]. You can convert that time stamp to something readable on, say, http://www.epochconverter.com/.
I thought that if the last update was over 7 days ago, the question mark shows up.
Vera may ask for the battery level whenever the device wakes up. What is the value of the [tt]WakeupInterval[/tt] variable (or look at [tt]WakeUp interval[/tt] on the device’s [tt]Settings[/tt] tab)? There also is a [tt]LastWakeup[/tt] timestamp, which you can convert.
My last wake-up date according to the sensors was October 1st, with the wake-up interval for all sensors being 1800 seconds. These sensors can be woken up manually by tapping the tamper pressure sensor three times consecutively but I thought that they woke up when tripped.
I tripped two sensors but I’m still getting the black battery icon with the question mark. Other Aeon Labs Door/Window sensors which I haven’t tripped since I initially set them up around Oct 1st however I am getting an accurate battery reading with the green battery level icon.
When the sensors trip, they may just send out the update and immediately go back to sleep. Regardless of tripping, they should wake up every 1800 seconds. Vera can then ask for the battery level. I don’t think she does this every time the sensor wakes up though.
So the problem appears to be that the sensors don’t wake up anymore / Vera doesn’t see the wake ups. Maybe try waking one up manually and doing a [tt]Configure node right now[/tt]?
@oTi: I woke up two of the sensors that were no longer displaying the correct battery level icon and as soon as I woke them up manually (without even configuring the nodes) they changed to the correct display icon. I configured both of the nodes in any case so I’ll see if they keep correctly reporting in that way. Maybe it was a one-time fluke and I’ll just need to manually trip the others before they continue correctly reporting battery status.
OK, good; that seems to indicate that Vera does see the wake-ups, but the sensors weren’t waking up periodically (anymore). Re-configuring hopefully fixed that.
[quote=“oTi@, post:7, topic:172565”]On the device’s [tt]Advanced[/tt] tab, there should be a variable [tt]BatteryDate[/tt]. You can convert that time stamp to something readable on, say, http://www.epochconverter.com/.
I thought that if the last update was over 7 days ago, the question mark shows up.
Vera may ask for the battery level whenever the device wakes up. What is the value of the [tt]WakeupInterval[/tt] variable (or look at [tt]WakeUp interval[/tt] on the device’s [tt]Settings[/tt] tab)? There also is a [tt]LastWakeup[/tt] timestamp, which you can convert.[/quote]
I just did the conversion and all of the times converted to September… I did the manual wake and vera switched from 100% to 82%. On the devices tab the battery switched from black and a question mark to a greenish color with a lightning bolt. Not sure what that means. The only place I can see the percentage is when i go to the settings tab for the sensor. I will give it a few days and see if it continues to check in. Thanks to all….
It means the battery is being recharged by lightning. 
Depending on the actual battery level, Vera will show one of a few icons to show the general state.
It means the battery is being recharged by lightning.
Depending on the actual battery level, Vera will show one of a few icons to show the general state.[/quote]
Thanks… So far this morning it is checking in regularly. I’ll give a couple of weeks and see if it continues.
Even though I “woke up” the mis-behaving sensors manually and then configured the node and polled each through the Vera UI, those same windows that were displaying the unknown battery level icon are back to showing the same. I have others that are tripped constantly (on doors) and they are still reporting 100% battery status, but I can’t tell if that’s really accurate because I would think they would have decreased in charge level somewhat by now.
Is there anything else I can do to try to get Vera to display the correct battery level? Is this a problem most likely with the sensors themselves or is this something that could be addressed through Vera with a firmware update that would improve the sensor’s functionality with Vera? I’m not entirely worried about this because it’s not the end of the world to just manually replace the battery when it dies in a sensor, but it would just be convenient to know when the batteries are so low that they should be replaced before it actually dies.
It means the battery is being recharged by lightning.
Depending on the actual battery level, Vera will show one of a few icons to show the general state.[/quote]
Thanks… So far this morning it is checking in regularly. I’ll give a couple of weeks and see if it continues.[/quote]
Same here… my battery icon is black again and not updating. It is still triggering events…
I have a motion sensor with a black battery & ? mark. The sensor is right outside the master bedroom of my vacation home so I am sure that it gets triggered frequently. Also, since I first noted this yesterday, the red icon of the man running is shown indicating that the sensor is tripped, possible stuck in that position. I went to settings tab and clicked on “configure node right now”. Now I see a message in a red block at the bottom of the device icon that reads “Unable to get any information on node”. Any idea what is causing this? I have someone going to the house to clean in a few hours and could ask them to change the batteries but doing a “excluding/including/configure node right now” procedure is definitely beyond their ability.
Battery Date: Thu Nov 29 2012 09:22:36
Last Route Update: Thu Nov 29 2012 02:30:48
Last Trip: Thu Nov 29 2012 11:26:00
I had been getting a notice that I had 1 drowsy device from the ADD plugin but this sensor’s battery read 100% (and still does) and another battery operated device read 94%, so I assumed the latter was the “drowsy” device. Now when I manually run ADD, it reports 3 drowsy devices, including the 2 with 1% batteries. It also said that the time my motion detector with the black battery icon “last reported” was 237 hrs ago.
Also, this week I had 2 window/door sensors go from 100% to 1% in less than 3 days. I think this is a function of the batteries not these sensor’s or Vera’s ability to test their “capacity”. I think that they read voltage not storage capacity and some batteries maintain at their rated voltage until just before they die.
As long as you are getting the black battery icon, which indicates Vera can’t tell the correct battery level, you won’t be able to configure or poll the sensor. You need to manually “wake” the sensor by hitting the tamper button rapidly on the back of the unit three times consecutively and then you’ll be able to re-configure and poll the node. Unfortunately for me, the door/window sensors that were displaying the black battery icon continued to do so even after I’ve woken them and re-configured them. I think I’ve learned to live with this because although I won’t know their actual battery level, they do still report the correct “tripped”/“untripped” status when a door or window is opened or closed. The sensors that get tripped constantly on my doors don’t have this reporting problem – only window sensors that rarely get tripped.
My property manager changed the batteries in my 2 HRDS1 window/door sensors but they are still indicating 1% battery level and seem to be working fine. I asked her to use fresh Duracell alkaline AAAs.
I decided that changing the batteries in my ZIR000 motion detector (with the black battery icon for > 24 hr in prolonged tripped state) may be too complicated and didn’t mention that to her. However since her visit on Sunday, the black battery icon has disappeared and it is no longer indicating a tripped state??
Two visits there ago, I found corroded Duracell alkaline batteries in another HRDS1 sensor and decided to replace all dying/dead batteries with lithium batteries. Lithium batteries are supposed to be longer lasting, more heat tolerant and less prone to corrosion. I may have put lithium batteries are in these sensors, which might explain their aberrant behavior. I can’t check their battery type until I am there again in 2 months. My battery operated zwave devices (Schlage deadbolts, HRDS1 and ZIR000 sensors) don’t seem to handle the lithium batteries properly. They seem to report a shorter life span but I don’t know if that is accurate. My ZTS MBT-1 pulse load battery tester can test many different types of lithium and alkaline batteries but not AAA lithium. I am going to switch back to Duracell alkaline batteries on my next trip.