Adventures in Home Automation: Batteries

Showing posts with label Batteries. Show all posts

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Rechargeable batteries for your IoT

Background:

I've got a lot of half used batteries from left over from recording shows (house concerts) and I've got enough sensors now that number of batteries getting tossed is becoming significant. I've tried rechargeables in the past but they did not seem to last all that long in devices, on the shelf or recharge that many times before going bad. Plus the size options were limited. There are a new options now though including smarter chargers, a lot of Li-ions that are lite and no memory issues that should make them perfect for environments where you might want to swap out batteries before they go dead without wasting them.

Here is what I've tried this time around:

Results so far:

For other posts in this blog with interim rechargeable impressions click here

Panasonic BK-3MCCA4BA

Note they say these hold a charge for a long time but I fully charged them then put them in a drawer for a couple days. When I stuck them back in the charger to check them though they said about 70% Not clear if that really means 70% or how much that affects the runtime. Take the following percentage in that light though.

I put a set in my Zoom H4n Handy Portable Digital Recorder and left it to record for the day. After about 6 hours it was still going so I decided to try them in a show. With backups just in case.

Next I charged up a couple sets for a show, used one set for about 3 hours then left them for a couple week till I had time to check the battery levels.

The one from a shotgun mic said 59% when put back in the charger.

Then two from the H4n said 40%

Panasonic BK-4MCCA4BA

Put a set each in a Netatmo indoor module and a wind module. The alkalines last about 6 months so may take awhile to see how these do.

Panasonic BK-3HCCA4BAs

These are supposed to be a bit more heavy duty than their standard AAs. Stuck a set in my Bescor Motorized Pan & Tilt and left it on automatic for about 6 hours. It was still going which was pretty impressive given I've had older, but unused, alkaline batteries be too weak to run it at all.

Between these and the other AAs I should definitely see a savings since I swap batteries every show so I don't have to worry about them dying during a show. Used for thew above show without and issue. A couple weeks after the show they said 57%.

EBL 9V Rechargeable Batteries

From another shotgun mic from same show. Charger said 8.97v but then the back up that was not used said 8.98v so basically it was still fully charged. Not unexpected though as this mic I usually only swap out batteries about every half dozen shows or so and that is mainly just to be safe.

LIR2032

Have a few of these in Wireless Tags. The non rechargeables last 3-6 months in those so should have some data on those a bit sooner.

Update 5/24/2019:

First freezer battery lasted only 2 weeks! Hopefully will not be the norm.

Update 7/27/2019:

Think I need to call these a bust. Here is my battery change log for the Wireless Tags. The time where I replaced the battery with a CR2032 are purple and the times I replaced with a LIR2032 are green. Basically it comes down to a month base case and as little as a week even at room temperature. This compared with and average of about 155 days with the CR2032s.

RCR123A

Planning on trying these in some Z-wave sensors like the Aeon 6n1 and Homeseer motion sensor though those tend to last up to a year. Probably will try some in a Dakota Alert 3000 Wireless Vehicle Detection Probe Sensor VS125 too.

Check back for updates here and posts tagged Rechargeable stats.

For another option with Wireless Tags I found this. But the also have a USB powered version out now.

Update: 1/25/2020 getting varying results depending on device. Here is the updated data.

Update 7/18/2020 Even more varying results depending on device. Here is the updated data.

I've also added High capacity non rechargeable Li-ion 2032s to the mix

Click here for current sheet.

Monday, October 1, 2018

Wanting to monitor your fridge / freezer?

For fridge / freezer monitoring this Wireless Tag is definitely the way to go. They also give you motion alerts, talk to about anything, cheap compared to most and will even give you verbal alerts in a browser.

There is both a simple interface for things like basic notifications

And a scripting interface called Kumo Apps that lets you do even more and call local URLs making it easy to interface with home automation like Homeseer. There are lots of templates to get you started.

Here is an example of how to send the data to Homeseer
var tags = <#tags_[12|13|26|32|52|62|72|21]_N#>;
tags.forEach(
function (tag) {
tag.updated = function () {

//KumoApp.Log("Updating:"+tag.name);
if(tag.name === "Comp Rack 0"){
KumoApp.httpCall("http://10.10.1.45/JSON?user=USERNAME&pass=PASSWORD&request=controldevicebyvalue&ref=3121&value="+((tag.batteryVolt - 2.75) / 0.45 * 100),"GET");
KumoApp.httpCall("http://10.10.1.45/JSON?user=USERNAME&pass=PASSWORD&request=controldevicebyvalue&ref=3122&value="+(tag.moisture),"GET");
KumoApp.httpCall("http://10.10.1.45/JSON?user=USERNAME&pass=PASSWORD&request=controldevicebyvalue&ref=3123&value="+(tag.eventState),"GET");
KumoApp.httpCall("http://10.10.1.45/JSON?user=USERNAME&pass=PASSWORD&request=controldevicebyvalue&ref=3126&value="+(tag.rssi),"GET");
KumoApp.httpCall("http://10.10.1.45/JSON?user=USERNAME&pass=PASSWORD&request=controldevicebyvalue&ref=3124&value="+(tag.temperature * 9 / 5 + 32),"GET");
}

Change the bits in orange of course to match your set up.

That gets you:

Battery as percentage (note battery voltage reading is affected temperature. From my experience with my tags, at room temp 3.2 volts is what you will see for fully changed and is about to die around 2.75. But in the freezer it will bounce between ~2.6 @ 10F and ~2.5 @ 0F. When it drops below 2.5 it is near the end. A little experimenting might be needed to dial yours in. UPDATE: After starting to phase in rechargeables I'm thinking just sending the voltage might be better and adjusting status on the HS side based on historical data. See UPDATE 5/24/2019 below.)
Humidity (moisture)
Armed Status (eventState)
Signal strength (RSSI) in -db
Temperature converted to Fahrenheit

See end for sample status setting for virtuals.

How well do they work?

I've been using them for years and on a whim stuck one in the fridge and another in freezer last February along with a AcuRite 00782A2 Wireless Indoor/Outdoor Thermometer (outdoor module in freezer). They stayed close to each other in readings. Note battery life is reduced by the cold. Freezer one lasts only about 3-4 months. Generally they last closer to a year.

You will need a hub "Ethernet Tag Manager" for them to talk to but it is low cost too.

Note though I have had no luck with the Wireless Water/Moisture Sensors The soil moisture never worked and even the temp sensors seem erratic in the new ones. Plus the batteries are not replaceable like the indoor models.

Also if you start seeing random false motion alerts it probably means the battery is about ready to be changed.

Sample Status Graphic setting for the virtuals for above.

Nothing fancy, just using standard icons though I should probably go through and make a full set of 32 by 32 icons given I'm almost to 2000 devices. An 8 kb is does not take long to send and render but 2000 of them plus all associated data can slow your browser down more than you would like.

Note on battery sometimes the batteries read as high as 3.3 volts even in the freezer fresh from the pack. Homeseer will just ignore and value sent that is out of range.

To avoid this set the high end on battery at 120 to 200 so even if you set the freezer formula to a more accurate ((tag.batteryVolt - 2.5) / 0.45 * 100) it will just should overcharged till it settles down. That way a checker like ChkSensors.vb will not mark it as offline. Again, tweak as needed for your setup.

Note the mismatched default sized icons in the following examples that should be made all to be 32 by 32.

UPDATE 5/24/2019:
Note you should probably adjust the battery notification levels.

The default is 2.5. For a tag in the freezer that is a bit high or low depending on battery type. Below shows a tag's voltage report over 3 standard CR2032s followed by 2 rechargeable LIR2032s. Note the "dead voltage" (just before it spikes up from the battery change) for the rechargeables seems lower despite the much shorter run time.

For tags in warmer areas though it looks like more the reverse is true. 2.85 to 2.75 seems a better setting for these with CR2032s but the rechargeable have held a steady 2.84 since install 15 days ago.

In the fridge the batteries seem to almost match. Here is the chart for the tag in there. The first 2 are CR2032s and the third a LIR2032.

I should note the gaps in the above charts point to how important monitoring the battery level and or a heartbeat of a sensor is. With your notification level too low you might not know for days that the sensor if offline.

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