Anybody else notice that the reported battery level for devices operating off a battery do not show accurately in SmartThings (Classic App)? I have been struggling with this for years, ever since I setup a SmartThings hub and devices. I have combinations of Samsung Water/Temp sensors, LeakSmart Water Sensors, Yale Door Locks, Iris Garage Door Tilt sensor, etc. About the only device that reads semi-accurately is the Yale Door Lock batteries (using a third part device handler). All my other sensors mentioned always either show 100% no matter virtually how low the get and even sometimes when just removing the battery all together. Sometimes just removing the battery altogether results in a -33% battery level.
I have tried deleting and re-adding the device handlers and I’ve tried various 3rd party device handlers. I have tried even third party battery monitor/notification smartapps(which don’t seem to work as the devices themselves don’t report back correct battery level. I have tried refreshing the status via the app. I have reset my SmartThings hub.
I talked to a buddy and he has the exact same issues with virtually the same types of devices and always has had this problem.
RBoy
(www.rboyapps.com - Making SmartThings Easy!)
2
Each device is responsible for reporting it’s battery levels. If they are Z-Wave devices, the device reports the level in % (so it internally translates battery voltage to %), with ZigBee device it could be % or raw voltage levels.
ST just shows what the device reports.
Now comes the question of when battery levels are reported, being an event driven environment, each device is supposed to report it’s battery levels periodically, i.e. either then the level changes by a threshold every X days/hours. Again, this is device specific and each device reports it differently. Some devices have an issue and get "stuck’ and don’t report updates. ST can’t even poll most devices since most battery devices are sleepy devices (e.g. sensors), just a handful of beaming/FLiRS which run on battery can be polled (active devices don’t use batteries), so with specific enhancements to the DTH these FLiRS devices can be polled and even some sleepy devices can be polled with a DTH enhancement when they wake up.
To answer your question, it’s isn’t ST’s fault (for the most) but with well written DTH’s you can help alleviate the issue, but the bottom line is that it’s upto the devices themselves to report the battery % correctly.