IRIS Keypad Battery Change Question

Will do. How are you going to change the DTH?

It was necessary to look at the DTH to get the formula. Part of the problem is the keypad DTH and for that matter all DTHs provide the battery power as a percentage versus the actual voltage. Showing the actual voltage along with the pseudo percentage would be much more useful for me.

You also confirm what I told @joelw135 in a private message. “Use a volt meter; the keypad device could be providing incorrect measurements; the keypad percentage calculation may be inaccurate

When the keypad reports a voltage value of hex 1c or 2.8 volts the percentage could be calculated as
2.8/3.0 = x/100 or about 93%

The DTH attempts to compensate for the unknown(afaik) “what is the lowest voltage at which the device will properly operate”. So you get this result

0% <=2.5 volts
20% = 2.6 volts
40% = 2.7 volts
60% = 2.8 volts
80% = 2.9 volts
100% >= 3.0 volts

Another factor making battery percentage aribtrary is it does not consider how long the battery will continue producing the voltage. So do you want a battery that starts at and will produce 2.8 volts for 3 years, or one that starts at 3.0 and drops to 2.6 in 6 months?

What about forgetting the battery all together, and using a 3 volt DC supply?

With Nicola Tesla’s over the air power, that would work for me.

Edit : add battery backup

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Lmmmmmmmfaaaaaaooooooo @ wireless power Tesla comment

In terms of power: assuming that the keypad won’t get affected by Voltage ripple or noise then I don’t see a problem with giving it power. But in theory, depending on the circuit design introducing noise from power supply could cause all kinds of hell. (Also depending on the supply as well… )

Battery backup ftw

Also @arnb I totally agree. All I meant was it would have been quicker to just do process of elimination by measuring Voltages, checking things as opposed to diving into someone else’s code. And man, actual Voltage levels would be dope…

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I spent 40+ years as a computer programmer and system designer. Diving into someone else’s code is easier for me than finding my volt meter and pulling the battery from a device.

I’m actually pleased I did that code exploration. I no longer believe any battery % coming from any DTH, and will check the battery with a volt meter or two prior to replacement.

Should this thread not convince everyone that battery % is arbitrary, take a look at this code for the SmartSense/Centralite Motion Sensor starting around line 148. The programmers did their best to get out a reasonable number, but why not simply include the voltage reading!

def batteryMap = [28: 100, 27: 100, 26: 100, 25: 90, 24: 90, 23: 70, 22: 70, 21: 50, 20: 50, 19: 30, 18: 30, 17: 15, 16: 1, 15: 0]
Interpretation
if you have a Smarthings branded motion sensor
2.8 to 2.6 volts 100%;
2.5 to 2.4 volts 90%
2.3 to 2.2 volts 70%
etc
otherwise it’s more logic than I want to figure out.

OK this morning, I removed the batteries in the keypad, and used two different multi testers and received the following results.
CR123A shows 3.21 volts and DTH shows 80% in DTH
CR123 Duracell shows 2.90 volts shows 20% in DTH
CR123 Energizer Lithium shows 2.95 volts shows 40% in DTH

So I can see batteries differ and DTH is off for sure.

Thank you for posting those results.

Yes the DTH is totally whacked as are most all DTHs, but so is the device hardware, which is sending 2.8 volts for a 3.2 volt battery :exploding_head:

I feel besides the addition of device provided voltage to the DTH display, a voltage adjustment field is a reasonable request. My feeling is this will never happen.

I have sent many reports to Support regarding erroneous battery readings, and I believe they are well aware of this, but as you said nothing will be done. I do think the last adjustment made things worse, as things go offline, when the battery still has life. At least the old method the battery went dead when it was actually dead, but I knew to have batteries in my battery box.

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So the batteries must be old/bad/whatever… the duracell is nominal 3v but should come around 3v2 or 3v3. Same as the energizer. In fact you made me think im going nuts, so i went and measured all different types of batteries i have that say 123 on them. (Not inclusive of rechargeable ones). One thing is apparent. All voltages are the same accross new batteries i measured (well some SLIGHT…and i mean SLIGHT variation, nothing to concern with).

Then i even went and checked data sheets and manufacturer info and the voltages i was reading were in line with literature.

All the batteries were new, and the date was showing not even a year old. So I don’t know what to say. But I did notice the percentage went up when I removed and replaced the 123A batteries.

The batteries on my Xfinity keypad gave out while reporting 100%. When the device went offline the keypad was blinking, would not communicate, nor accept a pin.

Got some brand x, “Surefire” 123A lithiums at Lowes and it’s back, but did have to hold down the 2 key to get the volume level back up to where it was previously set.

The original CR123A batteries lasted about 9 months under heavy use from all the SHM Delay app testing.

Anyone know how to get the battery icon to light the Centralite or Iris Keypad?

Sigh, the new batteries suddenly died without warning last night after about a week, with the device showing 100% charge in the Phone app and ActionTiles. It appears the failure was caused by the transmit icon never shutting off. it also may have been transmitting 100% of the time for all I know.

Anyhow I purchased two new Energizer Cr-123A, then followed the factory reset instructions at http://www.centralite.com/downloads/DataSheet-3SeriesSecurityKeypad.pdf. Thought I would have to re-join the device with ST, but it connected, worked fine, and the transmit light shut off with the keyboard. Hopefully the batteries will last for a while, they now show 99%.

That is something I have asked about before. How did you get the volume to raise? I have the IRIS as you know. I thought I read somewhere someon got the battery light to turn on, But don’t remember where .

Press and hold the 2 key. My device does not get very loud
hold 5 key lower the volume.
8 key in theory is sound on/off

Thank you will try, is there feedback when pressing the 2 key?

Simply hold the 2 key down. It beeps in increments until it reaches the maximum, then continues beeping at the maximum

The difference between low and high is hard to hear.

Yeah, I found my way here with forum search looking for help pairing my Iris Keypad. I bought one brand new and for the life of me I can’t get it to pair. Iris doesn’t seem to have official instructions - the best I can find is another thread in this forum that I’ve already (also) posted to… no luck. Can anyone point me at a more descriptive and/or official document for how to pair the keypad?

When I add a single (verified good) battery the IRIS, WIRELESS, and OFF light up for a second or two, then the WIRELESS flashes two or three times, goes off, then both IRIS and OFF also turn off… then nothing. The batteries clearly work because button pushes get beeps and lights, but as far as pairing is concerned I can’t make any progress. I’m extremely frustrated!