Presence Sensor battery upgrade

[Dho006]

I modded mine too. Although I probably should have gone with the 4-battery case…instead of rubber banding it to my 2-battery case.
(Oh well I hope it lasts a year at least)

[lmosenko]

You did good. I will last you much longer.

[RaySorian]

Thanks guys for the ideas and pictures!
I just finish my first one. I did the 4 battery pack mod.
I moved the positive leg in the box over two spots to the left after cutting some of the retention hold downs and popping the cover for the wiring off as much as it would let without breaking. I retained the on/off switch on the back. I cut the side on the original PS to fit the cables.

[sumya]

So I have been using this battery hack for a while now on 2 presence sensors and it works great. No more changing batteries. Only issue that I have is, every now and then the sensor will go crazy. It will arrive/leave every 5 minutes. In this case, I just remove the batteries for couple of seconds and put them back in and then it works just fine. If anyone has not yet done this hack, then my recommendation will be to get a battery holder which has a on/off switch so that you can reset the sensor easily.

[Nezmo]

@sumya

Only issue that I have is, every now and then the sensor will go crazy. It will arrive/leave every 5 minutes.

Yes, same happens for me. But I think it also did it prior to the battery mod.

[mark_cockcroft (Mark C)]

Mines ok. But i left the button batter in

[Glen_King]

@Nezmo

@sumya

Only issue that I have is, every now and then the sensor will go crazy. It will arrive/leave every 5 minutes.

Yes, same happens for me. But I think it also did it prior to the battery mod.

I extended the timeout in IDE, and those issues vanished for me.

[Lgkahn (Larry)]

i have my own version of the device type that is modified… not sure why they never adopted it… there is a bug in the device type that causes this ping ponging home away home home home etc… my version does not switch states if you are already home… ie if home do not set to home again, till it changes to away

[Matthew_K]

I searched google after I made this modification for our vehicles. You can get these 3.3v DC converters from Amazon (or from Aliexpress for even cheaper if you’re willing to wait), and hooked it up to a tap-a-fuse for a few bucks.

I had to use Tap-a-fuse because I’m pretty sure my wife’s cigarette lighter is only enabled on ignition.

[mark_cockcroft (Mark C)]

@Lgkahn

my version does not switch states if you

where is you DH, i have had any issues for about a month after putting a zigbee extender/socket closer to garage, then yeaster day i check and it droped in an out twice during the day

but it only left for 20sec and came back, my presence time out is set to 3 min??

[RaySorian]

@sumya

Only issue that I have is, every now and then the sensor will go crazy. It will arrive/leave every 5 minutes.

I’ve had that happen when the battery was getting close to dead, even before the modification. I just take it as a sign that it’s timr to replace it. As soon as I do, good to go.

Also, Enloop white batteries last about 4 months, much better than the original setup.

[anis_ber (Anis Berhil)]

Hey RaySorian
anyone knows the name/link of that switch box that has extra room the arrival sensor?
Thanks

[Oops (Vi)]

I use these:
https://www.amazon.com/Ogrmar-Switch-Battery-Holder-Leads/dp/B075G8XZLM/ref=pd_sim_60_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B075G8XZLM&pd_rd_r=cb682b0e-1af2-11e9-83f8-a9a520c8859c&pd_rd_w=I8jJ6&pd_rd_wg=jWyia&pf_rd_p=18bb0b78-4200-49b9-ac91-f141d61a1780&pf_rd_r=5S0HH75XHXM1QNQVR72W&psc=1&refRID=5S0HH75XHXM1QNQVR72W

[RaySorian]

The one Oops posted is good. If you don’t mind doing some research and possibly waiting on shipping, you can find the battery case on AliExpress and/or Wish for cheaper.

[bklynsoulja]

Can this battery upgrade be the same concept for the smartthings multi sensor?

[Alwas]

Yes, and the leak sensor, and the Fibaro door/window sensor, and the ST button, and the Xiaomi vibration sensor, Fibaro motion sensor, everything.

[anis_ber (Anis Berhil)]

@ethayer

When Erik's phone arrives....
is Erik's car home?
No? => Open garage door.
Yes? => do nothing.

this is usually all I need!

I also have…

When Erik's car arrives....
is garage door open?
No? => Open garage door.
Yes? => do nothing.

I like this, how can you specify in Core “is car home”
Can you send a snapshot of the core that reflects above
Thx

[viguera (Amauri Viguera)]

@anis_ber

I like this, how can you specify in Core “is car home”
Can you send a snapshot of the core that reflects above
Thx

I don’t do automatic garage doors (because I’ve had issues with it in the past), but it should be fairly straight forward.

Presence 1 is you, Presence 2 is the car and Contact 2 is the door.

[anis_ber (Anis Berhil)]

seems confusing now
does that mean we need 2 arrival sensors: one in my pocket, one inside the car?
I thought the purpose of this arrival sensor is to avoid using the phone as a presence sensor because it’s not reliable
Regardless, your piston says
if I’m present + car is not present then open the garage door?? shouldn’t it be car is present instead?

[viguera (Amauri Viguera)]

@anis_ber

seems confusing now
does that mean we need 2 arrival sensors: one in my pocket, one inside the car?
I thought the purpose of this arrival sensor is to avoid using the phone as a presence sensor because it’s not reliable
Regardless, your piston says
if I’m present + car is not present then open the garage door?? shouldn’t it be car is present instead?

Well that was a specific example for the whole “Erik + car” situation. You should be tracking both the car and the person, because otherwise you might run into the problem of “the car leaves and then comes back” by itself. If you just open the door when the car “arrives” but it’s a false positive, now your door is open for no reason.

The piston above basically says “If you return, and you’ve been away for at least 90 seconds, and the car is not there, then open the door.”

Having the “at least 90 seconds” check should make sure that this only happens when you return AFTER being away for a while (mitigate the false positives when the phone is not present). Then if you’re indeed returning, and the car is NOT there, it means you’re coming back in the car, so the door should open.

The alternative is to check if the car’s sensor returned, and you can try that and see, but the sensor might not be detected early enough to trigger the events to open the door.