SmartThings WiFi Hub Firmware 0.52.21 update and impacts to battery life on sensors

[timmo]

Continuing the discussion from Samsung Connect Home/SmartThings WiFi Hub Firmware Release Notes - 0.52.21:

@SmartThings

• Changes default configuration for the following Zigbee clusters to reduce battery drain. Users may want to re-add contact, motion, or temperature sensors if they notice high battery drain. Configuration changes included:
• The measured temperature should now only send spontaneous reports if the temp changes by 1C (up from .16C), and the maximum time between reports is now 10 minutes, up from 5.

Has anyone noticed an actual improvement in battery drain since this update? I have two SmartThings Motion Sensors that always drained quickly when looking at the battery life in the app (they would always quickly go to 1% and stay there forever until after several weeks/months when I would then actually have to change the battery):

I did delete both sensors, turned off the hub for more than 20 mins to reset the Zigbee network, and then re-added them, hoping it would help reset the true battery life. On one it rose to 15%, but then quickly dropped back down to 1% over the next few days. The other one stayed at 1%. I get messages of being below 15% constantly with these two sensors which is really annoying and was hoping this firmware update would resolve this.

In happier news I do notice that the temperature ping readings have dropped dramatically compared to before, but it doesn’t seem to be enough to really impact battery life(?). Curious if anyone has noticed any changes to their sensors since deleting and re-adding them. Thanks.

[nayelyz (SmartThings Developer Support)]

@timmo

The other one stayed at 1%. I get messages of being below 15% constantly with these two sensors which is really annoying and was hoping this firmware update would resolve this.

Hi, @timmo
Have you seen how often the device reports the battery percentage?
Instead of being a battery drain, this could be an issue with the conversion, especially because several weeks pass before the device needs a battery change.
So, if you know how often it reports, you could get the driver logs of this event to see what the device sends and how it’s converted.

[timmo]

Hi @nayelyz - thanks for the response. I looked at the advanced web app for 1 of the sensors and below is what I see:

So it looks like it only pinged for the battery % once on 6/13, but then never again (I don’t see it in the logs since then). So it doesn’t appear to be pinging anymore after this date for battery. I’m not sure if I’m looking at this correctly though. Happy to look at this in more detail if you have additional thoughts. Thanks.

[nayelyz (SmartThings Developer Support)]

@timmo

So it looks like it only pinged for the battery % once on 6/13, but then never again (I don’t see it in the logs since then).

Interesting…it can also be that as the value isn’t changing, it isn’t registered as a new status, hence, the “last updated” field doesn’t change.
Is it possible for you to re-install the device and get the driver logs and Hub logs of this process?
I would like to see the message for the battery when it’s first retrieved.