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Subject Topic: Motion Sensor 2420 v2.0 - low battery Post ReplyPost New Topic
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RichardL
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Posted: May 03 2012 at 18:16 | IP Logged Quote RichardL

I have made much progress working with and programming triggers for my Motion Sensors - 2420M v2.0.

The triggers work fine, responding to an "Insteon Group In" / On (0x11) for button 1.

I want to embark on determining if the battery gets low.

2 questions:
1 - Is this as easy as duplicating the triggers and changing the button to "3"?
2 - How do the motion sensors behave when the battery gets low. Do they send the group-3 transmit at regular intervals, if so how often. Do they send it only when they detect motion? etc...

Thanks in advance,

Richard
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BeachBum
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Posted: May 03 2012 at 21:00 | IP Logged Quote BeachBum

My motion detectors transmit the low battery once. I use a pop up box that I ack. Just use 3 and on and whatever you want it to do when this happens.

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RichardL
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Posted: May 13 2012 at 00:57 | IP Logged Quote RichardL

Thanks for the info. I got them all working, 5 so far.

One has sent one group 3 transmit, but the battery was fine. I built triggers for the group 3 transmits to send me an email for the low battery.

I am now fighting the sensors as far as being too sentitive to the wind, etc, and in one case a sensor that does not pick up car traffic in my driveway.

I am also getting many multiple transmits even though I disable the trigger until it completes.

We'll see how well this implementation turns out, I'll keep all posted.

Richard
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Handman
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Posted: May 24 2012 at 12:06 | IP Logged Quote Handman

For what it is worth, I find the low battery warnings to be nearly useless. Maybe I have done something wrong, but here is my experience: Install fresh 9 V battery. Reprogram 2420M with Lee's extended Insteon script. Within two weeks I get my first "low battery" warning (I have a trigger to send me an email). The battery will apparently still be good for another 2-3 months. It seems that voltage may drop on the battery during heavy use and this generates the signal (and email). Then, the battery seems to "recover" and continues to operate normally. I don't recall the voltage required to generate a low voltage warning, but maybe it is set too high - I don't know if this can be changed or not. In any case, I just let the darn thing go until it stops working altogether and then replace the battery. It does seem to generate slightly more warnings as the battery gets closer to failing altogether. Anyway, that is my experience - not great, IMO, but it works.

For what it's worth, many other have had poor battery life with these units. There is a great post on the Smarthome forums re battery life in the various modes (on rev 1.1 of 2420M): http://www.smarthome.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5934

Edited by Handman - May 24 2012 at 12:15
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