365
Tired of expensive disposable batteries and rechargeable AA suck. So I made a 10k mAh pack for my deadbolt.
(sh.itjust.works)
Eneloops would only last about 3 weeks. And disposable last 2 months. This door is used a lot and since it has Zwave and a door open sensor it sends info on every open.
Bonus, since it can handle the lipo AA batteries that put out 1.8v and it gives the motor more oomph I made the battery pack give 7.2v and it never sticks anymore.
This is a garage-door so its not critical access but is used a lot.
I bought Xtar rechargeable AA just for the deadbolt cause I got tired of replacing enveloops every few weeks. They last a long time, but when they drop to 1.1v the deadbolt stops working. So, battery level is always 100% until the day the lock doesn't work.
If I'm thinking correctly, that's because the xtars die at 1.1v, but the lock still thinks that's plenty of juice so it reports 100%?
But normal AA are 1.5v.. weird. I guess they aren't dead dead until .8 or. 9v, but still.
Assuming you're using 4 batteries, that means the lock is seeing 4.4v and not reporting a low battery, because real alkalines would go down to 3.2v or 3.6v.
So what you can try doing, is adding a small diode in series with the positive lead of the battery. A schottky would get you .3 to .5 ish voltage drop, bringing your 4.4v down to 4.1 or 3.9v, which would probably be enough to trigger the warning?
Or if you went for a regular rectifier diode at .7 to 1v drop, you could bring that to 3.7v or 3.4v, which would put you right in the zone of normal batteries dying.
Diodes are cheap, it's worth a shot!
Not exactly, my schledge deadbolt has zwave so I can monitor battery percentage in HA. The problem is that the Xtar is a constant voltage rechargeable lithium battery with a constant 1.5V output. They drop to 1.1V to signal low charge. When that happens the deadbolt stops working soon after.
Does 1.1v not signal low voltage? How long does it work for after that? Could you set up an alert so that the moment it changes you get a text message? Or a light turns red or something?
Just curious. I haven't played with HA, though it's a long term goal.