After running HA for 2 years and tinkering with the stuff I already had, it was time to extend the little machine via Zigbee. I got an Aqara Temp/Humidity/Pressure sensor, which in itself works fine. It just chewed through 30% of battery in 4 days. Now that might be an issue with placement and signal strength (basement through 2 floors), but it doesn’t bode well unless it “levels out” at some point.
Which brings me to my actual question: does anyone know any such sensors that are wall-powered in any way? Something that can be plugged in and “forgotten” about?
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I use the aqara motion sensors and the battery sensors plummet almost immediately to 70% but then stay there for months. I’ve had them for over a year now and they haven’t been a problem.
and the battery sensors plummet almost immediately to 70%
Interesting, thanks. I’ve hit the 70% yesterday, let’s see when/if it moves from there any time soon.
Interested in the same but usb powered myself. For now using https://www.mylocalbytes.com/products/snzb-02-zigbee-temperature-humidity-sensor sensors. Got 5 of those but considering getting more. Had these for a couple of months but the battery still reports 100% for all of themm which is a bit suspicious and optimistic. Will update this oost once the battery will report anything other than 100.
I’d take USB-powered, not a problem. Just something that can be plugged into continuous power.
The packaging claims a run-time up to 2 years, but I assume that’s for very optimistic placement right next to a hub. But who knows, maybe it’s just a startup issue with reporting and it’ll actually keep for a while.
Yes, i suspect its an issue in reporting that for a 2 year claim to still be 100% after a few months. But as a sensor they work great, experimented leaving it in the fridge to monitor that for example, thinking of getting more sensors.
But inalso live in a 1 bed flat. So yes distances are not massive at all.
Were you using the Aqara sensor with the battery it came with? Some of the supplied batteries are not always that great, I have had a few that report they are 50-70% life at the start, or they rapidly loose charge. I replaced them with a good quality battery and the sensors have been fine since.
The battery levels reported by Zigbee devices are also not that reliable in my experience. Some will report the same battery percentage constantly, and then suddenly plummet when the battery eventually dies. Of the temperature and humidity sensors I have the batteries tend to last for about 1 year, sometimes longer.
It’s zwave, not zigbee, but I use a Aeotec Multisensor 6 as it can be usb powered from a wall and I don’t have to worry about it.
The cheaper tri-sensor from them is battery only and it’s a massive pain to have to keep replacing.
30% in 4 days is ridiculous. I know some Aqara sensors have a battery drain issue, but usually it takes a month or so.
Are you using the sensor in a fridge or freezer? If the battery is cold, it’ll report lower. I’ve had some freezer sensors sitting at 0% for months but they still work fine.
If you still want to move to a wired sensor, you can use ESPHome with a sensor such as the BME280. The boards can be had for ~$5-10 and the sensors for about the same.
I tried both the Shelly ones - the HT and the HTPlus. They are both massively unreliable, they fall off the Wifi constantly, and are a hassle to try and get back (they don’t come back online once they lose connection and require a partial re-setup). I had hoped being on wall power would change things but it absolutely doesn’t. So I can’t recommend those, sadly.
Been there, done that. And I had exactly the same experience, which leads me to believe they’re simply crap.
I know this is an old question, but the Shelly H&T has a USB power cap that you can buy separately. Then use any micro USB cable and power supply. It’s Wi-Fi and not zigbee, and it is definitely a tad more expensive per unit. However, no need to worry about batteries. Shelly does run sales occasionally too.
That was the first one I tried. Sounded fantastic in theory, didn’t work out for shit. For some reason the sensor dropped out constantly. The USB PSU bottom was nice though, no batteries to change.
I do find that they go to sleep fairly often. I changed the temp update setting to the smallest value and it updates fairly regularly. If the temp doesn’t change much I don’t think you get an update.
I have built myself some sensors using Arduino or similar microcontrollers (ESP32, ESP8266) and have them powered via usb with regular phone chargers. It usually requires soldering and writing code, but once you are there, there’s no look back. There are ways to simplify the coding part, and HA has good support for them.
