DS10 Battery Life

[68sting]

I have a ds10 hooked up to my door bell wires. When some one pushes the button it sends the command and a chain of events takes place. My problem is the battery shows low in about three weeks. Is there a way to hard wire these?

 

[Rupp]

Sounds like it is wired wrong. My sensors last for nearly a year on one set of batteries. Sounds like you have a constant closure which is draining the battery.

 

[68sting]

I believe your right. But how do I wire it differently?

 

[WayneW]

Sounds like you have a constant closure which is draining the battery.

I believe the DS10a only transmits changes and never transmits constantly.

 

[drozwood90]

Sounds like you have a constant closure which is draining the battery.

I believe the DS10a only transmits changes and never transmits constantly.

It does in fact transmist a heartbeat every 60 minutes or so.

What it could be is draining the battery by there being some sort of bulb in the switch.

The best way to "fix" this is to either look at the switch to determine if it needs to be changed to a simpler one, or add an AC relay which can then make a mechanical closure to the DS10A (thus wiring the swich you have back in). I know that is what I am going to do when I get ready to put it in...

That or I'm going to use my UPB I/O module...I'm just not sure which I'm going to do yet...

--Dan

 

[WayneW]

It does in fact transmist a heartbeat every 60 minutes or so.

What it could be is draining the battery by there being some sort of bulb in the switch.

But the heartbeat has nothing to do with weather the sensor switch is opened or closed, hence it is a constant battery drain, regardless of the state of the switch. right? Or it is a heartbeat only in one state?

I don't think a bulb in the doorbell switch would cause a problem since the unit is designed to work with a sensor that presents a dead short.

I think he just had a set of weak batteries. Is the issue repeatable when starting with known good batteries? Do you get longer life from other DS10As in your house?

 

[nsisman]

It does in fact transmist a heartbeat every 60 minutes or so.

What it could be is draining the battery by there being some sort of bulb in the switch.

But the heartbeat has nothing to do with weather the sensor switch is opened or closed, hence it is a constant battery drain, regardless of the state of the switch. right? Or it is a heartbeat only in one state?

I don't think a bulb in the doorbell switch would cause a problem since the unit is designed to work with a sensor that presents a dead short.

I think he just had a set of weak batteries. Is the issue repeatable when starting with known good batteries? Do you get longer life from other DS10As in your house?

Disconnect the leads to the doorbell and put your multimeter on the doorbell contacts with the meter on resistance setting.

You should get no meter deflection unless the doorbell button is pushed.

You should have nothing connected to your doorbell button except the ds10.

Good luck....

Neil

 

[68sting]

I only have the one DS10 hooked up at the moment. It shows always on in HS but that doesn't sound like the problem. I did repalce the door bell with a unit that has no light. I'll hook up another one and see if I just have a bad unit. I have replace the batterys three times with new Energizers. I gues the whole pack could be bad.

 

[drozwood90]

It does in fact transmist a heartbeat every 60 minutes or so.

What it could be is draining the battery by there being some sort of bulb in the switch.

But the heartbeat has nothing to do with weather the sensor switch is opened or closed, hence it is a constant battery drain, regardless of the state of the switch. right? Or it is a heartbeat only in one state?

I don't think a bulb in the doorbell switch would cause a problem since the unit is designed to work with a sensor that presents a dead short.

I think he just had a set of weak batteries. Is the issue repeatable when starting with known good batteries? Do you get longer life from other DS10As in your house?

yes, it only re-transmits it's state every so often.

The only issue I've had with heartbeats is when it goes off, if your code is looking for the set to any state, your code will execute every time the heartbeat goes off (as it's being set to the same state each time).

--Dan