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Tags battery, battery alarm

virtual battery alarm and battery level messages

Adrian Van Der Heijden shared this question ago

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Has anyone got a virtual battery alarm up and running properly?

I have one setup with a couple of sensors, but it doesnt work.

1. within the alarm panel, I can not get any zones viewable. I can add them, but they are never shown up like in a standard virtual alarm panel. I know they exist as I can not add the same sensor twice within this virtual battery alarm

2. it does send messages when a battery level is low, no matter what level I set the minimum battery level to.

3. I get online and offline messages about my controller, why? This is a battery alarm, not a safety alarm. I have the safety alarm if I want these messages, but as it is unreliable I disable it. Now i get these messages again via the battery alarm. Annoying.

4. If Zipato can measure a battery level and present this with the widget on the device (little green icon) why cant you just use this as a meter with the rule creater? How does Zipato get this level and measure it, why does it have to be in an alarm panel only?

5. As I can not get it to work and test it, can anyone tell me if you get a message regarding the particular device within the battery alarm panel, or just that the general battery alarm has been tripped?

6. Do you get only one message when the device reaches the battery percentage set? or does it continually message you on lower levels too.

7. do only zwave products work, or does it work for zigbee, 433, enocean etc?

8. I can not find any information on this virtual battery alarm, can anyone point me in the right direction?

9. what methods do you guys use for getting battery level warnings from Zipato? Its a real security risk and not reliable enough using Zipatos methods I have found.

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Replies (5)

Adrian Van Der Heijden ●

does anybody have any reliable battery alerts setup?

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Attila Hajdu ●

No, I dont. I have battery alarm since the beginning when it appeared, but so far for me it was only good to report the controller online offline status. It does not work for the battery operated zwave devices no matter what options I enable.

It will never work with 433MHz devices as they are 1way and do not report battery state...Im unsure on Zigbee, as dont know what command classes are there supported.

So all in all, in respect to the main functionality (battery alert) it is yet not implemented to be used for it's purpose. Silimarly to the viatual thermostat is only implemented to work for heating and cooling scenarios, but for humidity and ventillation is not implemented.

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Rene Claassen ●

Quote:

" So all in all, in respect to the main functionality (battery alert) it is yet not implemented to be used for it's purpose. Silimarly to the viatual thermostat is only implemented to work for heating and cooling scenarios, but for humidity and ventillation is not implemented."

Nice and than we read that you have to pay for a separate licenses to use Virtual Thermostat. So you pay for something what is not fully functionally at the moment.

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Adrian Van Der Heijden ●

Thanks Attila, I thought as much.

Why Zipato do you have it listed then? What I cant understand is how Zipato can read battery levels and display these in the app, but we are unable to get and use this information via a meter.

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Attila Hajdu ●

It is probably an unfinished project.

Rene. Virtual thermostat is still available for free. It has new name Thermostat Zone. A thermostat is basically a heating anr/or cooling system, not ventillation system. So in this regards it is fully working. Perhaps the Ventillation and humidity should be removed from Virtual thermostat and new widgets created like:

Virtual humidity system
Virtual ventillation system

With their own widgets and possible configurations as they have completely differnet requirements.

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Rene Claassen ●

Hi Attiila,

This is not really true, In the Thermostat Zone you can't select an output device for heating. This as far as I know needed to use the thermostat to trigger your CV.

In the Pro is it working fine.

So last couple of months I was investing in devices to control the temperature in different rooms.

In an other topic https://community.zipato.com/topic/thermostat_2#comment-42631 you can read, you only need to buy a Pro license to use (unlimited) Thermostat Pro. In the new license setup I need to buy a license for every room. In the Pro Bundle you got only 1 Thermostat Pro license.

For me i got a little bit disappointed in Zipato, you have to pay extra for each nice feature you want to use.

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Attila Hajdu ●

Hi Rene. And what are you using in your output? According to Zipato in the Thermostat zone you can insert a thermostatic device (based on zwave command classes). So if you have a wall thermostat that can control the heat, it can be added, but if you use a simple actuator (switch), it is not a thermostatic device and thus requires VT PRO. In my other topic I have explained that I have one problem with this approach. If someone has a multi room heating system, where in every room there is a thermostatic device, as I could not find this output in rule creator, I cannot make a rule to wotk with a gas heater switch which is the source of the heat.https://community.zipato.com/topic/new-services-payable-virtual-alarms-and-thermostats

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Rene Claassen ●

Hi Attila, I use the zipatile internal relay to control my heat. In the zipatile you have one VTPro.

So I didn't like that I had to buy a Pro license to use more than one VTPro (Dealer told me when I bought the device almost 2 years ago that everything was included) now I want to use the VTPro to control the bathroom and the sleeping-rooms apart from the living room I have to pay for every VTPro I want to use.

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Attila Hajdu ●

Hello Rene. Furstly I understood that you had PRO before, so no change for you. If you had this working before, it will continue to work.

What device are you using to control these other tooms? As you have thermostat, it will work.

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Rene Claassen ●

I do not have PRO, in the Zipatile it's a mix of Normal and Pro features. In the bathroom I planned a AEON Labs multi-sensor to check the temperature and humanity in the sleeping-rooms I planned a temperature sensor.

Because of I'm using underfloor water heating, with 3 Robots (living room, bathroom, sleeping-rooms) I need to control the gas heat. (To control which room is heated, I want to switch on/of the robot's) This is working fine, cause I have seen it working with Domoticz.

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Attila Hajdu ●

Yes, this is a normal requirement everywhere with gas source and zoned heating system. You would unfortunately need 3x thermostat PRO for each zone. Alternative would be creting rules for each zone separately.

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Martin ●

here is my solution with rules https://community.zipato.com/topic/eurotronic-spirit#comment-42751

People from Zipato should know about this limitation, that you cannot set a virtual switch from virt.thermostat without PRO.

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Attila Hajdu ●

Yes, this is exactly my problem as well. Popp thermostat is a thermostatic device and should have endpoints usable in rules. So technically if you have a radiator valve or wall htermostat you should be able to use the output in rule and thus manage your source of heat.

I understand that they want to charge PRO for situations, when you want to use non-thermostatic devices as thermostats, but your workaround and my requirements are not this so we should be able to use simple thermostat zone and combine the output into rule.

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Martin ●

i agree, but can you tell me an example of "to use non-thermostatic devices as thermostats". One example is that virtual switch, which we need to set from every VT and then according to state turn the boiler on. But I cannot imagine anything else.

One more thing, Sebastian wrote somewhere that thermostat is for example thermostatic valve. Is that true? I thought thermostat is physical device where you can set temperature/week plan and which then controls boiler and valves. And VT does the same.

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Dan Torsmar ●

Suddenly everybody is talking about thermostat problems, I thought this was about Low Battery Warnings?

I agree, this is not working for me either!

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Alberto Macias ●

Low battery alarm is STILL not functionaly, it got introduced a few months back and never has worked. The only alert you can get is when the controller goes offline / online with it.

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Melissa Miles ●

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Jamie Gutierrez ●

Suddenly everybody is talking about thermostat problems, I thought this was about Low Battery Warnings?

I agree, this is not working for me either!

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Cody Brian ●

It sounds like you're encountering several issues with your virtual battery alarm setup. For the first problem regarding the visibility of zones within the alarm panel, it could be a configuration issue or a glitch in the software. Double-check your settings and consider reaching out to the manufacturer or community forums for assistance.

Regarding the inconsistent battery level messages, ensure that your sensors are properly configured and that the minimum battery level threshold is set correctly. If the issue persists, it may require troubleshooting or updating the firmware of your devices.

As for the online and offline messages about your controller, this seems like a misconfiguration or a crossover with another system. Review your settings to ensure that only relevant notifications are being sent.

Consider consulting resources like Quick Manuals Hub for detailed guides or seeking advice from experienced users. Additionally, treating this as a new game might help you approach the troubleshooting process with a fresh perspective, potentially leading to solutions for your issues.

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