Dead battery after 6mo

esung 2016-12-11 05:20:57 UTC #1

I always thought it was a bit sketchy that battery level was 100% even at 5months use, and it abruptly dropped to 15% and practically dead because it won't turn at all. Is Sesame's actual expected battery life more of 6 months? (Either way battery life display is broken)

hsiang 2016-12-14 09:08:19 UTC #2

Hi @esung
Your Sesame battery is designed to last for roughly 500 days with normal use. (approximately 10 times per day) When the battery is under 30%, Sesame will stop working to prevent the lock from getting stuck.

In order for me to investigate your case, can you please let me know:
1. What batteries are you using for your Sesame?
2. Replace the batteries and try it again so I can see the history log from our end

Thank you!

esung 2016-12-16 01:11:58 UTC #3

I was using the original battery shipped with the unit. (energizer I think). Battery was replaced the next day and it's working now.

esung 2016-12-21 21:55:03 UTC #4

Did you spot anything from the log? Or is 6months more realistic battery life?

Perhaps our usage was a lot more than your standard 10times/day average usage, being a house of 5 people. But then you should do further research of realistic battery expectation, instead of 10time/day blanket that would cover only small segment of users.

More troublesome was the wrong battery indicator. Before dropping to 15% it was showing 100% the whole time except for a few times it showed 90 or 80 something, but it got always back to 100% after software update. Being locked out due to false battery indicator would be a big failure point for the product.

jsvenning 2016-12-29 14:53:45 UTC #5

Had the same issue. Was a 100 forever and now dropped to 19 after coming home from 3 weeks vacation?! Ive got mine a couple of months ago and have been traveling a lot, so the 500 days, 10 times a day is way off... also why prevent it from being used when there is still battery?!? Makes no sense. I agree that there should be a warning notification when the battery drops to a certain percentage but disabling it completely seems bizarre. If I hadn't had my keys I wouldn't have been able to get in even with 19% power.

hsiang 2017-01-10 15:46:52 UTC #6

Hi @esung

Sorry that I wasn't able to get back to you until now. From your history log, I found that you've used Sesame for almost 3000 times, and that's about 60~70% usage of the battery. and as I mentioned before, when the battery is under 30%, Sesame will stop working to prevent the lock from getting stuck.

More troublesome was the wrong battery indicator. Before dropping to 15% it was showing 100% the whole time except for a few times it showed 90 or 80 something, but it got always back to 100% after software update.

We are improving the calculation/algorithm of the battery and this issue should be fixed soon. Hope this helps!

Alice

email 2017-01-10 18:19:47 UTC #7

Well good to know that I am not crazy. My lock has been working great for months but the battery has always said 100%. which I figured was an error, this sort of confirms that. Hope they fix this. How slow they are to release updates scares me. I feel like they have a single developer working on everything and he does not understand android very well.

esung 2017-01-10 21:04:01 UTC #8

First of all, disabling the lock at below 30% battery level makes no sense. I suspect it reflects CH's lack of grasp of battery issue overall.

@hsiang If it can last 500 days x 10turns, it should be able to go almost 5000 counts. Disabling at 3000 counts proves that your claim is false. (My deadbolt has pretty smooth turns so the motor shouldn't take extra torque operate.) I'll accept if battery life is 300 days instead of 500, but with wrong percentage display and no low battery warning software is so poor enough to defeat the purpose of the device.

ps- if you cannot figure out battery life algorithm for a while, at least include turn counts in the history log so that I can expect it

hsiang 2017-01-13 11:14:29 UTC #9

Hi @esung,

We understand your concerns, and we really appreciate your advises. We're working on providing a better algorithm, and this issue should be fixed in the next two weeks. Thanks for providing your valuable feedback so we can keep improving.

Alice

weathersby.julian 2017-01-21 15:34:19 UTC #10

Is there a way to replace the battery without removing the entire unit from the door?

esung 2017-01-23 22:03:12 UTC #11

No need to remove the whole unit. Just take off the cover.

del80 2017-02-04 03:52:58 UTC #12

How do you take off the cover?

hsiang 2017-02-07 04:16:21 UTC #13

@del80

Here's a video of taking off the cover for you: https://ksr-video.imgix.net/assets/004/682/492/2f0d004deb97645f893280e1ddef1a9c_h264_high.mp4

del80 2017-02-07 22:43:37 UTC #14

Thank you, Alice. Working like a charm.

hsiang 2017-02-09 10:51:35 UTC #15

Hi @del80

I'm glad that I'm able to help! Please let me know if you have any questions at anytime.

Alice

esung 2017-03-03 20:58:43 UTC #16

Small update, about 3.5 months after the dead battery incident. New batteries I placed in December still works, but it's showing 100% level which cannot be accurate. It looks like battery life estimation is still not working correctly and I wonder if I need to brace for another dead battery within a month.