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However since there is no low-battery signal from a standard X10 sensor; you know for sure you need a new battery when the sensor no longer responds to motion (or to dawn/dusk). It will have to be determined whether the sensor address programming is maintained at that voltage.
With a capacitor that size, I'd probably be more concerned that the life of a battery would be greatly shortened just by charging up the capacitor in the first place.
Your point is well taken. It also makes sense that perhaps by the time you notice the detector's batteries are low, the cap may only serve to speed up the final drain, killing settings that may otherwise have survived had the cap not been added to the circuit.
I think what I'll do instead is rig up simple box with 2 batteries and some thin blades (or alligator clips), that will provide good contact with the terminals of the detector thus allowing the removal of the depleted batteries and the installation of fresh ones while the detector is well energized.
I get the feeling that keeping it juiced may provide the best hope for preserving settings.
- \_________
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+ \_____ |
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________________ | |
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|--- | - + |--| |
| |_______________ | |
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| ________________ |
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|---| + - |-------|
|_______________ |
(Be sure to apply the blades to the right side of the sensor facing you.)
I use DooMotion and there is a feature that flags a sensor as suspect if no motion is detected after a customizable number of hours.
If this approach works, it would be easier and cheaper than adding caps to all my sensors and would not reduce battery life. This could also work with the many MS10A's I have deployed.
(All my batteries are fairly fresh, so if someone tries this before me, please post back and let us know if this works.)