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Which battery tender to use

pinco said:
That makes sense, and probably saves quite a bit on electricity. What kind of smart switch are you using?
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We are a (nearly) full blown Home Automation household. I run a Hubitat Elevation hub, Lutron Pro hub (integrated), and am 99% Z-wave and Zigbee devices. It's a craziness/sickness for sure and I'm on the low end of the spectrum. Have maybe one or two WiFi devices just for special device control as having ~85+ devices on WiFi would be unmanageable, unreliable, and decimate the networks - even with a UBNT setup and 3 Pro AP's. :D

These particular outdoor rated switches are Inovelli (NLA), and I have a mix of 2-channel and 1-chnl/always on receptacles. I use them to control outdoor lighting, the truck, etc. They're basically the same as the GE and some other brands with someone else's brand and code.


Truth be told, I should probably spice up my rule from a simple low temp on/off to something more complex like cycling it and/or using presence and time of day as well. The charger doesn't matter as it will control its own fate.
 
Brutal_HO said:
We are a (nearly) full blown Home Automation household. I run a Hubitat Elevation hub, Lutron Pro hub (integrated), and am 99% Z-wave and Zigbee devices. It's a craziness/sickness for sure and I'm on the low end of the spectrum. Have maybe one or two WiFi devices just for special device control as having ~85+ devices on WiFi would be unmanageable, unreliable, and decimate the networks - even with a UBNT setup and 3 Pro AP's. :D

These particular outdoor rated switches are Inovelli (NLA), and I have a mix of 2-channel and 1-chnl/always on receptacles. I use them to control outdoor lighting, the truck, etc. They're basically the same as the GE and some other brands with someone else's brand and code.


Truth be told, I should probably spice up my rule from a simple low temp on/off to something more complex like cycling it and/or using presence and time of day as well. The charger doesn't matter as it will control its own fate.
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Wow! 85 devices …….. I can’t imagine trying to keep them all online 24/7 lol.
Thanks for the link.
 
pinco said:
Wow! 85 devices …….. I can’t imagine trying to keep them all online 24/7 lol.
Thanks for the link.
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That's just the HA devices. Usually have about 30 WiFi connected "devices" going at any time. Laptops, Alexa's, TV's, phones, tablets, firesticks, etc.

I'm probably getting brain cancer as we speak.
 
I have a similar number. I’m running older Insteon stuff mostly, have a few newer items as well. Run Indigo server with home bridge and Apple Home. Plus have about 25 security cameras integrated in.

Once you get things up and running it just kind of works. A problem is when you get so invested in one technology and then it becomes aged and you want to switch. It doesn’t feel as expensive when you grow it over time but if I were to have to rebuild it all….yikes. So having some diversity helps I think, but also brings up integration challenges. Is a fun hoppy and can do some nifty things with it all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
mountainears said:
I have a similar number. I’m running older Insteon stuff mostly, have a few newer items as well. Run Indigo server with home bridge and Apple Home. Plus have about 25 security cameras integrated in.

Once you get things up and running it just kind of works. A problem is when you get so invested in one technology and then it becomes aged and you want to switch. It doesn’t feel as expensive when you grow it over time but if I were to have to rebuild it all….yikes. So having some diversity helps I think, but also brings up integration challenges. Is a fun hoppy and can do some nifty things with it all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I use Blue Iris and can do some camera integration with HE as well, I just really haven't had time to do much more than basic automation stuff, lights on/off with motion, alerts and notifications, etc.

I love that HE is 100% local automation (excepting the cloud interop stuff). I don't use it, but it does integrate with Home Bridge. I'm in the HE Beta and the newest hub will also support Matter (thread hub required). It also has a HUGE community based open source platform so you really don't have to write code or drivers as someone has probably already made a drive/app to do what's needed. For the advanced user, there's support for webcore, node-red, etc.

I do have some other "stuff" deployed in support of some components. NUT running on a RPi to manage UPS, NodeJS running on a headless Ubuntu server for the Echo Speaks cookie server, etc. It sure is a rabbit hole. I came off Wink a few years ago when that whole ecosystem went sideways. Fortunately all the z-wave and zigbee stuff I had invested in came over. I even sold some of my Wink stuff before it went completely t*ts up.
 
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mountainears said:
I have a similar number. I’m running older Insteon stuff mostly, have a few newer items as well. Run Indigo server with home bridge and Apple Home. Plus have about 25 security cameras integrated in.

Once you get things up and running it just kind of works. A problem is when you get so invested in one technology and then it becomes aged and you want to switch. It doesn’t feel as expensive when you grow it over time but if I were to have to rebuild it all….yikes. So having some diversity helps I think, but also brings up integration challenges. Is a fun hoppy and can do some nifty things with it all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Man, do I ever have a lot to learn. I tried a few outlets, bulbs with HomeKit, and had issues with the hardware randomly disconnecting after a month, then refusing to pair up again. I gave up on it 2 years ago or so. I have everything Apple that you can imagine, and hope to stick with HomeKit. The trouble for me is finding a common hardware brand to stick with and build from there
 
pinco said:
I have a noco 2amp direct mounted right now. Between powering a full time crash cam, and trying to top off the batteries, it takes forever. The Noco 5 amp would be ideal but it doesn’t have eyelets.
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Update: Changed to a Noco 5 amp, and it’s much better. Charges fast, instead of 2-3 days trying to charge/ overcome the draw from crash cam and mice deterrent device.
 
pinco said:
Update: Changed to a Noco 5 amp, and it’s much better. Charges fast, instead of 2-3 days trying to charge/ overcome the draw from crash cam and mice deterrent device.
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I had the same experience with the two amp (now in my Honda Accord) and went to a ten amp. Much better.
 
I see this is an old thread, but Noco says the only one rated to be in the engine compartment is the genius2d. Anyone mount the genius 5 or genius19 in the engine compartment?
 
I don’t think even the 2D has the temp rating for the underhood environment, but I also haven’t heard on any issues with the 2D or 5 underhood but personally wouldn’t do it.

If you want it onboard mount it in the passenger compartment and run the wires thru the firewall.
 
Juststeve said:
I see this is an old thread, but Noco says the only one rated to be in the engine compartment is the genius2d. Anyone mount the genius 5 or genius19 in the engine compartment?
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I have a noco 5 hard mounted, previously a 2. A dash cam draws quite a bit if you’re letting it record non stop like I’ve been. The 2 takes too long to top the batteries off, and the dash cam wants to shut down if the batteries aren’t topped off.
 
pinco said:
I have a noco 5 hard mounted, previously a 2. A dash cam draws quite a bit if you’re letting it record non stop like I’ve been. The 2 takes too long to top the batteries off, and the dash cam wants to shut down if the batteries aren’t topped off.
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My dashcam is capacitor driven and only set for bump activation so the only parasitic draw is the factory truck stuff. Batts are just over 5 years old and I don't trust them as far as I could throw one with my left arm that's currently in a sling 2 weeks post surgery.

My son (works at a RAM dealer) priced OE replacements for me at $254/ea his cost. He said they've improved, but I don't know they'd be any better than a $225 interstate.
 
Brutal_HO said:
My dashcam is capacitor driven and only set for bump activation so the only parasitic draw is the factory truck stuff. Batts are just over 5 years old and I don't trust them as far as I could throw one with my left arm that's currently in a sling 2 weeks post surgery.

My son (works at a RAM dealer) priced OE replacements for me at $254/ea his cost. He said they've improved, but I don't know they'd be any better than a $225 interstate.
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My dash cam also has a capacitor, and internal battery. The stock batteries are trash in my opinion. I often stop at job sites that are 2 minutes apart and I need my hazard flashers. Also need the cam to protect my vehicle. Twice I couldn’t start my truck after using my hazards. I keep a jump box with me but havent had a problem since switching to X2power AGM 94R’s. They’re expensive but have a 4 year guaranteed replacement warranty.
 
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