Monday 7 December 2020

Dead Smartthings (Samjin) button

 As I'm in the process of switching from Samsung SmartThings to Home-Assistant for my home automation, I've been re-pairing various Zigbee and Zwave devices.

 One of those devices, a Samjin button, branded as SmartThings wouldn't come back to life after I removed the back cover (it was too tight against the wall to reach the reset switch).  I recall having two buttons in a pack of 5 that also did the same thing.  Those two seems to be dead-on-arrival, but I knew this button had been working fine.  After much fiddling, I managed to coax it back to life by holding the CR2450 battery in with one finger.  Whenever i put it back onto its battery cover however, dead.

No amount of bending the battery contacts made any difference.  So, I put a tiny square of folded tissue paper behind the battery (between it and the rear cover where the magnets are.  Hey presto - immediately works.  Slightly snug to twist the battery cover on, but I now think I know what was 'wrong' with those original  two buttons which went back to Amazon...