We are using iButtons for our research. Most of them are now three years old, but have not been used for longer than a total of a few days each during this period. I want to deploy them for another two years in the field. Curiously the manual has no reference to the battery status, or whether one can still read the data if the battery runs out before you retrieve them.
Hi T.D. Wassenaar ! I was just asking myself the same questions (but a couple of years after yourself).
I found this potential answer on MaximIntegrated website :
There are a number of ways to know if the iButton is low on battery. The following are a few examples:
- Software reports that there are CRC issues when the device was functioning properly.
- The device cannot perform functions such as real time temperature or starting and stopping a new mission.(The One Wire Viewer will still list the iButton even if the battery is depleted).
- An invalid CRC16/password error, if you have never set up a password on the iButton this error means the battery is depleted.
The link below is to App Note AN5057 which describes troubleshooting procedures to determine whether the battery is low using OWV: https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/5057 Forced conversion is a temperature measurement. Therefore, if the battery is low, a forced conversion will not be possible.
Link here : https://maximsupport.microsoftcrmportals.com/en-us/knowledgebase/article/000094303
This link is really complete and it is working well : https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/design/technical-documents/app-notes/5/5057.html
Will keep you updated if my i-Buttons fail in the field, haha !
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