🚀 Virtual v0.10.0-alpha.6 — Battery Drain Simulation & Companion Low-Battery Warnings

⚠️ Alpha Release & Community Testing Notice

Virtual v0.10 is an active alpha pre-release.

If you encounter any bugs, regressions, or configuration issues, please open a GitHub issue with your configuration snippet and debug logs.

(Legacy v0.9 documentation is archived in README_v9.md).

🌟 What's New in v0.10.0-alpha.6

1. Battery Percentage Drain Simulation (class: battery)

Virtual battery sensors can now simulate natural battery discharge over months, complete with acceleration controls for testing low-battery automations:

• Configurable Lifespan (battery_life_days):
  • Specify the battery lifespan in days (e.g. battery_life_days: 90 for ~3 months, battery_life_days: 180 for 6 months).
  • Alternatively, specify a direct daily percentage drop with drain_rate: 1.1 (% per day).
• Time Acceleration (sim_speed):
  • Test low-battery notifications in minutes rather than months using sim_speed: 1000 or the virtual.set_sim_speed service.
• Unrounded Precision Accumulator:
  • Continuous integration prevents mathematical truncation across 30-second ticks.
• State Persistence:
  • Battery level is maintained across Home Assistant restarts.
• Immediate Testing (virtual.set):
  • Instantly inject any battery percentage (e.g. virtual.set sensor.door_sensor_battery 12) to verify alerts immediately.

Living Room Motion Sensor:
  - platform: binary_sensor
    name: Living Room Motion
    class: motion
    off_delay: 20

  - platform: sensor
    name: Living Room Motion Battery
    class: battery
    unit_of_measurement: "%"
    initial_value: "100"
    battery_life_days: 90        # Drains from 100% to 0% over ~3 months
    sim_speed: 1.0               # Speed multiplier (e.g. 1000 for fast testing)

2. Companion Low-Battery Binary Sensor (binary_sensor)

Many real-world Z-Wave and Zigbee sensors provide a binary low-battery warning alongside their battery percentage:

• Pair a binary_sensor with class: battery to any battery percentage sensor using linked_battery_sensor.
• Automatically monitors the percentage and flips:
  • is_on = True (Warning / Problem) when battery_level <= low_battery_threshold (default 15%).
  • is_on = False (Normal / Healthy) when battery_level > low_battery_threshold.

Living Room Motion Sensor:
  # Companion Low-Battery Warning
  - platform: binary_sensor
    name: Living Room Motion Low Battery
    class: battery
    linked_battery_sensor: "Living Room Motion Battery"
    low_battery_threshold: 15    # Flips to on when battery drops <= 15%