HR92 battery contact problem

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  • DBMandrake
    Automated Home Legend
    • Sep 2014
    • 2361

    HR92 battery contact problem

    Had an interesting problem tonight.

    I made a manual adjustment to the bathroom HR92 using the knob on the top, it started to turn for about a second, the backlight then went really dim (but not off) for a second then the motor stopped, the display went completely dead and the unit became unresponsive...

    This HR92 is still on its original factory supplied batteries and has reported no low battery warnings and last time I checked was showing 2 bars on the battery indicator. It's about a year old.

    I took the batteries out and refitted them and it came to life but it only showed a single bar on the battery indicator and the backlight was still somewhat dim. I tried taking them out and putting them back again - same problem.

    Because it felt like there wasn't much "spring" in the battery contacts when I was closing the shorting strap across the top of the battery compartment I decided to try tensioning the spring contacts at the bottom of the batteries. If you remove it from the radiator you can actually get at the bottom of the contacts with a small screw driver from underneath and gently push them up a bit and bend them to give them a bit more spring, so I bent them up about 2mm.

    I then put the batteries back in and could feel the obvious increase in springiness as I was clicking the shorting bar into place at the top - this time it booted up to show 2 bars of battery life as it should, the backlight was normal and everything seems fine again.

    So it looks like the battery contacts at the bottom had insufficient tension on them... interesting in light of another post I will be making in a few days!

    So the moral of the story is if your HR92 batteries don't seem to be lasting long at all in a particular unit, check the springiness and tension of the contacts below the batteries! There should be some movement and springiness to the batteries when you close and click the shorting bar at the top. If it just feels like it has come to rest against the batteries but not pushed them down a couple of millimetres, the contacts have lost their tension.
    Last edited by DBMandrake; 7 November 2016, 12:59 AM.
  • orange
    Automated Home Guru
    • Dec 2014
    • 149

    #2
    by sheer coincidence I had the same/similar problem yesterday

    One of the HR92s lost communication so I went to look. It was showing all lcd lit, like it had crashed ? Still on the original batteries so I thought it was worth swapping out. Put in new batteries and clipped the hr92 back on the valve and it shut itself off. Took it off and it rebooted. I could force it to go on and off pressing on the body. Removed battery - tightened the contacts - reassembled and all is well.

    Comment

    • DBMandrake
      Automated Home Legend
      • Sep 2014
      • 2361

      #3
      To me the battery contact material feels too soft, not a proper grade of spring steel that would permanently hold its tension, so over time (especially if the user squashes the batteries in hard when changing them) the bottom battery contacts probably lose their tension, or maybe they weren't tensioned properly during manufacture. I find the little locking tab on the flip over shorting bar at the top is sometimes too squeezed as well - so that it doesn't really lock very distinctly - I give that a slight bend as well to open it sideways a bit so that it locks shut a bit more securely. (Just a little bit though as it looks like it would snap off fairly easily if you moved it too far)

      Comment

      • G4RHL
        Automated Home Legend
        • Jan 2015
        • 1580

        #4
        Thanks for this. It just might explain why batteries seem to last only a few months in one of my HR92s.

        I had a lost contact with actuator yesterday with one zone and thought it was batteries but inspection revealed the adaptor on the valve, used to attach the HR92, had come slack. That may be because the pin is beginning to stick although it seemed OK. High time I upgraded the valves to Honeywell ones. I keep putting it off!

        Comment

        • DBMandrake
          Automated Home Legend
          • Sep 2014
          • 2361

          #5
          I just wanted to add that on going into settings yesterday I discovered that there were in fact low battery warnings in the fault log from the exact time when the HR92 died due to the poor battery contact - both a fault for sensor and actuator, and then a restore for sensor and actuator.

          I think this goes to highlight that the UI is sorely missing a persistent fault log indicator on the main home screen - yes if there is a serious fault that is occurring right now you get a modal alert displayed on the main home screen, but if it is a minor problem or a problem that is intermittent and not exhibiting right now, the only way you will ever find out about it is to go into settings and notice a fault logbook button has appeared - something I had apparently not done in nearly 5 days!

          Comment

          • paulockenden
            Automated Home Legend
            • Apr 2015
            • 1719

            #6
            I suspect that, being Windows CE based (HOW old is that now?) there's only so much that can be done on the controller...

            Comment

            • Mavis
              Automated Home Ninja
              • Oct 2014
              • 322

              #7
              Originally posted by DBMandrake View Post
              I just wanted to add that on going into settings yesterday I discovered that there were in fact low battery warnings in the fault log from the exact time when the HR92 died due to the poor battery contact - both a fault for sensor and actuator, and then a restore for sensor and actuator.

              I think this goes to highlight that the UI is sorely missing a persistent fault log indicator on the main home screen - yes if there is a serious fault that is occurring right now you get a modal alert displayed on the main home screen, but if it is a minor problem or a problem that is intermittent and not exhibiting right now, the only way you will ever find out about it is to go into settings and notice a fault logbook button has appeared - something I had apparently not done in nearly 5 days!
              That has been my bugbear all along - If there is a low battery and you get the error and then the restore, the message disappears from the homescreen and unless you check the log regularly you don't know about it until it is too late.

              Just checked my log because of his post and there was an comms error last week (when I said that my bedroom rad was on all night)

              Comment

              • G4RHL
                Automated Home Legend
                • Jan 2015
                • 1580

                #8
                Originally posted by Mavis View Post
                That has been my bugbear all along - If there is a low battery and you get the error and then the restore, the message disappears from the homescreen and unless you check the log regularly you don't know about it until it is too late.

                Just checked my log because of his post and there was an comms error last week (when I said that my bedroom rad was on all night)
                Better still, a message to the app. I get messages when the Panel thinks it has lost contact and got it back again. A message telling us of low batteries, actuator failures etc. is perhaps a must.

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