Control Panel Battery

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  • bruce_miranda
    Automated Home Legend
    • Jul 2014
    • 2307

    #16
    I think the problem is the firmware never checks the battery once the charging circuit has determined that the battery is fully charged.

    Comment

    • CT1
      Automated Home Guru
      • Apr 2016
      • 189

      #17
      Originally posted by bruce_miranda View Post
      I think the problem is the firmware never checks the battery once the charging circuit has determined that the battery is fully charged.
      But that only explains the inability to keep the batteries charged, not why the Evotouch will not run off the mount for any length of time, even with fully charged batteries.

      Would be really helpful if someone from Resideo would actually tell us what the problem is and why 5hey cannot fix it. So far it has been years of silence.

      Comment

      • G4RHL
        Automated Home Legend
        • Jan 2015
        • 1580

        #18
        The battery issue with the Control Panel has this morning provided to be a real pain in the proverbial and to my mind raised the issue into one that Honeywell need to address urgently. My new boiler is in! Power to the BDR91 has been off and when I switched it on this morning I needed to re-pair it with the Panel. Not a big problem but I also needed to delete reference to DHW (new boiler is a combi) and remove a room where a radiator has come out. I have not yet wired up the wall mount for the Panel and it has been on its stand in my study. The BDR91 is elsewhere. I took the Panel to the BDR to re-pair but half way through the Panel said it needed to go back on power. I am sure many will appreciate the frustration. I thought of getting an extension lead so that I could have the stand close by but by carefully judging my timing I got the BDR91 repaired. All works fine. Nice tidy system. However, it really is a pain in the rear end that the Panel packs up working when off it’s stand or wall mount such that it takes an age to pair an item with it. Fortunately I did not have to re-pair any of my HR92s.

        Come on Honeywell/Resideo this is a fundamental flaw in the device such that in the UK it breaches the Sale of Goods Act that was. The device is not fit for purpose as it’s back battery system does not function. A customer’s remedy is in such cases to seek a replacement. But that is no good for we know a replacement has the same fault. It really is high time Honeywell addressed this problem.

        Is there a contact email to make contact although I think this is something Honeywell/Resideo’s CEO should know about?

        Comment

        • G4RHL
          Automated Home Legend
          • Jan 2015
          • 1580

          #19
          Just looked at the manual. It says out of the wall charger the unit will last 30 minutes or so before it bleeps. That’s a joke. Sounds as though once a week I need to take the panel off its charger, remove batteries, put the panel back, wait a little then put the batteries in. This is 2021, we are sending rockets to the moon and Mars, we are to have self drive cars, but we can’t have a simple thing like this sorted. I made the point earlier, just think how Apple would have reacted if this was an iPhone. But sadly Honeywell/Resideo never seem to be customer focussed, as if we are an irrelevance. A friend of mine, not an Evohome user has found the same with Honeywell but yet in his working life in industry Honeywell had a different approach, they were much better - with their industrial customers. Probably why Evohome was hived off to Resideo but we don’t see a change, this forum is proliferated with people expressing the same exasperation. BUT, a big but this time, the product is good, it works, but I feel sad for the newbie uninitiated user. Not a difficult matter to resolve either.

          Comment

          • filbert
            Automated Home Guru
            • Oct 2017
            • 161

            #20
            Originally posted by G4RHL View Post
            Just looked at the manual. It says out of the wall charger the unit will last 30 minutes or so before it bleeps. That’s a joke. ....
            Tried mine yesterday and it was around 25 mins before I got the warning to put it back on charge. It's around three years old and still on the original batteries.
            I did do the battery out reset a year or more ago but not since - but I have removed the battery briefly recently, to reboot after comms failures.

            The user guide says nothing about battery life off the mount, it's the installer guide that refers to the beep - but it doesn't say how long the battery should last, the beep might just be a warning.

            Comment

            • G4RHL
              Automated Home Legend
              • Jan 2015
              • 1580

              #21
              But 30 minutes is remarkably short.

              Comment

              • CT1
                Automated Home Guru
                • Apr 2016
                • 189

                #22
                I think I may need a slice of humble pie. I took my Evotouch of the wall mount at 12:30 this afternoon and it did not start beeping until 13:53. I am sure it has been much shorter in the past. The batteries had been recently refreshed and I did not try to use the Evotouch while it was off the mount. I did not leave it to see how long it would last in total. The battery icon was still indicating fully charged but show charging when I put it back on the mount.

                Comment

                • G4RHL
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Jan 2015
                  • 1580

                  #23
                  Originally posted by CT1 View Post
                  I think I may need a slice of humble pie. I took my Evotouch of the wall mount at 12:30 this afternoon and it did not start beeping until 13:53. I am sure it has been much shorter in the past. The batteries had been recently refreshed and I did not try to use the Evotouch while it was off the mount. I did not leave it to see how long it would last in total. The battery icon was still indicating fully charged but show charging when I put it back on the mount.
                  That’s an awful long time! Mine was off its stand yesterday and started to bleep after 10 minutes. It had already, a couple of days ago, been put through the remove battery etc. process.

                  Comment

                  • CT1
                    Automated Home Guru
                    • Apr 2016
                    • 189

                    #24
                    Originally posted by G4RHL View Post
                    That’s an awful long time! Mine was off its stand yesterday and started to bleep after 10 minutes. It had already, a couple of days ago, been put through the remove battery etc. process.
                    That is what I remember seeing in the past. The battery symbol was still indicating a full charge, even though it had started beeping, which is also a sign that battery management and indications are not well implemented. I will try again over the weekend.

                    Comment

                    • DBMandrake
                      Automated Home Legend
                      • Sep 2014
                      • 2361

                      #25
                      Like I said, mine would last 3 hours off the stand when I first got it with the original batteries.

                      The problem for me has always been that once the batteries are determined to be fully charged if you leave the device on the mount 24/7 - as I do, it never charges them again... no periodic top up.

                      So the self discharge of the cells over a few months runs them down - by the time you need to use it off the mount you get a few minutes at most.

                      I replaced the cells with new slightly higher capacity ones a few months ago and if anything it seems worse now. Something I hadn't considered when ordering cells was whether I should have used "low self discharge" NiMH cells. I'm not actually sure if the ones I ordered are or not.

                      Comment

                      • CT1
                        Automated Home Guru
                        • Apr 2016
                        • 189

                        #26
                        Originally posted by DBMandrake View Post
                        Like I said, mine would last 3 hours off the stand when I first got it with the original batteries.

                        The problem for me has always been that once the batteries are determined to be fully charged if you leave the device on the mount 24/7 - as I do, it never charges them again... no periodic top up.

                        So the self discharge of the cells over a few months runs them down - by the time you need to use it off the mount you get a few minutes at most.

                        I replaced the cells with new slightly higher capacity ones a few months ago and if anything it seems worse now. Something I hadn't considered when ordering cells was whether I should have used "low self discharge" NiMH cells. I'm not actually sure if the ones I ordered are or not.
                        But in the past, I have found that even a recently charged battery only lasted about 10 minutes before I got the beeps. I think G4RHL has seen the same issue. The only thing that has changed recently is that we had an all day power cut that ran down the battery and left the Evotouch depowered for a few hours. I then went through the normal routine of removing the batteries powering up then replacing the batteries, that I normally perform about twice a year. Like G4RHL, I have also used an external smart charger to check and recharge the batteries. This has not in the past given me more than 10 minutes before the beeps, the only difference this time was the length of time powered down. My batteries are the low self discharge variety.

                        I cannot claim to have rigorously checked timings in the past, and am not sure exactly when I replaced the original batteries, so maybe my memory fails me?

                        Just attempted to try again, but as soon as I removed the Evotouch from the wall mount, it lost power and rebooted? On reboot, batteries still showed as charged and Evotouch started to get zone status. The only thing I can think of is that the batteries had a momentary loss of contact. The batteries are such a tight fit that the spring contacts are completely depressed and ironically this gives less reliable contact. No point in lengthening the contacts as they just get crushed againg when the batteries are inserted. Weather is too cold to risk heating going off so I am putting back on mount then reinserting batteries and will try again another day.

                        Comment

                        • DBMandrake
                          Automated Home Legend
                          • Sep 2014
                          • 2361

                          #27
                          Perhaps if the Evohome has a recent memory of the batteries being flat and you charge them externally instead of letting it go through the charging process it doesn't believe they are charged? I wonder if it does some sort of coloumb counting to keep track of the battery state, although that would be a-typical for a device with removable NiMH cells.

                          Comment

                          • G4RHL
                            Automated Home Legend
                            • Jan 2015
                            • 1580

                            #28
                            Originally posted by DBMandrake View Post
                            Perhaps if the Evohome has a recent memory of the batteries being flat and you charge them externally instead of letting it go through the charging process it doesn't believe they are charged? I wonder if it does some sort of coloumb counting to keep track of the battery state, although that would be a-typical for a device with removable NiMH cells.
                            It certainly does something strange. A week ago as off the mount the batteries lasted only a short time and I needed to re-pair a BDR91 and ensure I had deleted an HR92 and a zone, I ended up having to carry the desk mount around and use an extension lead as the Panel just hung quite quickly. I did the batteries out, back on the mount, wait for setup, batteries back in routine. Yesterday I set about removing the BDR91 to wire in and pair the OT Bridge. I was surprised at first as off the mount I got 15 minutes or so before the Panel objected. It was off for that time solely because I struggled and it took time to get the front case off the boiler. Back on the mount again for a brief time and then off and it lasted 5 minutes. Again I had to take the mount around with me and plug in in order to complete my task.

                            This shows that the batteries and back in procedure works but it seems once only and the Panel then becomes convinced the batteries are low when they are virtually fully charged. As you have pointed out it is an inherent fault in the Panel not properly detecting and knowing the batteries are at full charge and/or not even putting any charge in them after you have had the Panel off and then put it back.

                            Comment

                            • filbert
                              Automated Home Guru
                              • Oct 2017
                              • 161

                              #29
                              I’ve just done a battery reset on my controller batteries, as described above. To test, I took it off the wall mount a couple of hours ago and it’s still showing half full on the battery charge indicator. It is beeping every 60 seconds or so but no messages about putting it back on charge.

                              These are the original batteries, installed in late 2017.

                              EDIT: I finally got the put back on charge message after two and a half hours.
                              Last edited by filbert; 20 February 2021, 08:28 AM.

                              Comment

                              • G4RHL
                                Automated Home Legend
                                • Jan 2015
                                • 1580

                                #30
                                Originally posted by filbert View Post
                                I’ve just done a battery reset on my controller batteries, as described above. To test, I took it off the wall mount a couple of hours ago and it’s still showing half full on the battery charge indicator. It is beeping every 60 seconds or so but no messages about putting it back on charge.

                                These are the original batteries, installed in late 2017.

                                EDIT: I finally got the put back on charge message after two and a half hours.
                                Stranger What you report is what one would expect but we don’t get. I wonder whether there has been a quiet update! Or whether it is type of battery dependent. Although had the issue with the original supplied batteries and have also tried 2 other makes of rechargeable. I must try the routine again and see what happens.

                                Comment

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