outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

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alexhivelka
Posts: 1
Joined: 08 Nov 2022, 20:03

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by alexhivelka »

Fawnlake1 wrote: 13 Apr 2017, 08:57 Did get a response and they are asking for several things here. A picture of the location of the outdoor module and 2. the original receipt. No idea where that is so will take a while to locate it. But they did come back to me!
They are likely attempting to determine whether the module has some degree of protection from the rain. I created a protective cover out of a plastic soft drink bottle because both of my modules are directly exposed to the weather (see my post couple of pages back).

Rubber gaskets provide excellent moisture protection for these modules. The electronic board is shielded by two gaskets, one on the battery lid and the other hidden at the bottom of the device. The temperature sensor and moisture sensor are the only parts of the board that are naturally exposed to the outdoors, and occasionally moisture can enter the board through those openings.

My issue boards had no interior rust or mildew, no evident moisture penetration, and they both started to devour their batteries rapidly after about a year. This suggests that some components age with time and result in this issue. I believe a capacitor or an oscillator is to blame because resistors typically don't deteriorate over time.

By the way, I measured my boards' current usage and discovered that they use roughly 20mA, which is obviously too much. At that load, AAA batteries will survive for roughly 40 hours because they have an approximate 800 mAH rating. In fact, my devices' batteries run out in about a day or two.

The best solution I could come up with in terms of cost (about $15 in components) and longevity is my solar cell solution, despite the fact that it is not particularly elegant and should not have been required in the first place. One benefit is that I no longer have to bother about batteries at all. Always keep NiMH batteries between 80% and 100% charged. They shouldn't need to be recharged or discharged frequently at that level, thus they should last a very long time. Like I did, Netatmo should upgrade their design and add solar cells to their exterior modules.
Uknetatmo
Posts: 7
Joined: 05 Jan 2021, 21:43

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by Uknetatmo »

my outdoor module just asked for new batteries and I replaced them last week and 3 weeks before that
this was a replacement module which i purchased in january 2021, so still within warranty
will be contacting them today
the outdoor module is an a rain proof outdoor plastic protective cover, almost identical to the official netatmo one (purchased it about 5 years ago before Netatmo started selling their own)
Atlantis
Posts: 2
Joined: 29 Jan 2023, 11:47

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by Atlantis »

Hi, I have encountered the same huge battery consumption in my Netatmo outdoor module from year 2019. The board has designator V3.02
Spoiler alert - it was a small capacitor!

It first started with flat battery (after a year of working fine). So I replaced it and it went flat few days later. And I was like "uh, oh...
Opened the module and there was typical oxidation between the pads of the SHT20 temperature sensor. Otherwise the board was completely fine, dry and with no signs of water damage (the rubber gasket design is quite good). In previous month we had terrible weather with heavy fog and humidity of 99% for many days in a row etc - so the water droplets got inside and didn not get any chance to evaporate for many days...

Anyway I cleaned the oxidation (it was not deep so there was no permanent damage) and was pretty happy about that. Only to discover roughly two weeks later that the battery is dead again! I connected the module to a bench power supply and measured current. It settled at 3mA!
Out of curiosity I heated the board with a heat gun and after it cooled down I checked the current consumption again and it dropped to 2mA! Interesting...there is moisture somewhere...

I was suspicious if I cleaned the SHT20 sensor sufficiently (oxidation and moisture between the SHT and PCB?) or if the sensor had some internal water ingress damage. So I desoldered the SHT20 from the board only to discover it was clean. With SHT20 desoldered I tried to power the module and it again settled around 2mA of current. So the sensor was not the cause and I reinstalled it back to the board.


Next suspects were the capacitors. I started with the biggest ones - Desoldered them and nothing changed. So I was quite desperate and decided to desolder every capacitor that was connected to the power rail* and GND (there is LOT of them!). The culprit was eventually some small 0.1uF capacitor. I am not sure which one it was (I was desoldering bunch of them between measurements). The last batch of capacitors I desoldered is marked on my photo (which I took before I started to remove them).

Anyway I returned some (they are just bypass ones on power rail, not exactly critical) capacitors I desoldered back and now the module is working fine. Idle consumption around 5microAmps

And one more thing - I coated the entire PCB (except the opening on the sensor of course) with conformal coating! In my opinion it should have been coated from the factory as this device is for outdoor use! So now it should be much more weater resistant

*If you are measuring continuity of which capacitor is connected to power rail, don't just measure it against positive contact of the battery. There is reverse protection diode in a way...well it is not exactly diode but I assume it is MOSFET used as diode. Look at my photo - top, right there is a unpopulated pad for capacitor. Here is your GND and VCC. Another one is right below the V3.02 marking - again GND a VCC
Attachments
netatmo outdoor capacitors.JPG
netatmo outdoor capacitors.JPG (317.29 KiB) Viewed 2991 times
Petruskie
Posts: 40
Joined: 06 Dec 2020, 09:33

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by Petruskie »

I have the same problem. How is your problem resolved? Do you receive a new module? Works fine for yours, without any problem. Now already four pairs of new batteries in a few weeks. Not normal and expensive. :-(
4 outdoor cameras (streaming to synology nas)
4 indoor cameras (streaming to synology nas)
1 smart door bell
2 smart thermostats (7 valves, relay)
2 Smart weather stations with 3 indoor outdoor wind,rain module
5 smoke alarm
2 carbon monoxide
philmw
Posts: 1
Joined: 29 May 2023, 11:51

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by philmw »

Do we know if this issue has been rectified in the module. My second outdoor module is doing this (the first stopped working altogether). I don't wish to buy a third.
freewing
Posts: 220
Joined: 16 Nov 2013, 14:38
Contact:

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by freewing »

I had the same problem with batteries that last 2 weeks or something more, but since it was out from warranty I had to buy a new one...
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ttyridal
Posts: 4
Joined: 02 Jan 2017, 21:06

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by ttyridal »

Atlantis wrote: 29 Jan 2023, 12:24
Thanks for a good writeup @atlantis! Made it pretty easy to find this capacitor that was acting up!

Slightly older board (v 2.01) here. power draw in sleep was about 0.3ma before the surgery. 0.005 (5micro-amps, which seems to be the right amount) after.

An idea for people trying to locate a bad capacitor: If you have a multimeter with enough digits, you try to measure your way to the right one - the one with the lowest resistance. Difference will typically be in the milliohm range from one capacitor to the next. (effectively measuring pcb-trace resistance 8-) )

Also tried to improve the battery contacts with a dab of solder, as can be seen on the second image.
20230813_142143.jpg
20230813_142143.jpg (185 KiB) Viewed 2514 times
Yes, I went a bit medieval on the de-soldering :lol:
20230813_143052.jpg
20230813_143052.jpg (139.45 KiB) Viewed 2514 times
MarcV
Posts: 880
Joined: 22 Aug 2016, 09:01
Location: Schoten, Belgium

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by MarcV »

🤔 as with most if not all passive electronic parts it's not a good idea to try to measure them in-circuit as the surrounding circuit will definitely influence the results. Capacitors aren't supposed to have a "lowest resistance". Quite the opposite actually, assuming you're trying to measure resistance of course.

The solder blob on the battery tabs may improve things for a short while but once it starts oxidising it can only get worse. Contact cleaning fluid would have been a better idea...
...but I might be wrong...
ttyridal
Posts: 4
Joined: 02 Jan 2017, 21:06

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by ttyridal »

MarcV wrote: 14 Aug 2023, 08:57 Capacitors aren't supposed to have a "lowest resistance".

You are quite right.. until you're not. A failed capacitor will typically behave more like a resistor than a capacitor. Which is why it will drain the batteries like crazy. this particular one was about 18k Ohm - OUT of circuit.
Laz
Posts: 18
Joined: 29 Jul 2023, 13:03

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by Laz »

I converted all my external modules to external power and added an external wifi antenna.
Unfortunately, or in the anemometer, there was originally a leak-proof marriage, or I did not assemble it well after the alteration. But after 2 weeks, the module stopped working. I had to shoot it and disassemble it. The board was wet, a gram of 20 water flowed out of the case. But the board was not heavily oxidized. I washed her with alcohol. The module has started working. But the batteries began to drain literally after 1-2 hours.
Some element on the board is heated.
I will be on vacation soon and take a photo of the anemometer board. I will indicate the consumption current and the heating element on the board. Perhaps someone can help repair the board (suggest what to replace on the board)...)))
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