outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

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Juglansjames
Posts: 1
Joined: 27 Jun 2017, 17:18

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by Juglansjames »

Outdoor module consumption excessive. I report that both my outdoor weather module and Wind module battery consumption is ridiculous.
Based on the comments above I will be contacting Netatmo for replacements as I have complied with all the necessary consumer requiremnts
Truth
Posts: 2
Joined: 19 Feb 2017, 15:38

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by Truth »

Cyberbob wrote:As my outdoor sensor is older than 2 years I don't have any warranty anymore. :|
Therefore I opened the case and tried to find out why I had to replace the batteries every 4 days.
As I have a second station with an outdoor sensor which runs normal, I compared the two PCBs and found out, the faulty PCB has a capacitor which is not installed on the good board. See pictures!
I measured the power consumption of both sensors. The bad one uses more than 20mA average, the other one much less than 1mA.
I removed the capacitor from the PCB and measured again. Now the power consumption seems to be normal.
I will let you know later if now everything is ok and what could be the reason for the faulty capacitor.
image1-redu.jpg
image2-redu.jpg

Hi Cyberbob+

My bad outdoor module has a printboard that looks like your good print board, so unfortunately you theory did not help us, sadly, but good try though.
I can add that mine uses constantly between 4 to 5 mA no matter if the app updates or not. The batteries i have tried have last between 2 dayes and 2 weeks and i am testing the outdoor module in my living room.

Best regards
Stefan
ZyBeR
Posts: 7
Joined: 01 Feb 2017, 09:39

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by ZyBeR »

My first set of batteries lasted for about a year, now after they ran out my new set lasted about two month.. I'll put in another set new batteries and see what happens.
MarcV
Posts: 880
Joined: 22 Aug 2016, 09:01
Location: Schoten, Belgium

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by MarcV »

I measured a constant current draw of about 2mA on my outside sensor, after I noticed the batteries wearing out in an unusually short time. I have another netatmo weather station located elsewhere of which the battery indicator still shows a full battery after many moths of operation.

To avoid having to replace the batteries too frequently, I'm currently using a couple of NiMH AAA rechargeables. They're in the sensor for about 3 weeks now or even longer, can't remember exactly, without recharging! :)
...but I might be wrong...
kjm
Posts: 6
Joined: 10 Aug 2017, 22:37

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by kjm »

Hi.
By my it was a capacitor that have 1.7KOhms I replaced it and since that the current is in µA range
MarcV
Posts: 880
Joined: 22 Aug 2016, 09:01
Location: Schoten, Belgium

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by MarcV »

Can you indicate what capacitor it was exactly?
...but I might be wrong...
kjm
Posts: 6
Joined: 10 Aug 2017, 22:37

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by kjm »

yes I can but it is very small part in parallel with an 1µF and directly of the bottom from the microcontroller (between temperature sensor and processor) take care that the layout not Brocken you need a small iron from 0.2mm and an binocular for properly replaced the capacitor.
Whartman
Posts: 2
Joined: 11 Sep 2017, 22:09

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by Whartman »

Possible to post some pictures?
Zlatolist
Posts: 1
Joined: 16 Sep 2017, 00:05

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by Zlatolist »

kjm wrote:Hi.
By my it was a capacitor that have 1.7KOhms I replaced it and since that the current is in µA range
You are really an expert, capacitor and kohm.... :lol:
Pinballwizz
Posts: 1
Joined: 16 Sep 2017, 21:21

Re: outdoor module battery consumption went crazy

Post by Pinballwizz »

Unfortunately, we as well have an outdoor module that consumes outrageous amounts of batteries. But so far I can only find generic webpages leading to useless general chit-chat and useless answers. Where can you actually mail to, and write to a human being hoping for an actual solution for this widespread design flaw?
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