Battery charge

[Computer33]

Hello, and first off i finally got around to installing my blind motors.... they are simply awesome!  I did make one error though and that is the blinds are about 20 feet up so its quite an ordeal getting up there and i had assumed the batteries come fully charged.  So one of the blinds stopped working and i am guessing the battery has died. 

Question 1 - does the red light on the battery indicate a charge is needed? 

Question 2 - how long should i charge the battery for?

Thanks for a great product.
Walter

[admin]

Hi Walter, thanks for your positive feedback. The batteries are shipped in half charged state, so they should be charged up with the supplied charger. It is very important to use the included charger to charge the battery - if you connect a regular power supply to it, the LiPo battery will overheat and be destroyed.

The red LED is a simple pilot light that indicates that the power switch on the battery is on. There are red/green status lights on the charger itself that indicate the state of charge (charging -> red, charged->green).

If you are using our standard radio motors, keep in mind that the radio is constantly 'listening' for a remote command, so the battery is being constantly drained (about 30 mA of standby current). Thus it is a good idea to keep the charger connected to the motor. It only needs a very thin wire because it is providing only a small trickle charge.

We also have an ultra-low standby motor (0.03 mA) for solar powered blind applications. Here is our web page with a motor comparison table:

http://rollertrol.com/tubular-motor-comparison-table

If I can be of further assistance, please contact me anytime.

Regards, Adrian

Adrian Biffen
Systems Administrator
RollerTrol Automation Systems
http://RollerTrol.com/

[Computer33]

Thanks Adrian.  I might go into the attic and find a way to drop some wires to plug in the charger.  I guess that's my next project.

Walter

[Computer33]

i was wondering how long i should charge the batteries.  i tried charging for 24 hours but they die in 3 days.  is this normal?

Thank you.
Walter

[admin]

Hi Walter, sorry for the late reply, I missed your post. You will get about 3 days with our standard motors, if the charger is not connected.

If you want to run the motors without the charger connected, you may want to use our ultra-low standby motors. They have 1,000 times less consumption than our standard motors.

Regards, Adrian

Adrian Biffen
Customer Service
RollerTrol Automation Systems
http://RollerTrol.com/