In this article:
Help! My sensor isn't charging?
To avoid losing valuable insights about your home energy consumption and solar generation you will need to ensure your sensors remain charged.
When to recharge your sensors
See how to check your sensor battery life here.
The battery life of your sensors is between 1-2 years from being fully charged, however, the life can be impacted by things such as:
- The quality of the WiFi network
- The quality of the Bluetooth connection
- Where the sensor is set up (Lithium Ion batteries can have a reduced charge life in lower temperatures)
- If you had to re-install your kit
- The sensors were not fully charged prior to initial installation
How to recharge your sensors
The sensor(s) should be removed from their installed location, here's how to safely remove your sensor(s). Please note that you do not have to turn off your sensor before moving it to charge. Use a regular USB cable (you might have one from another device or use the cable from your kit) to charge the sensor(s). When charging the devices you can use any regular 5V USB charger.
Once charging has finished (all four green LED lights will be on), you will need to re-install the devices according to their original role. This means the original solar sensor should again be installed at the inverter, and the original meter board sensor should be installed at the meter board. If you’re unsure of what the sensor’s LED lights mean during charging, be sure to check out the LED light guide.
Use the Powersensor App to guide you through the installation. Click on the 'Devices' icon at the bottom of the screen to view your devices' information. Click on the 'Reinstall a charged sensor' button and follow the instructions provided.
Using the 'Reinstall a charged sensor' function of the app will ensure both sensors go through the initial learning process and that the devices are installed according to their previous role.
Help! My sensor isn't charging?
When the sensor is charging, the LEDs on the sensor will light up yellow to indicate the current charge level. If your sensor is not charging please try the following:
- Re-insert the usb charge cable, ensuring it is fully seated in the USB port.
- Try using a different charger, in order to rule out a charger fault.
Please note that the battery can take several hours to fully charge. When it is completely charged, all four LEDs on the sensor will light up green.
Recharging in-situ
We often get asked whether the sensors can be charged in-situ by either a USB charger or battery pack, either option will work.
Please take care to follow any user instructions provided by the manufacturer of the charging devices, in particular the environmental specifications. The Powersensor sensor devices are rated for outdoor operation, other consumer devices (i.e., USB chargers and battery packs) are often not rated for outdoor use. For this reason, we recommend that you charge your sensors indoors.
Please note: the Powersensor plug is rated for indoor use only.
To recharge your sensor in-situ, simply plug the sensor into the provided charging cable from its installed location if it is safe to do so.
Any sensor with software older than version 4233 will mean the devices will not collect data whilst they are plugged into power. Devices with 4233 and newer will operate just fine, but make sure you check your firmware version before charging in-situ.
Comments
3 comments
This should mention a few more things such as what type of USB cable and charger to use. Also, while charging the sensor has certain LED patterns. That should be explained
Some Micro USB plugs will not fit in the charging port well, due to their form factor.
While charging (in situ), it appears the top LED lights up/blinks slowly yellow to indicate progress, in addition to the green signal (like a runway) that indicates measuring mode.
Hi Dirk Wachter!
Thank you for your feedback on Powersensor. That's correct - while charging in-situ, the sensor will continue to display the normal operating mode LED pattern (the green runway signal) and a yellow LED to indicate that the device is charging. We've recently created a comprehensive guide to all of the LED light patterns that can be viewed here!
As far as the charging port is concerned, we recommend that you use the USB cable provided as some Micro USB cable plugs are thicker and might not fit the Powersensor port. I hope this helped, please feel free to reach out again here or email hello@powersensor.com.au with any more feedback!
Thanks,
-Hannah
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