How's your Minimote battery life?

Probably a bad one.

But you’d probably be wise to swap your good one for hers :yum:

Already done, lol :wink:

I left the bad one on a known good charger for about 5 hours this morning and the light never turned blue. Took it off the charger and it stopped working after less than 5 minutes. Returning!

The other 3 seem to be fine. Must have gotten a defective one.

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From the manufacturer

How long does my battery last on a full charge? (Recommended settings)
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The battery should last about 3 months on a full charge assuming you are controlling something or tapping its button 20 times per day depending on the health of the battery itself, or how often you use it. We highly suggest disabling any Wakeup Interval that your gateway may set to this controller in order to conserve your battery life. (Having the Minimote is not necessary for its use and can be seen as a waste of battery).
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You can set the wakeup interval depending on your gateway, each gateway is different, and not all will let you set this if it allows you at all.
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We suggest: Wakeup Interval = 0 for the maximum battery life you can get.
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If you are seeing battery life less than 2.5 months, you may want to consider setting the Wakeup Interval in case that it may be the culprit.

If you get a bad unit on a new purchase, put in a warranty claim on it. :sunglasses:

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I ordered 4 of these on Amazon back in May. 1 had a bad battery from the get-go, would never take a charge (immediately replaced via Amazon). One just failed a couple days ago, it was working previously but now I can only get about 2 button presses out of it before it dies. The third one lasts less than a month getting pushed twice a day. 4th one is ok, so far…

I’ve ordered 3 minimotes, from both Amazon and Ebay. Battery life ranged from 3 minutes to a few hours. They were really handy but I returned them and haven’t bought any since. Not worth the hassle since the problem is so common.

Here’s the response I received from Aeon Labs regarding replacement for failed batteries. Mine are indeed the v1 with the numbered buttons, no idea they were that old, even when sold as new.

I opened up the remote and with a little soldering I think the battery can be replaced. Ordered a 5 pack of 302323 batteries from eBay for $12, hard to go wrong for that price. Will attempt to replace and see how that works.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/172404199468

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Good info, thanks.

I have 5 V1s that have been iffy from the start. Had one that used to go flat in a day but seems better after a few charge cycles. I have a 6th that just won’t charge. I got them real cheap so didn’t bother sending them back when I got them. I’ll try your suggestion.

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I did order three more from Amazon ant all 3 of them typically last for 2 - 3 months. I must say though that I don’t use them as much since I have an Echo in the house and garage.

I get that waking up to check in with hub wastes battery life but it would be nice if while it was already awake (every time a button is pressed) it would send battery level.

thanks for the info on batteries!

UPDATE: My batteries arrived today. I replaced the battery in the one Minimote that has never held a charge and so far all seems good.

I left the exiiting wires soldered to the board, clipped them then soldered the new battery to those. the wire on the replacement battery is not long enough to reach the solder points on the PCB.

When I charged the new battery up it never got warm (like my others do very slightly) so for a while I was concerned that perhaps it wasn’t charging. The again, I did have the cover off still. But after an hour or so the light turned blue.

I’ll report back after a while.

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I had a bad experience with a minimote. the day I received it from buydig.com, it would only work when plugged in. so i left it plugged in overnight thinking it was “really” dead from sitting in a warehouse. next day it won’t work at all (plugged or not.)

Sending it back. Paid $19.95 cheap yes. but it’s still my money that was used for a faulty item. even if i pay $18 to return it (which I won’t) It’s the principle.

Just ordered another from amazon for $22

I ordered 2 from Buydig, both didn’t accept a charge. Send a a message to customer service from their website. Click on Customer Service link bottom of page and then - Send Message to Customer Service. Buydig has shipped me 8 of them in 4 different shipments. My 1st order was place 7/27/2017. I finally got 1 that is accepting a charge and it’s been working for 3 days sofar! Buydig email said to keep or dispose of the Minimotes that are not working. I haven’t thrown them out yet and may try destructure00 advice to resurrect them with a replacement battery

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The battery change seems to have been successful. Still charged after several days (versus not charging at all).

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Blockquote So is it just a matter of separating the minimote halves? Any tips so I don’t completely destroy it? Is there a + & - wires for the original battery and the replacement battery and you just trimmed it to fix back into the unit? Thanks in advance.

Use something plastic to pry open the two halves. Start on the sides. I’ve marked the anchor points. The two on the right were the hardest to undo so be careful. I would try to pry open the other three first then if you can push against the tabs on right one at a time to free them. NOTE - the tabs are actually on the half not in the photo. The photo shows the points where the tabs go in to.

Image is before battery change. I cut the wires at the half way point and soldered the wires from the new battery to them. I just matched the wires black to black and red to red.

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Thanks for the pic and tip. Just ordered the batteries, gonna take awhile from China. I’ll leave the wires on the board alone and clip it at the battery end. I think I have 6 of these that Buydig sent. I got a good one in the last shipment. Buydig is hellbent on keeping my money, they are sending me another one to try, that it’ll make it 4 shipments they made to me, all at no charge

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I used a plastic pry tool from replacing an iPod battery kit. Dang, you’re right the two posts on the right are a pita to separate from other half, snapped one post off, I’ll be more careful on the other 5, LOL! Got it off though. Now the wait for the batteries on the slow boat from China

Yes, it’s tough for sure. I broke the tiny little stub off one of the two posts but it went back together pretty tight okay.

EDIT: Well, it got me thinking again. I just discovered you can slide the sliding door on the front right off if you work it good. The posts on the bottom are then revealed! Doh! It looks like it may still be tricky to free them but it may help.

Yup, remove the sliding door by moving from side to side, LOL! Can see both posts now! Got the 2nd off easier. Have to work one of the post off using a tiny screwdriver, pushing screwdriver in from the side while putting pressure on the halves to separate. Once you got one post off just wiggle gently to get the other side off.

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I received my batteries on Monday. Haven’t had a chance to switch them out yet, but I’m encouraged by your experience :slight_smile: Maybe tonight…

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