Hi, I have four battery powered roller shades. Each has an 8.4v 1000ma DC charger.
The battery life is not very good and hooking up the DC chargers is a hassle. So is trying to raise or lower the blinds only to find out the batteries are dead.
I was thinking of hard wiring them by running a single DC wire to the top of one window, then splitting it into four lines, each with a barrel connector to connect to the blinds.
I have a couple of questions about this:
1. Do I need to worry about current being drawn out of one shade and going into another, or other issues with running them off one split cable? Is there a simple circuit I can use to eliminate any issues?
2. Would it be OK to have them permanently charging with DC, or would it be better to put the chargers on a timer so they only provide current for a few hours every few weeks (just enough to keep the batteries always charged)?
3. How should I approach the DC amperage? Should I measure the actual amp draw of the blinds, get a 4 amp charger, or use resistors to limit the draw of each to 250ma and use one of the current chargers?
Thanks
The battery life is not very good and hooking up the DC chargers is a hassle. So is trying to raise or lower the blinds only to find out the batteries are dead.
I was thinking of hard wiring them by running a single DC wire to the top of one window, then splitting it into four lines, each with a barrel connector to connect to the blinds.
I have a couple of questions about this:
1. Do I need to worry about current being drawn out of one shade and going into another, or other issues with running them off one split cable? Is there a simple circuit I can use to eliminate any issues?
2. Would it be OK to have them permanently charging with DC, or would it be better to put the chargers on a timer so they only provide current for a few hours every few weeks (just enough to keep the batteries always charged)?
3. How should I approach the DC amperage? Should I measure the actual amp draw of the blinds, get a 4 amp charger, or use resistors to limit the draw of each to 250ma and use one of the current chargers?
Thanks