I need to charge the battery supplied in the Vera2 box so I can walk around and connect devices. The instructions read:
[tt]To Charge:
Switch on the adaptor and the red light would be on;
Press the switch of the battery to “On” and the indicator would be on
Connect the point of the adaptor to “DC in/out” of the battery and the green light would be on, which indicates it starts to charge. The box doesn’t finish charging untill the green light is off.[/tt]
Wow. Are they trying to tell me to plug in the charger and connect it to the battery, then turn the switch to on and wait til the lights go out?
No wonder I’m struggling with this!
yeah that is correct i struggled with mine about a week ago when i got it too.
plug the battery into the battery charger (the one with the leds on it, not the other main plug for the vera2). you should notice the red lights be lit on both the charger and the battery.
when you flip the switch to the “on” position on the battery while plugged into the wall the green light on the charger should turn on to indicate its charging. when the green light goes out it should be fully charged.
they say that some batteries come fully charged so i just tried mine first before i tried to charge it. the message boards also say that either some batteries or some charges come Dead on Arrival and you have to call micasaverde and they’ll send you a new one.
if you just cant wait to add devices to your network and start playing around like me you can always take the power cord for the vera2 (and the vera2 itself of course) and just plug it into the nearest wall socket to the device you want to add and go through the proper steps to add devices that way. worked fine for me since the only things i needed to add at the time were all within distance from one socket, but it might be a pain you have to move it alot since everytime you unplug and plug it back in it take a while to start back up and get into inclusion mode.
hope that helps
Also, its unconfirmed but a few people reported issues with the Zwave dongle getting corrupted when they included on battery. I would play safe and either use full power inclusion or do as @Willard311 suggested and use the wall wart.
Plugged the charger into the battery, turned the switch to on and the red led stays on. I’ll leave it overnight and see what happens. Never saw a green light…
Mine came in charged too, but I left it overnight just in case. I haven’t had any problems with the battery pack, and the whole “wait 'til the green light turns off” deal also applies to my Energizer charger.
Maybe I have a bad battery… Left it on the charger overnight and still showing a red light. Am I supposed to see green at some time?
It sounds like you might need to have the battery and or charger replaced. I had the same experience when I first started with the vera (http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=3573.0). I contacted MCV and they replaced both the charger and the battery at no cost (though it did take a few weeks).
In the meantime, I would suggest that you will be able to start building your mesh without the battery pack using the full power include method. On UI4 Click Add Devices, then Next in the Z-Wave section. Then Scroll to the bottom and use the Include method available there with “Full Power”. Using this option, you will not need to have your devices directly next to the Vera. Personally, I’ve been able to include all of my devices this way, with very few problems. I was happy to get the replacement battery pack from MCV, but have never needed to use it.