GeneeUs voting handsets - where did the battery go?

[woody]

We purchased the GeneeUs voting system earlier this year, but the Maths teacher who was the most likely to use them left. They haven't been used at all in the classroom apart from a few training sessions. Just come to get them out and all but three of the handsets (there's 33) aren't working. The batteries have all gone. This is after replacing the batteries once allready in many of the handsets. Some of the batterys went after just weeks of having the hand sets - without any use!

 

Batteries aren't cheap and it takes ages to replace them all since they are held in with a screw. Why are these habdsets draining the batteries when not in use?

[djm968]

Have you tried contacting the company Interactive Education to see what they say?

[danIT]

isnt there a way to actually turn them off? turn off the radio link?

[woody]

They do have an automatic time out where they are supposed to switch themselves off. You can change this through the software via the radio link, but when we last put them away, none of them had the display showing, so in my books that would mean they were off?

[danIT]

but the radio link will probably still be roaming

[woody]

I think it would be better if they had a simple OFF button

[danIT]

have you spoken to interactive? we currently have the infra red ones which we've ner replaced the batteries in.YET!

 

have you thought about recahrgable?

[NavIE]

Hi All,

 

Can i introduce myself, my name is Nav Im the IT Technical Support Manager at Interactive Education.

 

I have been contacted by a school who have been having problems regarding batteries dieing on the Geneeus Handsets. We found that if the receiver is plugged into laptop/desktop then the handsets will constantly communicate with the receiver thus draining the battery, this would happen even if the the units were stored in a cupboard in standby mode.

 

We have many schools in the UK and Abroad who gaining the full benefits of this excellent Voting System. We have currently updated the Geneeus Voting System software to version 2.0 and if you do not have this then please call me or if you have any issues with the Geneeus Voting System please feel free to contact myself.

 

Nav singh

Interactive Education Technical Manager

0870 043 4024

[email protected]

[email protected]

[ChrisH]

Welcome Nav

[woody]

OK, an update on our problem (solved!). First of all, thanks NAV for posting here. I'm sure if you stick around when people ask questions like mine you will be an invaluable source of info on interactive education products / software.

 

Firstly, our handsets including the receiver were stored in the case so couldn't have been responsible for draining the batteries.

 

I did ring IA to ask about what we should do with the battery problem. I had to leave a message for the relevent person, but they didn't get back to me. This was before the Christmas period. I was too busy to chase it up.

 

Then out of the blue in January, I got a call from someone at IE, they said they would send out a complete new set of handsets / receiver etc. (we have the 32 +teacher set) I was amazed to say the least! But sure enough, they arrived as promised. We have put all the batteries in them and tested them. We will just have to wait and see how long the batteries last now!

 

So all in all, yes IE could have been a little quicker in responding to my problem but they did get back to me and I can't complain when they have completely replaced our set with a new one. In fact, my opinion of them has changed dramatically!

 

All I can say is well done!