Leaving a window shutter switch pressed after it ran its course

[electric1000]

Hello everyone,

I have an electric window shutter in my aparment and it has these switches:

When i press one of them I have to keep doing it until the shutter has closed/opened.

Lately I started to stick a toothpick in the switch and let the shutter run its course by itself, and save those precious moments of my day.

If I leave the toothpick in there after its finished, will it risk damaging the shutter mechanism/my electricity bill?

Thanks in advance!

 

[littlespark]

It’ll be a safety feature so that you have to stay there and witness the shutter opening and closing and that no one has got in the way and may be injured from it.

depending on the set up and wiring around the shutter, there may be a limit switch at its extreme open and closed positions to avoid the motor from being powered when it is open/ closed.

more likely it’s a safety feature designed into the product from the start. Just have to live with it and save the toothpick for picking teeth.

 

[James]

Eventually the toothpick method will cause you to loose far more time and money than you have managed to save.

I see 2 possible failure methods.

1 the toothpick causes unexpected stress in the hinge of the switch and the switch breaks and has to be replaced.

2 a limit switch fails an instead of stopping nicely when the shutter reaches the bottom of the track, the motor continues to run.
This will damage the tracks and the covers at the top of the unit, requiring a large repair bill.

 

[Marvo]

Shutter motors are usually run from a drive or control board, the switch on your wall just sends a signal and the control board would then run the motor until it gets to a preset position whilst getting feedback from a rotary encoder or something similar.

Putting it simply there's a problem with the sensors at the motor and/or the control board. Yes, the motor might run by keeping the button pressed but there will be nothing to prevent the motor running too far and causing damage to the shutter or the motor itself. You're going to have to get hold of a specialist technician who works on shutters.

 

[littlespark]

Shutter motors are usually run from a drive or control board, the switch on your wall just sends a signal and the control board would then run the motor until it gets to a preset position whilst getting feedback from a rotary encoder or something similar.

Putting it simply there's a problem with the sensors at the motor and/or the control board. Yes, the motor might run by keeping the button pressed but there will be nothing to prevent the motor running too far and causing damage to the shutter or the motor itself. You're going to have to get hold of a specialist technician who works on shutters.

I don't think there is a problem with the sensors. Its been designed to work that way.
There is a roller door at my storage facility that will open with one press of the button, but you have to hold the close button in until it stops, as a safety feature.

There may well be a setting inside the control board that turns the push switches from single-push to push-and-hold, but either way, there will still be a limit switch (may be a magnetic reed switch) at the open and close positions to stop the motor.