Some Musings on Roam

@chrisOV 

You have to use an usb charger with minimum 1,5 W or better 2,1 W with the isb c cable. With this roam will charge also being in use. 
If you like to have roam completely powered off you have to hold the power button for about 5 seconds until you hear the third chime. 
It will only turn on again by pressing the power button or reconecting it to a power source. 
Just opening the app won’t turn it on like it does from standby mode. 

The whole app thing always waking it though seems like a mistake.  Since if you want to keep the Roam potentially available while in sleep mode, but not constantly on a charger, and you have a Sonos system with other speakers that you interact with regularly, it will eventually drain the Roams battery prematurely.  There has to be a better way - such as an “allow access to Roam button” - or something similar so that just using the app for other speakers doesn’t always wake the Roam unless you specifically want to target/use the Roam.   There has to be a better engineering software solution than unnecessarily waking a product you have no intention to use. That itself seems like a kluge.   Put in a wake Roam software button  - how hard is that?  With an option to always wake for those who want that.

The way it works now it’s as if the engineers assumed the primary use would be keep it on a charger till leave the house with the Roam in hand.  But what about the many people who want to primarily leave it in the bathroom or the shower itself.  Without ready access there to a charger?

Yeah that’s a good idea @caesar327 - we should be able to wake the roam on demand, but simply opening the app should not do this when not connected to power.  Make it user configurable if necessary. 

For the moment if waking up by opening the app is not wanted you just can turn the roam off instead of using standby mode.
Waking up by opening the app as a optional funktion for each mobile speaker in the system or as a general option for all mobile speakers would be nice. 

I think also the fact they don’t supply the charger which is so critical to performance as the Roam is currently designed with the device is also a mistake. If the device is so reliant on being docked to perform reliably, said dock should be in the box. (Or at the very least a power brick!) 

I also noticed this morning- after charging to 100% last nite - and no use after charging of either the Roam or my Sonos system at all - it was at 91% in the morning.   So it lost almost 10% of battery doing NOTHING!!.   

Waking on demand is wanted. Just not every time you interact with Sonos.  

IMO, it’s understandable that they did not supply the wireless charger.  That surely would have added another $20 minimum to the price, and not something everyone would use since it requires keeping the speaker in the vertical position, or they already have a wireless charger they want to use.  

I was surprised that they didn’t include a charging block along with the cable, since that couldn’t have been more than $5 to make.  I would guess it’s not included so that products didn’t have to packaged with the right block depending on the different electrical standards around the world.  Provide that was a big cost savings.  I have dozens of spare blocks, so wasn’t a problem, but it would be nice to have something color matched that had optimal charging.

Roam is compatible many USB power adapters, but for the best experience, we recommend using a 10W (5V/2.1A) USB power adapter. Many customers already have several compatible USB wall plugs at home that come with devices such a phones and tablets, so, as the industry moves to reduce e-waste, a Sonos first-party power adapter or a magnetic wireless charger are available as optional accessories. 

Your feedback on the way Roam handles the app being foregrounded is noted and passed on to our development team for consideration.

I don’t think this will be too much of an issue - the grille is designed to be durable and tough enough to withstand bumps and presses. Should anything happen to it during normal use, our technical support team will be able to advise on replacement options, though I don’t think an issue would be likely in the scenario you mentioned. 

@melvimbe 

You also can use the wireless charger with roam in horizontal position, because it fits magneticaly. Sonos officialy mentiones this as a feature. ;-)

That’s how mine is charging right now! Also, we do mention it as a feature on our store page for the charger 

Agree with this completely.  Why not either:

1. Only wake the Roam if the user clicks on that speaker or attempts to group it in the app, or
2. Add a ‘wake’ button beside the Roam in the app, to allow it only to be woken when the user wishes to do so

 @James L. , to be very clear, if the Roam is switched off by holding the power button for the 5-7 seconds, is it intended behaviour for Roam to switch back on if you open the Sonos App and don't play music on the Roam?  If so, how are users supposed to treat it as a battery powered speaker that isn't plugged in all the time and getting woken when you're not using it?  There are many users complaining about the Roam's ‘Power Management' but none of the more ‘regular' forum members are.  Either they aren't bothered by it, they are bothered by it but don't want to add to the fire or they don't have the problem.  The answer to this would help gauge how ‘big' an issue this is.

No, if you hold the power button for 5-7 seconds that powers the unit off, which is different from sleep mode. If you are 100% certain that you’re turning the Roam completely off, and you’re still seeing the unit wake up by foregrounding the app, I encourage you to submit a diagnostic and get in touch with support, who will be able to analyse the power state logs and see if the Roam was truly switched off.

OK thanks.

I don't yet have a Roam due to all of the issues being reported with powering on and battery life.  It was the same with the Move too.

If the unit is truly powered off after that long press I'd love to know why the battery is expected to still drain at 10% a day - although users don't appear to be even getting close to that.

I wonder if those that are seeing an excessive battery drain on standby could be caused by other non Sonos ‘Smart’ devices on the network that keep waking the Roam?

No -- if it is powered off, it shouldn’t drain at all (or very little).  What is happening is that in sleep mode (not totally powered off), it is draining about 10% in 8 hours (over night).   It should drain 10% per DAY (24 hours) in sleep mode to get the 10 days of battery life in sleep mode.   My experiments show 7 to 10% battery drain over night (8 hours) while in SLEEP mode.   Meaning about 21 to 30% per day -- which will give about 4 to 5 days MAX, in sleep mode.   Which is half the time Sonos states.

All these different battery experiences have got me wondering about a few things so bare with me!

I’m not using mine in standby, I’m turning off between usage and seeing decent battery usage so far. There’s certain things I don’t use

1. I don’t have any voice control at all on any of my sonos units
2. I never use the My Sonos tab
3. I haven’t turned on the ‘recently played’ option

I do remember that I had to get rid of my mp3 playlists because every time I went into a view in the app that contained these playlists, it would fire my NAS drive up from sleep and I didn’t want that to happen. So that made me wonder if any of the above is causing the Roam to be turned on by the app? Does the recently played option (for example) poll the individual speakers to get this list?

Anyway I’m just putting a few ideas out there because it seems to me that people leaving their Roam in standby are experiencing different battery usages.