Balancing The Battery - Omron LD-60 User Manual

7.3 Power and Charging

Balancing the Battery

The battery is composed of multiple cells, which must stay balanced to maintain maximum
run-time.
There are three ways to manage battery balancing:
Set the AMR's DockUntilDoneCharging parameter to True. In this case, the battery will
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balance before saying it's done charging, so the battery will get balanced every time the
AMR docks. You do not have to do anything extra to balance the battery.
In this mode, the battery will typically take about 10 minutes to balance after charging.
NOTE: We recommend this mode for installations that aren't doing bat-
tery swapping.
Exchange the in-service battery, periodically, with a fully-charged spare battery.
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A spare battery plugged into a docking station will be balanced after it is charged. In
this mode, you don't have to worry about battery balancing, although it does add the
task of manually swapping batteries.
The interval between battery swaps depends on the AMR's use. This includes the
weight it carries, the electrical load of any accessories, and percentage of time it is in ser-
vice. You will need to determine the best interval for your situation. Swapping the bat-
tery at every shift change is a commonly used interval.
NOTE: We recommend this mode for battery swapping, if you are not
charging the battery while it is inside the AMR.
Set the AMR's DockUntilDoneCharging parameter to False, to let the AMR get a partial
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charge by docking. The StateOfChargeToChargeTo and MinutesToChargeFor parameters
need to be set to appropriate (non-zero) values. You would then do a periodic battery
swap with a fully-charged and balanced battery, such as once a week.
StateOfChargeToChargeTo determines the state of charge the battery needs to attain
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before the AMR can stop charging.
A 90% value here would get the battery mostly charged, but not balanced.
MinutesToChargeFor determines the number of minutes the battery needs to
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charge before the AMR can stop charging.
The AMR will stop charging when the battery reaches either of these parameter
values.
NOTE: If both of these parameters are left at the default of 0, and Dock-
UntilDoneCharging is set to False, the AMR will dock, and never undock.
In this charging mode, we recommend that you swap batteries weekly, at a minimum. If
you see a reduction in run-time, you should do a swap more often than that.
NOTE: The longer you wait to balance a battery, the longer it will take to
balance. A battery that is badly out of balance can take well over 10 hours
to balance after charging.
110 LD-60/90 Platform User's Manual 11970-000 Rev M