Battery Maintenance - NEX ROBOTICS FIREBIRD V ATMEGA 2560 Hardware Manual

Fire Bird V ATMEGA2560 Hardware Manual

3.7 Battery Maintenance

If not used, fully charged NiMH battery can get completely discharged within few weeks.
Always charge the battery before use. If fully charged battery is kept in storage for about a
rd
month and afterward even if it is fully charged again, it can deliver only 1/3 power of its rating.
In such case, to restore the battery to its full potential again, perform at least 2-3 charge
discharge cycles.
To ensure long life, charge battery at least once a week and discharge it till robot starts giving
battery low warning. Before storage, charge the battery again.
For discharging the battery quickly, you can load any program from the "Experiments" folder of
the documentation CD. Program involving motion discharges battery quickly. You can put robot
upside down and let motors run for faster discharge.
Disconnect the battery connector if robot is to be stored for long duration.
3.7A Current limiting and short circuit protection:
In the Version 11 of main board, solder pads for the fuse are added. These pads are shorted
together as shown in left side image of figure 3.18. You can mount fuse of 2A to 10A rating on
these pads as shown in the right side image of figure 3.16.
Figure 3.16: Optional Fuse on the main board
© NEX Robotics Pvt. Ltd. and ERTS Lab, CSE, IIT Bombay, INDIA 27