NEX ROBOTICS SPARK V ATMEGA16 Hardware Manual page 16

the charging process battery status can be monitored on the battery status LED. Refer to the table
below for battery charging status interpretation using battery status LED.
Indicator LED
Green Red
On Off
Alternate blinking
Table 3.1: Battery status indicator LED interpretation
Note:
If you are using new battery or old battery which is not used for long time then you have
to charge it and discharge it at least few times to bring the battery to its full storage
capacity. To do this you can load any motion program from the "Experiments" folder
which is located in the documentation CD and discharge the batteries after charging.
Warning:
• Many transformer based AC adaptor's voltage is 30 to 40% higher when there is no load.
Make sure that AC adaptor's no load voltage is precisely 12V else it will damage the
robot and battery.
• If you are using SMPS, then make sure that it doesn't have mains leakage current flowing
through the DC supply. Else when you touch the robot, this high voltage leakage current
will damage the robot's electronics.
3.5 Powering the robot using battery or external supply
Ideally robot is powered by onboard batteries but if you want to do experiments or code
development for longer duration then you can also power the robot by external supply.
To run the robot on the batteries, make sure that 4 pin relimate battery connector is inserted in
the battery connector socket. Refer to figure 3.8 for the battery connector's location.
To run the robot on the external supply, remove the 4 pin relimate battery connector from its
socket and use another 4 pin relimate connector to give external supply. External supply should
© NEX Robotics Pvt. Ltd. and ERTS Lab IIT Bombay, INDIA
Battery Status
Voltage < 7.2 V
Fully charged
Figure 3.8: Battery Connector and its socket
SPARK V ATMEGA16 Hardware Manual
Charger Status
Battery is getting charged
Battery is fully charged
16