What's the neutral face mean?

[Burke]

This might be in the manual, but it's never at hand when I think of it, so I'll see if any of you can answer.

I've run into a situation three times now, on each of our Segways, where I start off on the red key with a smiley face and a full battery, but right away it seems like it's holding way back (i.e., delimiter engaged big time, black key speed), and I see there's a "neutral face" on Smiley. His mouth is just straight. I slow up, he smiles, back and forth, neutral and smile, and finally all is good to go and the smile is permanent. It's kind of scary because I don't know what it means and I'm leery about going on my 6.75 mile trip, but by the end of the long first block, all is well. The last two times, I almost turned around and drove to work.

Am I trying to take off too fast? Has anyone else had this?

Thanks for any help.

Janice

[Sid Viscous]

It's the reduced performance mode. With a full cold segway what happens is that if you are on any cind of a hill the regenerative braking is trying to charge already full batteries, and it slows you down until it has room in the batteries.

If your going up a hill this takes more Tq so it reduces performance so that it has enough headroom to deal with any untoward scenarios.

[KonaSegway]

This happens to me too ... when you start with a downhill on a full battery, it'll slow you down to about 4MPH. Try unplugging the segway an hour or so before you leave that way the battery isn't completely topped off.

Aloha,
Sam


http://www.konasegway.com

[Burke]

Thanks, Sid; I knew you'd have the answer. Indeed I am on a downslope at that time. And Kona, good idea. In fact we'd been unplugging and plugging them back in to "maximize the batteries and equalize the cells" as I just read recently, so both recent times, they were probably MORE topped off than usual.

Can't tell you how much I appreciate having the folks on this board for help!

Janice

[Linc2000]

Hi Janice! There seems to be a warm up period when you first turn on your Segway after it has been charged up. It may last 15 to 45 seconds. No smile, no frown just a flat look and the Segway will only go about 2 to 3 mph. It seems to be preprogrammed and a normal Segway function. Lincoln [8D] P.S. Anyone else experience the flat look at other times?

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[dhugger]

There is another thing that causes the neutral face: battery temperature. If you unplug and ride the HT just after or during the cell top off phase of charging, the batteries are usually pretty hot. The HT will go into reduced power mode so that the batteries do not overheat and get damaged.

-Derek Hugger-

[Stewbonz]

Speaking of batteries,I just plugged my new Segway in and I get blinking green lites. According to the manual ,a steady green shoud appear after a short time..

JEFF JARVIS