Off Board Charger -- 2 batteries or 4 batteries?

[SegwayUtah]

For some reason, I thought the off-board battery charger would charge two sets of batteries. But it appears that it only charges one set of batteries.

Has it always been this way? I'm thinking that I am remembering wrong, but has anyone seen an older four-connector model?

Maybe I was thinking "2 batteries" and that turned into "2 sets" :)

Confused and dazed,

Chris

[Sal]

From the pictures I have seen, I think one offboard charger charges 1 set of batteries, that's 2 (one front, and one rear)

-Sal

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http://home.earthlink.net/~sal1k/images/si2f.jpg

[gotseg]

Atleast from the pictures i've seen, its always been like Sal described.

http://www.giguphosting.com/gotseg/gotseg.gif
segless and looking

[Sid Viscous]

I've never seen a batter charger that charges 4 batteries (two sets).

I've seen pre-production proto types, and production models, all were for one set.

[SegwayUtah]

Thanks guys. It's like pants: We call them a pair, but they're really only one. I was thinking "double charger" and couldn't remember if that was 2 batteries, or 2 sets :)

It is settled then. Sid of all people would know.

Chris

[segwayowner]

I think that the chargers that LLC used to use for training charged 2 sets.

DES: Segway owner....
it has a nice ring to it

A human has 60,000 miles of blood vessels in their body.
Alaska was bought from Russia for about 2 cents an acre
A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge; a dime has one less groove
It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open

[Sid Viscous]

Nope. They were just really big.

[Itsi Atkins]

I have two questions. I have the off board charger and it charges two batteries. During the recent video, I needed to keep 2 segways going, so I put one full charge battery on the front of each Segway when they were getting low. It pushed it back to full. Did I do any harm by adding only one fully charged battery and can I use this charger for my P batteries?

[SegwayUtah]

quote:Originally posted by Itsi Atkins

I have two questions. I have the off board charger and it charges two batteries. During the recent video, I needed to keep 2 segways going, so I put one full charge battery on the front of each Segway when they were getting low. It pushed it back to full. Did I do any harm by adding only one fully charged battery and can I use this charger for my P batteries?


Itsi, as far as I know the HT will draw both batteries equally, so while you may see that it's "full," that may just be the status of the FRONT battery. Which means you'll go into safety shutdown when the back battery becomes empty anyhow.

Then again, maybe Segway provided a way for the software to drain down one battery double-time in this kind of situation. I don't know for sure. What a great question!

Yes, the charger can charge all HT batteries -- p-series, i-series, NiCd, NiMh, etc. (Maybe even one day LiIon Phosphate -- hee hee) :)

Chris

[W9GFO]

My understanding is that the Seg will draw more from the stronger battery. To do otherwise would not be efficient.

Rich H
Everett. WA

[W9GFO]

One more thing, that charger is really just a power supply. All the charging circuits are contained within each battery.

Rich H
Everett, WA

[SegwayUtah]

quote:Originally posted by W9GFO

My understanding is that the Seg will draw more from the stronger battery. To do otherwise would not be efficient.

Right, that makes sense. But if one battery is at 100% and one battery is at 10%, would it pull 90% of the needed power from the full one and only 10% from the low one?

If I run my HT down to 2 bars, and swap out the front battery with a fresh one, does that mean I'll get a lot more range? Is it a sane thing to do?

Chris

[W9GFO]

quote:Originally posted by SegwayUtah

quote:Originally posted by W9GFO

My understanding is that the Seg will draw more from the stronger battery. To do otherwise would not be efficient.

Right, that makes sense. But if one battery is at 100% and one battery is at 10%, would it pull 90% of the needed power from the full one and only 10% from the low one?

If I run my HT down to 2 bars, and swap out the front battery with a fresh one, does that mean I'll get a lot more range? Is it a sane thing to do?

Chris


Don't know, the software may have a limit on the differential. I cannot think of how it could be harmful to the batteries by trying that experiment. I think that you could get more range by swapping out just one battery. You ought to try it and see. Might be hard keeping track of which battery should be swapped next if it were to become a habit.

Rich H
Everett, WA

[Segway City]

When you swap out only one battery, the indicator shows for the best battery under easy loads and idling, and the weak battery under heavy loads. For all intents and purposes, it only is a relative indicator of voltage present, not amperage available.

When a single battery is swapped out and run with a weak battery and the HT is used, the indicator shows as a surface charged battery would: under heavy load it will drop a couple bars quickly, then recover almost all the way back if left unloaded (or nearly so) to allow the batteries to even themselves up by bleeding between cells. If you were to ride aggressively with a mismatched battery set, it is possible to drop 3 bars to red easily, as it needs the balance of both batteries to equalize the load. If ridden smooth and easy, the strong battery drains faster, but still draws off the lower charged battery. When the weak one hits the low voltage threshold, it'll shut down, no matter how strong the other battery is.

The best way to extend range with an extra battery set is to swap both batteries each time so that they are always about equal. If you need to swap one extra battery set between 2 HTs, you have to be sure to swap one battery out before you lose the last green battery bar (doesn't matter front or rear), run on that combination until it goes to red, then swap the 2nd original battery with the first original battery and go again.

[Itsi Atkins]

Bill I am out of town, go by and shoot some stills and post them if you can. they work everyday from about 4pm til 9pm. They meet in the triangle in front of the one time square, (the building the ball drops from)

[Stan671]

quote:Originally posted by Itsi Atkins

I put one full charge battery on the front of each Segway when they were getting low. It pushed it back to full. Did I do any harm by adding only one fully charged battery and can I use this charger for my P batteries?
The off-baord charger is fine for any of Segway's batteries.

The practice of mismatching (full and low) batteries is a bad idea. The Segway's battery indicator only shows the voltage available from the batteries, not the capacity. So, the indicator is reading that you have good voltage (mostly from the new battery) but does not tell you that you have diminished capacity (from the low battery).

The performance of the HT is based on the lesser of the two batteries. So, by having one full and one low battery, there is a good change the HT will not have the current it needs for a quick action and will shut down unexpectedly.

Always use two batteries of equal charge in the HT. Remember, you can always use an HT as another battery charger.

Stan Dobrowski