RoboSavvy Forum

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-28T23:39:04+01:00

I still havent found one, I use my regulated power supply set at the right current with a wall timer to shut it off. Crude but effective.

10.8V is such a git of a voltage to cater for...

Statistics: Posted by PaulP — Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:39 pm

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-28T22:43:46+01:00

Seems to be charging fine, I used an external 12DC power supply and fed it into the 12DC (nominal 13.8V) input of the Manoi charger.

All the lights and buttons work and i've hooked up a battery which seems to be charging.

A bit nasty to daisy-chain PSU's but it seems to work ok.

Hooray, I was starting to run out of juice in the battery pack and didn;t fancy waiting for a new charger to arrive.

Statistics: Posted by Orac — Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:43 pm

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-28T18:04:31+01:00

I was gonna say, have a word with slashsplat, but then I thought, he lives in the U.S. DOH.....

Statistics: Posted by PaulP — Wed Feb 28, 2007 6:04 pm

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-28T17:53:24+01:00

Right, powered it up, LED's came on for a couple of seconds then the 2A fuse in the back blew.

This is with no load

I might look through my stock of transformers for a step down of the correct value and swap it over.

Statistics: Posted by Orac — Wed Feb 28, 2007 5:53 pm

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-28T01:08:11+01:00

hehe, maybe the fire brigade

Statistics: Posted by Orac — Wed Feb 28, 2007 1:08 am

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-28T01:07:21+01:00

Thats as big as the box my robot came in.....

Do you have to notify the Electricity Board when you are going live with it?

Statistics: Posted by PaulP — Wed Feb 28, 2007 1:07 am

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-28T01:05:26+01:00

This is the beast in question

Statistics: Posted by Orac — Wed Feb 28, 2007 1:05 am

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-28T01:03:34+01:00

Its obviously not the same as the 'chargers' that come with the KHR's etc. My apologies, I seem to remember slashsplat commenting on the charger in one of his building tutorials.

The one that came with mine scared me. If I lived in a country where I could plug it in, I really dont think I would have. It reminded me of something assembled from spares. I think the word is Brobdignagian or something like that. I wouldn't be surprised to see it on a 'Final Destination' sequel.

Statistics: Posted by PaulP — Wed Feb 28, 2007 1:03 am

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-28T00:18:24+01:00

If its a proper regulator inside the charging circuitry then the input voltage shouldn't matter as the regulator IC's are usually built around zener diodes which maintain a constant voltage drop.

The issue would normally be with the bridge rectifier whose diodes may have a max voltage.

This is not a "wall wart" adapter and looks quite well made so I may take it into the garden on an extension tomorrow and check it with a meter. If it all goes wrong then i'll break out the sausages and ribs.

Statistics: Posted by Orac — Wed Feb 28, 2007 12:18 am

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-27T23:57:21+01:00

It came with a uk 3 pin plug so at worst it would blow the fuse ??

Statistics: Posted by rep001 — Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:57 pm

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-27T23:54:56+01:00

Its a 100V transformer, thats designed to output a DC voltage just above your robots voltage. In your case that should be about 13V to charge the 10.8V battery

If it survives being plugged in then it will output about 2.2 times the required voltage, about 28V and blow your battery to bits in about 5 mins.

Statistics: Posted by PaulP — Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:54 pm

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-27T23:54:03+01:00

Aha another option, there is a 12V input at the rear.

Until I find a better charger, I will need to use a large 12V battery or I have a few 12V PSU's I may try.

The best one I have is a 13.8 v 5 amp CB radio type PSU so should be well smoothed output, 13.8v might be a little high though and i'm not sure of the characteristics of connecting two PSU's in series !!

Statistics: Posted by Orac — Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:54 pm

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-27T23:38:36+01:00

Hi, the charger is 100v, the 250v on the back is the FUSE rating.

I opened it up and the transformer is stamped 100v so I guess if the rectifier and regulator aren't autoranging, it would start smoking quite nicely.

No way to tell for sure. Unless someone else in the Uk has one and has plugged it in

Statistics: Posted by Orac — Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:38 pm

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-27T23:28:05+01:00

Hey Orac. I thought the charger states 240 on the rear panel where the lead plugs in ?

Statistics: Posted by rep001 — Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:28 pm

Playing with my new Manoi

2007-02-27T23:25:53+01:00

DONT....

Unless its got a switch to set to 240V dont plug it in....

You need to get a different charger altogether

Statistics: Posted by PaulP — Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:25 pm