enforcer wrote  Blimpworks wrote   Yes Im plugged into an adjustable power supply 0 to 30 Volts. I tried a 12 volt Dc power pack but the robot didnt charge properly, so I guess that extra 1.5 volts is neccessary. I noticed the battery charge indicator doesnt actually reliably read battery quantity so I think it must measure the charge current and dtermine the charge by time. Check your power pack with a multimeter. Meccano promised me a replacement but I,m still waiting, now 4 weeks   My Spykee has packed up after 5 days but a meter on the PSU seems to indicate a charger problem. I have a question relating to the post above - With the 12v power pack - what does not charging properly mean? - would it be sufficient to get some juice in and prove my suspicions? Also I was wondering if anyone knew what the advice was with regards to leaving it on the charger 24/7 and what precautions to take with preserving the battery longevity (should it be nearly fully discharged before re-docking and if so, does it initiate it's own docking when it gets low enough or does that still have to be requested by the console?) I would hope the charging circuit was fairly intelligent and that the robot was designed to say on the charger when not in use. Thanks for any advice!

According to the Manual - the charge time is 3 1/2 hours and the DO NOT recommend that Spykee be left on its base while it is turned OFF.

Now - NOT according to the manual - rechargable batteries can really only be left on their chargers while not in use (and fully charged) if the battery charger is designed to 'trickle charge' - and NOT ALL are. In fact - usually only the expensive ones are equiped to monitor an actual voltage reading and then change to a 'trickle' state when the battery reaches it's capacity. A standard wall-wart transformer does NOT do this - and I am not sure that Spykee's is much more than a transformer with the infra-red beacon - so I do not this that leaving it ON and docked all the time is advisable. It will very likely shorten the life of your batteries and at worst, result in them leaking - into your poor Spykee. I don't think it's worth the chance unless you have specific information from Meccano/Erector that you can do this without fear of damage.

Do a quick Google search for - recharging NiMH - you will see that although these are advanced, no-memory effect (compared to NiCad) batteries - they do have charging considerations and saftey concerns and are not by any means 'bullet-proof' - so caution is advised.

Good luck.

enforcer wrote Thanks for the response - I suspect you are correct about the battery monitoring. Was there any thoughts on the comment from Blimpworks re: ' tried a 12 volt Dc power pack but the robot didnt charge properly' ? I do have a 12v 1200mA charger and was wondering if I could at least get some power into the robot to prove that it still works and my problem is just with the charger.

I would think you'd be better off - for testing, not necessarily a permanent fix, to use a 9.6v battery pack (usually NiCad) designed for R/C cars... These are plentiful (available at Radio Shack/The Source, etc.) as are their chargers. You could also check eBay for something like this. The advantage would be that it basically matches the power pack in Spykee (unless it's NiCad, which would still work) and it will be charged with the charger meant for it. Rechargable batteries are a bit picky sometimes. I think there are even some R/C packs that are NiMH now too if you want the 'no-memory' feature.

Then you would just need to splice in a connector for the new battery pack and charge it outside of Spykee when you need to. I think this has less chance of damaging the robot than trying a 12v option or trying to charge the robot without using it's own charger.

Good luck.

The Charger itself, I think, is not that 'smart'... (mostly a transformer, maybe a voltage regulator inside... (not including the I.R.)

Spykee, I believe, has a circuit to monitor it's batteries voltage level. This will be within some sort of pre-defined range - like below 6v is 'empty' - 7.2v is medium - 9+v is full... These are not always fool-proof-accurate...

Whether or not your control panel (computer) needs to be on while Spykee charges (for an ideal charge), I cannot say I have seen evidence of this in my experiences - but it may be true (I would really hope not though - seems a strange requirement)...

I have also never seen evidence of Spykee 'automatically' finding it's base unit to charge when it gets low on power... without me clicking the battery icon I mean - on it's own - automatically...

It's not perfect - but once your batteries have been properly conditioned for awhile and your bot is making a clean contact with your base - you should experience fewer, if any, real issues with it. Mine seems ok now...