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I recently purchased the 2WD Tube Mount Robot Platform – IG32 SB unassembled and the only thing that’s not obvious to me is how to connect the batteries to the charger that was included.
The charger has a 3 pin connector, but the kit didn’t include anything that would mate with it. I could cut the cable and hack together a solution, but in case there’s a better way I wanted to ask.
Cheers,
PaulThe mating plug is a female XLR. Since they are so bulky, we don’t install them on our robots. The best way is to just cut the 3 pin connector off of the charger and create a solution from the 2 wires.
Hi Paul,
I have the same scooter charger with the XLR connector. I searched eBay for XLR Connector and found lots of mating connectors. I’m not sure why these are three pin connectors. I haven’t measured the output yet to see what pins to use. I suspect that one pin is connected to the shielding. Overall, we need to figure out the best way to wire the batteries in place to allow connecting them to either the robot or the charger. In my case, I bought the Xbee controller, so I have to tap off from one of the 12V batteries to power the Arduino/Xbee circuit.
Just cut the XLR connector off and use the Anderson connectors we provided with robot kits to charge the batteries. The SLA batteries are more tolerant to a unbalanced load for charging. You can charge the two battles in series. It will top off both batteries. The 12V xBee draw is minimal compared to the 24V motor draw. The xBee does not take 12V, BTW, you need to regulate that down further, I believe its 3V3
Yes, the Anderson connectors are meant to give us a way to disconnect the batteries from the circuit and then to the battery charger and vice versa. The trick will be figuring out exactly how to assemble them. I’ve never used these connectors before. There is a lot of help online for this.
My package included the TE-090-ADJ (Adjustable Switching Regulator Board Kit) and TE-900-004 (Programmable xBee Control Interface Package). The XBee circuit is on an Arduino shield, so all I have to do is provide power to the Arduino. I normally use 9V power supplies for them. Since documentation is a little sparse, here is how I see hooking it up. I tap off 12V from one of the batteries to power the regulator and the output of the regulator powers the Arduino. I adjusted the regulator output to 9V. I read the datasheet for the module on the regulator circuit and it says that input voltage can be as high as 30V. This is leading me to think that I can feed the whole 24V from my two batteries to it and not bother with using only one of the 12V batteries to power it.
I had never used Anderson connectors, so I was a bit confused as to how they work. With a little research, I figured them out and I thought it would be beneficial to others if I made a quick series of pictures. I numbered the pictures in order to make the process easier to follow. Since I can only add 4 files per post, I’ll continue in a new post.
Here are the rest of the images for assembling an Anderson connector. Picture 5 is the key. You must orientate the parts as I have shown. Insert the metal part into the connector until you hear a click sound. If it doesn’t work at first, try again. The parts must be aligned correctly. Try not to get too much solder on the outside of the metal part. If you need to, use a small needle nose pliers to help insert the pin.
Sorry, when I edited this post, I thought I had to add the pictures again because they don’t show up during the edit. now I can’t get rid of them.
Also please be sure to look over our support pages
http://www.superdroidrobots.com/shop/custom.aspx/robot-electrical-power-and-wiring/53/
http://www.superdroidrobots.com/shop/custom.aspx/support/1/
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