Larger capacity cells for automower

May 13, 2013 1 Replies
L

My robotic automower have 3000mAh NiMh battery packs. If I replace the battery packs with larger capacity cells, shouldn't it work without changing the circuitry?



I presume the batteries are charged with constant current until a upper voltage level is reached, and the mower starts heading for the charger when the low voltage level is reached.



The mower will take longer to charge, and correspondingly will run longer, but as the "go out/find home" time should stay the same, the daily mowing time will be longer. And the wear on the grass in front of the charger will be less.



I think I can fit C-cells with 10000 mAh capacity.



Leif


Husk kørelys bagpå, hvis din bilfabrikant har taget den idiotiske beslutning at undlade det.
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W

Well, definite maybe.

The difference between 3k and 10k is huge.. and there could be a timer circuit involved which could prevent the 10k cells from being fully charged. Some "smart" chargers may detect the less than full charge as a fault, and refuse to charge the pack. Maybe a support engineer for the manufacturer would be able to tell you.

I hadn't seen 10k mAh C cells, are these from a reputable seller? I'm asking because I bought some 10k D cells from China a couple years ago, and their weight was only half of what a brand name D weighed.

It would be worthwhile to measure the existing cells accurately and compare the measurements to rechargeable C or maybe sub-C cells. Cells with flat tops and tabs installed are fairly easy to build up new battery packs with.

-- Cheers, WB .............

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