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Subject: 
Cybermaster batteries.
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Wed, 17 Nov 1999 13:23:27 GMT
Viewed: 
736 times
  
Hi all,

I had the strangest problem with my Cybermaster the other day, or so I
thought. Using nqc, communication seemed to be fine, but the last packet
sent to the cybermaster would not get a reply. Using the Lego-supplied
software, I could download programs from Joe's garage, using the
commander, but they wouldn't run (i.e. pressing the run button on the
cybermaster unit would blink the green led off and on again, never
showing a yellow light to indicate a running program). From area 15 (?),
using the manual controls was impossible; the tower would keep trying to
establish contact and failing.

After thinking it over for a while, I figured that the only thing it
could be, short of a malfunctioning cybermaster, was low batteries; nqc
reported that they only produced 7.something volts, rather than the
1.5*6 = 9 volts one would expect. So, I yanked some batteries out of
something else that seemed to be in better shape, and retried. Hey,
presto, problems solved. These batteries produce about 8.5 volts, and
they work fine.

So, my first point is that, if you have a similar problem, check the
batteries. I imagine the cybermaster draws a minute amount of power even
in the off position to keep the memory intact, so leaving it off for
prolonged periods with the batteries in is not advisable.

Now, for a question. I have some rechargable batteries, too, and was
wondering if I could use those. Unfortunately, I only have four of them,
so I can't really test, unless I go and buy more, which I might not have
any use for. The problem is that these rechargable batteries only
produce 1.2V according to the label. That would give 1.2*6 = 7.2 volts
for the cybermaster, which is annoyingly close to the level at which it
failed before.

It is possible, of course, that the worn-out standard batteries had a
rather large dip in voltage as soon as there was some strain on them
from running motors or such, which would cause the cybermaster to reset
itself. I'd imagine that freshly charged 1.2V batteries wouldn't have
that dip, so it's not too impossible to assume that it may work. Has
anyone tried this?

Regards,

Johannes.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Cybermaster batteries.
 
Johannes Keukelaar skrev i meddelandet <3832AC4F.DD99C8DD@n...kth.se>... (...) I've had the same experience as you. The batteries _seemed_ almost OK, but the CM did not work properly. I don't know if it was the period without batteries, or the newly (...) (25 years ago, 17-Nov-99, to lugnet.robotics)

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