Month: December 2016

How to charge robitronic 4000 battery?

~ Andrea ~ Leave a comment

I had to charge my Robitronic Power Stick Pack 7.2 V Ni-MH once more. Since I’m a total beginner at this and I don’t use my R/C car as often as I would like to, I always forget how to configure my charger correctly.

So I had to look for detailed information on the web. The most understandable message I found at this link, post #3:

I have an IMAX charger also. Go into Program – SAVE

> Save a new program (01) with your battery as NimH type.
> Set voltage to 7.2V
> Set capacity to 3000mAH
> Set charge to 3.0A (3.0A for 3000mAH, 4.0A for 4000mAH, 1.8A for 1800maH and so on – as a rule of thumb for the right charge current, just take off the zeros and use a decimal point!)
> Set discharge to 1.0A

Took me a fair amount of searching to find all these but works great. I set up two programs, one for my 1800mAH and 1 for my 4700mAH

You can now use your program to cycle, discharge/charge the battery or just charge.

Good luck!

I also wrote an email to the manufacturer, Robitronic, asking pretty much the same questions. Let’s see if they answer me.

Robitronic 4000 Power Stick Pack 7.2V Ni – MH
Fullpower B6SAC Professional Balance Charger
Fullpower B6SAC Professional Balance Charger Unboxed

30.12.2016 – Update #1

I haven’t received any answers from Robitronic yet. I’m afraid I have asked too many detailed questions, probably no one at Robitronic will have time to answer them.

Meanwhile I have been researching the internet and I have found another source of useful information. Proper care and feeding of NiMH battery. It still is pretty general but informative.

Also I have discovered that there is not a definite and unique way to measure the state of charge of a NiMH battery. Probably the easiest one to use is the voltage method. A good answer to my question, I found on this forum: How do I test NIMH battery packs?

In conclusion, since I wasn’t able to find complete instructions regarding the charging of my batteries, I decided to proceed as follows:

  • Charge with 4.0 A
  • I’ll discharge the battery by using the car, since discharging through the charger wears the battery, takes a long time and no fun.
  • Every fifth charge I’ll do a smoother charge with 1.0 A

Through my research I understood that, sadly, there is not an exact way of charging the batteries: I have seen many advices, but no black on white instructions. Therefore I decided to create my own “recipe” and stick to it. I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to keep my batteries safe (as long as I use them!).

The one thing I’m not happy with yet is the charger, which I discovered being a copy of a very well known product: the SKYRC B6AC V2. I should buy the original one instead as the one I’m using now hasn’t got a good construction quality and it hangs every now and then. I’m therefore not sure it is working properly.

And, maybe, in the future I could even consider in switching to LiPo batteries.

08.01.2017 – Update #2

Robitronic finally answered to my email! So good! 🙂 Here below the answer they sent me (in German).

grundsätzlich sollten die NiMh Akkus nicht lange entladen liegen bleiben.
Der Akku lebt von den Lade- und Enladevorgängen.
Im schlimmsten Fall kann eine Zelle defekt werden und somit den ganzen Akku unbrauchbar machen.

Wenn ein Akku wenig Kapazität hat mehrere Lade-Entladevorgänge durchführen und prüfen ob sich der Akku erholt.
Die Ladung kann mit 4A oder auch mit 1A erfolgen.
Entladestrom wenn möglich auch hoch mit 4A.

Das Ladegerät Fullpower B6SAC sollte so eine Cycle Ladefunktion bieten.

Beim neuen Akku erst mal mit 400mA 12-14 Stunden laden.

Wenn auch nach mehreren Ladungen die Kapazität sich nicht erholt ist der Akku leider defekt.

So, for those who don’t understand German, a quick translation.

Don’t keep your battery fully discharged for a long time

They do confirm that the battery shouldn’t be left empty for a longer period of time as one of the cells  could wear out and make the whole battery unusable.

Loss of capacity: how may I try to restore my battery capacity?

In cases where the battery shows a loss of capacity you may try to load it and unload it multiple times in order to restore the original  capacity. The charging could be performed with 4A as well as 1 A,  they advise to unload the battery with the same A used during the charging.

How to charge a brand new battery?

For a brand new battery of 4000 mAh capacity, the first charge should be performed at 400 mA for 12 – 14 hours.

Although I had already tried different things with my battery, I’m happy with the answer they gave me, as they answered all of my questions. 🙂

And I also have one more news! I bought the new charger… and it should arrive the coming week! As soon as it arrives I’ll charge my battery and see if it behaves differently from my old one!

Heating system, boiler and burner maintenance

~ Andrea ~ Leave a comment

This year I had a few issues with our heating system at home: I’m going to describe what happened and what I learned from my little incidents.

Description of the heating system

Based on our experience, we decided to install an underfloor heating system when we built the new house, therefore we do not have any radiators to be seen: the heat is carried by a liquid which is constantly pumped through tubes running under our floor. The burner is a gas powered Remeha Calenta 35S+. We bought it and installed it during 2011.

I have understood that the “+” in the model name refers to the fact that this burner is built for the preparation of hot water to be used e.g. in the shower as well as the heating. Other models like the “35” have been developed for the heating system only.

Documentation

Manuals for the burner (sadly in Italian language only, I wasn’t able to find them in English).

Source

PM 2975 OGZ

The burner has a second computer on board, the so called PM 2975 OGZ, which is dedicated to the control of the temperature of the heating, of the hot water, the scheduling…  Sadly I have lost the manual explaining how this particular computer should be set. In any case I remember it wasn’t that clear. 

One example that explains the role of the PM 2975 OGZ is the following: the PM 2975 OGZ uses a temperature probe installed outside the house to measure the outside temperature and based on this information and on an algorithm it increases or decreases the heating temperature.

Maintenance duties

  • Every year let the company perform the maintenance of  burner
  • Every year have the chimney sweep clean the burner
  • Every three years have the plumber clean the pipes of the underfloor heating
  • Every five years have the boiler cleaned

During the year it is a good idea to check the pressure of the liquid in the circuit. It is known that the pressure may go down so that once or twice a year a refill needs to be made. The refill is usually done with water: you should take care of refilling slowly and avoiding air to get into the tubes. To do that it is recommended to add water into the refilling tube until it is completely full before opening the tap and letting the fresh water into the circuit.

Water pressure gauge
Our water pressure gauge

The recommended pressure is around 2 bars in the winter time, when the heating system is on, while in the summer the pressure may lower to 1.5 bars.

Why is it important to have the chimney sweep clean the burner?

Because of my ignorance I never called the chimney sweeper for 5 years: I was convinced that the regular maintenance performed by Elco was the only one regular maintenance to be made. But I was wrong. This year we realised that the heating system wasn’t capable of reaching the temperature we wanted while outside the temperature was going below zero. Also the water for the shower was hot, but not as usual. Therefore I started to worry and called Elco, announcing that the burner wasn’t working properly. As the technician arrived we checked the methane consumption over a period of time of some seconds and quickly he was able to tell me that the burner was working at a third of its capacity. Then he disassembled the whole burner and he discovered that it was clogged and that needed to be thoroughly cleaned. The Elco technician made what he could in order to start the burner again and on the first days of January I called the chimney sweeper.

As per the moment being everything works fine: the shower is hot enough and the heating works fine. Pressure in the tubes is around two bars.

The one thing I have realised is that the burner needs attentive care and should be checked ever now and then, maybe a quick look every month, in order to see if everything works fine or at least have a date to refer to, in case something suddenly stops working correctly.

Tomorrow’s working world: an exchange of ideas

~ Andrea ~ 3 Comments

Introduction

I have a few friends who one way or another are looking for jobs without much luck. Yesterday night we discussed how the working world is changing, and we tried to evaluate which might be the professions of the future. The same question could also be, what would you suggest your children choose as a profession, and what would be the best way to prepare for it?

Replicable professions

A good friend of ours, who is working in the educational sector, mentioned that hairdressing is considered a profession which will still be present in the future as it is not easily replicable. Other professions such as taxi driver and supermarket cashier are positions that may be replaced by electronic devices. Banks will also be radically different from what we know today, which for Switzerland is a major challenge, since banks play a big role in the country’s economy.

What about educational structures?

A big challenge is the role of the educational structures. Since technologies have significantly increased the speed of change, a risk that students face today is learning for a long period of time, only to, once finished with formal education, discover that the industry requirements have changed. So what should schools teach, and how should they teach? I, for example, was taught to learn by books, reading in libraries, doing research. With the introduction of tablets in the classroom, will all of this still be necessary? How will the libraries change (and the role of the librarian, how will it develop? Will it?)? A critical point for schools is the relationship with the working world: discussing with each other, and having someone from the educational field in our circle was of great help. We agreed that there is a big gap between educational structures and the working world. It appears that the educational system is backward, where a student was able to choose an educational path to follow, and this would bring him to a position in the industry of his choice. But it is not like this any longer, and schools have not yet adapted to that, and some of us believe that they would not know how to adapt.

Which candidates are companies looking for?

We tried to answer that question, and we agreed that it would be best to keep as general a profile as possible and specialize only later. Also, as the majority of people have access to higher educational skills, the educational curriculum followed will be less compelling than personal, unique characteristics, soft skills and cultural background.

Artisans and managers?

In concluding our exchange of opinions we agreed that the roles which would be interesting in the future are probably the ones covered by artisans with a managerial education, who are able to identify market niches and make them accessible to the masses. Of course a lot of work is part of the deal. We also discussed working slavery, meaning that in society we are pushed to work more and more, but for what? Perhaps a topic for the next post….

Crossfit

~ Andrea ~ Leave a comment

Alcune settimane fa abbiamo in palestra ci siamo esercitati in questa maniera. La sequenza mi è piaciuta molto perché semplice da ricordare e perché non richiede alcun attrezzo se non un tappetino.

Riscaldamento è stato eseguito facendo il “lombrico“, posizione “squat fermo” e “gatto con ginocchia sollevate da terra”.

Successivamente è iniziata la sequenza, eseguita in questo ordine:

  • 15 sqwat
  • 10 addominali
  • 5 flessioni

Tutti e tre gli esercizi devono essere completati entro due minuti di tempo: chi finisce prima potrà usare il tempo che avanza per riprendere fiato: la sequenza va ripetuta 8 volte. 

Il tutto entro due minuti, se finisci prima, il tempo che avanza è pausa. Ripetere 8 volte.

Riuscendo a fare questi esercizi in praticamente 20 minuti si è già sudati, con il fiatone e pronti per la doccia!

Mi spiace per il post molto specifico e poco comprensibile per chi non esegue gli stessi esercizi o frequenta la nostra palestra, ma in questo caso ho deciso di scrivere proprio per poter ricordare la struttura dell’esercitazione più che per condividerla.