Getting started with the Super Brain Palm computer interface.

Transcription

1 Getting started with the Super Brain Palm computer interface. Step 1: Connect the RB502 interface cable to your Super Brain Palm Charger. Step 2: Connect the USB interface to your computers USB port. Step 3: Connect power to your Super Brain Palm. Step 4: Go to where you have placed the MRC folder on your computer and open it. Step 5: From your here, find and double click on the 'RB992_software.exe' file to start the interface. NOTE: If the title bar of the interface shows "SUPER BRAIN COMPUTER INTERFACE FAILS TO CONNECT ANY CHARGER" then close the program and reopen it. You must have all the hardware connected before starting the software. Without a battery connected to your Palm charger, the interface should look like this. Notice the empty space in the upper right hand corner. That is where you will see each Lithium cell and its voltage. This data will only be displayed with a Lithium based battery connected. This will also display which cell is being balanced Also, without a battery connected you will also see the message No Battery detected or Wrong polarity towards the center of the screen. Example of the display without a battery connected:

2 Example of the display with a 4S LiPo connected: Entering in the settings for your battery. There are three ways that you can enter in the settings for your battery. The first one is. This is where you can make a profile of your battery packs and store them. (The file extension used is a.txt). In each text file you can store up to, and including, 20 different battery profiles.

3 This is the Battery Profile Window. This is where you can load and save different battery profiles. To the right of the screen is a little chart telling you the abbreviations of each battery type. They are NiCd for Nickel Cadmium, NiMH for Nickel Metal Hydride, LiPo for Lithium Polymer, LiOn for Lithium Ion, LiFe for Lithium Iron Phosphate (also know as A123), and Pb for Lead Acid or Gel Cell. This goes under Cell Type. Be sure to use the correct abbreviation for the battery type you wish to store in a profile. Next you enter in the correct number of cells in the battery. The Super Brain Palm will recognize every 2 volts in a Lead Acid or Gel Cell as 1 cell. Next you enter in the mah capacity of your battery. Note: When charging Lead Acid or Gel Cell batteries, their capacity is measured in Amp Hours (Ah). Multiply that by 1,000 and you will have the mah capacity. Next enter in the Charge Current. This will determine rate at which the battery is charged. The higher the amp rates the faster the charge. Lithium batteries should only be charged at a rate of no higher than 1C, unless stated otherwise by the battery manufacturer. Physically smaller cells, such as AA or AAA or 2/3AA, should not be charged at too high of a rate as they cannot handle a high amp rate. Try 1C and lower. Lead Acid or Gel Cell batteries should be charged at a rate of their Ah capacity multiplied by 0.2.

4 You can enter in a description, which is optional. This is there for your reference only, if you wish to note battery manufacturer, date bought, etc. The data will not be displayed on the main interface screen. After you have entered your data, click on to save your info. A Save As box will appear asking for a file name and where you want to save it. By default, the interface will save the files as.txt files. Do not enter in any other kind of file extension. To use a battery from the profile, click on any of the numbered buttons, and then click. The Palm charger will emit a beep to indicate that the data has been received. This process should only take one second. To load saved files simply click on click Open to load it.. A window will pop up where you can find the file, and then When you have a loaded file in the Battery Profile List, the name of the file will be displayed in the upper right hand corner. This button does not have any function other than to display the file name. The second way to enter in your battery packs data is the : Before you enter in anything here, you have to click on the Must click this first to setup manually button. This will inform the charger that the computer interface will be supplying the data to the charger. If this button is not clicked and you try to load the data to the charger, nothing will happen. This setup is much like the Battery Profile List except it is only for one battery. Select the battery type, the correct number of cells, mah capacity, appropriate charge rate, and then click Load to Charger. You will hear a beep from the Palm charger to indicate that the settings have been received. NOTE: If the Must click this

5 first to setup manually button has not been clicked before hand, you will not hear this beep and the settings will not be sent to the Palm charger. Once loaded, click the Close button. The third way to enter in your battery packs data is to use the Palm charger itself. While connected to the PC and the interface is loaded, the Palm charger may still be used to enter in the data for your battery. Charging your battery and reading the interface: Back on the interface, you will now see the settings that you have entered in by either using the From Profile or Manual Setup options in the Setting box seen below: The box to the right of that labeled Reading will give you a real time reading of the voltage for your battery, and while charging you will also see the current rate and how many mah s have been added to your battery from the time you pressed the Start button. Under this box is a bar graph that will show you how far along the charge has gone, along with a percentage (next to the graph) to indicate how far along the charge has gone. This data is based on the mah capacity that you have entered in for your battery and will measure a max of 110% of that capacity. Should the charge stop for any reason, the graph will show you how much was added, as seen below: The top right corner will display each individual cell voltage for Lithium based batteries. The image on the left shows a 4S pack and the image on the right is when you do not have anything connected to the balance port: The charge control buttons: Start: Beings the charge. During the charge, this button will change to Stop which will terminate the charge. Pause: Puts a halt on the current charge and retains the data on the screen. Once clicked, this button will then display Continue and you can proceed with the charge by clicking that. Load Data: Load a previously saved chart to compare the current charge or a previous one.

6 Save Data As: Save the data on your chart for future reference. Under those buttons you have the Power Supply reading, which will tell what the current input voltage is. When charging a NiCd or NiMH, you will have a peak voltage reading next to the Power Supply display. This tells you what the highest voltage that you battery has reached: When charging a lithium-based battery the Max voltage will display. This is the highest voltage that your battery should reach: When charging a Lead Acid or Gel Cell battery, you will have a similar reading for the Max voltage but it is called Peak: This will be displayed when you do not have a battery connected or if the battery should be connected backwards: The battery is being charged: The Constant Current (CC) portion has completed and the Constant Voltage portion has started (For Lithium batteries only): When the charging has completed: When you do not have the correct Profile used for the battery you have connected you will see this message: For Lithium cells only! This tells you exactly how off balance your battery is. With the constantly changing voltage from the charge and balancing happening, you may not see this remain at 0.00% for too long. If your battery should read anything less than 0.50% then that pack can be considered balanced. You may also reference each individual cell s voltage in the Cell Status box. Below the Cell Status box you have the speed of the fan. Remember, the fan will not start if the amps are set to anything lower than 2.8! When the fan is not in use, either from the Palm charger being in standby mode or too low of an amp rate being used, you will see: When the fan is in use, the speed will be displayed in a percentage with the max being 100: PWM Duty: This is an indication as to how much of the total power you are using from the Palm charger for your current battery.

7 The Graph In this area you will see the total duration and real-time results of your battery packs progress. More on this in the Using the graph to follow along with your batteries progress section: Draw History B.V. The button will display the voltage part of the chart from your previous use. This is most helpful when trying to compare two of the same battery types. This will be displayed by a yellow dotted line: Draw History B.V. and the black graph with said line image needed The Draw History B.V. is not available while balancing charging a lipo battery. This feature is only available when the Palm charger is not reading individual cell voltages. If you re charging a lipo without balancing then you may use this feature. Plot controls With these buttons you can either view the entire charge from start to finish in one shot, view the last four minutes, advance by four minutes, or view the last four minutes of the charge. Which ever you have selected you will see it displayed in the center here: Charge time This timer will tell you how long the charge has taken in hours, minutes, and seconds (HH:MM:SS). Using the graph to follow along with your batteries progress: This graph will tell you everything there is to know about your battery. On the left vertical side of the screen you have the amps going from 0.0 to 5.0. The graph shows you this data by the red graph line. To the right vertical side of the screen you have voltage. Based on the battery you have selected you may see a different range of numbers but you will mostly see a range of six voltages (example; 12 to 17). This is displayed on the graph by the yellow line. Across the top is the Legend. This will show you which color corresponds to which piece of data. When charging while balancing you will see an indicator for each cell in the battery. When not using the balance function you will only have the letter V, which is for the total voltage of the battery. The letter A stands for Amps, which is the charge rate. Across the bottom is the time in a range of 5 minutes (example; 00:00 to 00:04). This is in hours and minutes. Accompanying the mouse is a vertical white line. This is used to help pin point the part of the graph you wish to read from. There will also be some data that follows the mouse. You have Time, Voltage, Current, and Capacity. When charging Lithium based batteries you will also have Cell 1, Cell 2, Cell 3, and Cell 4 to go long with each cell in your battery.

8 Basically, you can move the mouse over any part of the graph that has the graph lines and see what the exact data was at that moment. You can accurately go to a specific time (hour, minute, or second) and see what the status was at that point.