Stupid charger

[Burgerman]

Hyperions are stupid. Last night I took 44.45Ah OUT of my batteries as I slept... Dont drink and charge!
Couldnt figure out why I had a red light when leaving my bedroom this morning... Till I looked at the graph. Not going anywhere for a bit.

[JoeC]

That's just another design criteria, along with "will my technologically challenged friend be able to do it?" and "Is there any way I'll mess it up after an all-night flight and a hangover?" goes the "How badly can I mess it up if I'm drunk?"

Always a consideration.

[TwoTeasChris]

Yeah. Stupid charger.

Reminds me of the Genesis video showing (the spitting image of) Ronald Reagan. He had two buttons next to his bed. "Nurse" and "Nuke".

[Burgerman]

On the plus side I do have 3 other chairs ready to use and fully charged, and one under consruction!

[Ashley G]

ROFL.

Hey, it could be worse mate !

Imagine if they had included the usual Windows insults into the programming ?

"Knacker batteries. Yes / No ?"

"Are you sure: Yes / No ?"

"Knackering batteries. Do NOT interrupt: ..... 1% .... 2% .... 3% .... 4% .... "

[Burgerman]

They are already an old knackered set. And now discharged to 10.8v and thats about 95 percent. They took 62Ah each to top up...

[LROBBINS]

If this is what the Hyperion can accomplish in the hands of the master, just imagine what it could do in the hands of the average Personal Care Assistant.

[TwoTeasChris]

ROFL.

Hey, it could be worse mate !

Imagine if they had included the usual Windows insults into the programming ?

"Knacker batteries. Yes / No ?"

"Are you sure: Yes / No ?"

"Knackering batteries. Do NOT interrupt: ..... 1% .... 2% .... 3% .... 4% .... "

If it's Windows then it would more likely be "Knacker batteries: Yes / Ok ?"

[Burgerman]

>>> If this is what the Hyperion can accomplish in the hands of the master, just imagine what it could do in the hands of the average Personal Care Assistant.

Well that depends on what they had to drink!

One of mine from years ago (very old site) used to drink my vodka, smoke dope, get very chilled out and was asleep before I was... And often forgot to go home. Completely nuts. But very sane compsared to Emma who was befor her! She ran off to portugal to become a rock star! Was back inside a week...

Mandy... Drank more than I do.









Then there was kristen, whe may have well have moved in. She made the others seem positively stable! She didnt really have a home.

And Brian...

[JoeC]

The real question is, how would you set up the Hyperion to make it dummy-proof for a single purpose use? Could you do it, or is there even a point?

It is light and efficient enough that it makes me ponder a change to the design to lock down the firmware for a set configuration, and mount the thing in a waterproof aluminum box. It could be the heart of an on-board charger that is actually useful, compared to the pitiful 2 amp and 4 amp onboard chargers that seem to be offered with a number of low-end chairs. It could significantly increase the lifetime of the small batteries included in those chairs if they had the chance for meaningful opportunity charges throughout the day. Thinking about it more, it doesn't matter if it saved the user $200 per year in batteries, if it added $100 to the cost of the onboard charger they'd never include it.

[Lord Chatterley]

>>> If this is what the Hyperion can accomplish in the hands of the master, just imagine what it could do in the hands of the average Personal Care Assistant.

Well that depends on what they had to drink!

One of mine from years ago (very old site) used to drink my vodka, smoke dope, get very chilled out and was asleep before I was... And often forgot to go home. Completely nuts. But very sane compsared to Emma who was befor her! She ran off to portugal to become a rock star! Was back inside a week...

Mandy... Drank more than I do.









Then there was kristen, whe may have well have moved in. She made the others seem positively stable! She didnt really have a home.

And Brian...

Probably the most hilarious post on this board so far!

[Burgerman]

>>> The real question is, how would you set up the Hyperion to make it dummy-proof for a single purpose use? Could you do it, or is there even a point?


Its strength IS its huge adjustability and adaptability and flexibility. So by making it a simple on board charger you lose its great strengths.

What other charger/software can charge from 100ma up to 20 Amps? From 1v up to 60v? Adjustable charge algos, voltages, float levels, etc. Can graph, measure and compare batteries, charge all battery types, balance and store up to a 14 cell lithium phosphate, ion, polymer packs, lead, nicad, nmh, and run from your car! Seems silly to make a simple charger from it as there are loads already available.

[Martin O Refurbisher]

Don't we need to differentiate between user need and user ability?

Not everyone who is a user is going to understand these complexities I feel.

As a result, we probably do need a means of presetting for less technical users.

Oh, have I just produced a rehash of the argument for limiting access to higher level programmers?

Best,

Martin

[JoeC]

Agreed, you're throwing out a lot of its value by turning it into a "dumb charger", but combined with a switching DC supply it's substantially lighter and cheaper than any 500 watt charger that I've found. I paid $280 for a 600 watt charger that only does one thing, and it weighs 6 pounds and is physically larger than the hyperion. I couldn't find anything smaller and cheaper that would charge as fast.

[Burgerman]

Windows came across this problem years ago.

So everything is dubed down. And then theres the "advanced" button.

The hobbyists seem to figure it all out? At least those that are not football fans.

On the other hand...
I answer about 30 frankly simple obvious "simple" questions by email every day. There often just isnt a "yes no" or "do this" simple answer. Yet that all they are interested in getting. Hence shagged batteries, programming problem, etc etc... If I answer in detail they just ask me again... Many people dont have the mental capacity, or interest to really understand, but "want everything" anyway... Lifes not like that.

As far as the hyperion goes I am the reason that it is complicated! I was talking to David years ago (director) about its dead simple but useless Lead Acid battery charging algo. It was frankly useless and left every battery in a partly discharged state. I explained what it should be doing and tested lots of beta firmware for them - modified to my requests. So you can blame me! I suspect that the next firmware or at least soon, will have a dummy mode where you just tell it the basics and it screws up your batteries for you. Much like a mobility charger.

[jim4472]

John as you have a channel to "Mr Hyperion" how about support for larger NiMh Batteries, my Power-Trike has a 13Ah 36V pack. and do you think that a 36v lead acid setting is a possibility too.

Jim

[Burgerman]

There are tech reasons for not going to loads of series cells in nicad/nmh etc. So probably not.

36v lead acid? I hope so. But the guy I used to communicate with was moving from Hong Kong to the us and a family member had a accident. And hes been missing since...

[Burgerman]

Of course this was done, we now have 36 and 48v lead capability, with a much better charge algo and other options.

[jim4472]

Thanks John.

not a bad idea really , used to maintain 110V nife batteries at work.
JIm