Hi, new to power chairs and such...

[barefooter64]

Hello all,
The background of my dunking into power chairs...
My wife has a few conditions that have all decided to get worse at about the same time. Most swirl around Marfan syndrome and associated connective tissue issues. Her time up is very limited and unstable. The ability to get her to Appts was approaching nil. So.. after some experience with manual wheelchair it was decided to try a power chair, and get a Transit to move it around.

She now has a used Permobil M300 base with an articulated seat that so far looks like it will help her be more independent. It is several years old (2013 or so I think) and has a bit under 900 miles on it. Everything works so far. The seat controls housing is broken and no longer connected to the support. Velcro or a more involved repair will take care of that.

Questions for the assembled experts:
- is there an acronym reference somewhere? (i've not looked on the site for one yet.. just wondering) 30+ years in IT has stuffed my head full of them, but those don't work here...
- The chair has one mode/profile called indoor. It tops out at about 2.6mph. I would like to get it to go a bit faster so we can go for "walks". I tried to get it into OBP mode following a youtube guide but it just turns on. Would getting a dongle allow for setting up a profile/mode that would have a higher top speed?

[biscuit]

Welcome.

- is there an acronym reference somewhere? (i've not looked on the site for one yet.. just wondering) 30+ years in IT has stuffed my head full of them, but those don't work here...

No there's not.
I wondered that same thing when I was first on this site. At that time it freaked me out not to know what AWG meant. (AWG is American wire gauge.)
I soon figured out most acronyms here and Google helped with that.
But it's actually a drop in the bucket - there's so much more info here.

[Burgerman]

Hello all,
The background of my dunking into power chairs...
My wife has a few conditions that have all decided to get worse at about the same time. Most swirl around Marfan syndrome and associated connective tissue issues. Her time up is very limited and unstable. The ability to get her to Appts was approaching nil. So.. after some experience with manual wheelchair it was decided to try a power chair, and get a Transit to move it around.

Are you in the UK?

She now has a used Permobil M300 base with an articulated seat that so far looks like it will help her be more independent. It is several years old (2013 or so I think) and has a bit under 900 miles on it. Everything works so far. The seat controls housing is broken and no longer connected to the support. Velcro or a more involved repair will take care of that.

Questions for the assembled experts:
- is there an acronym reference somewhere? (i've not looked on the site for one yet.. just wondering) 30+ years in IT has stuffed my head full of them, but those don't work here...

No. But just ask!

- The chair has one mode/profile called indoor. It tops out at about 2.6mph. I would like to get it to go a bit faster so we can go for "walks". I tried to get it into OBP mode following a youtube guide but it just turns on. Would getting a dongle allow for setting up a profile/mode that would have a higher top speed?

Permobil. Whare to begin.
Every other chair that uses R-Net control systems seems simple and what you ask, and enabling the OBP is a trivial matter. Permobil like to tie you into a complex permobil only system. So while its possible to get an OEM level dongle, or use OEM level programming software and a easier to get dealer level dongle to make the changes mentioned on other brands of chair it may or may not work on permobil. They use their own firmware, own joysticks that are permobil branded, their own seating and lighting systems, and own gyros and stability modules. That generic R-Net programmers dont work with. In some cases certain changes can be made. In other no changes can be made. And nobody has access to the Permobil branded OEM level dongles or software either. So the answer is a firm possible but unknown...

[barefooter64]

Are you in the UK?

No. We're in rural Arkansas, USA.

Permobil. Whare to begin.

I wondered if i'd run into such things amongst the various brands. What is the most 'open' brand of power chair?

[Burgerman]

Pretty much all the rest!

With the exception of pride/quantum stuff.