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Cowboyctx, I set your battery charge mode for 45 in Rovio Commander II. I kept rovio on the dock for 7.5 hours and used the stock power supply. At the 7.5 hour mark, the charger indicator on Rovio Commander II was stable (not indicating charging), but only sitting at half-way across your on-screen battery meter.
What does that mean when the battery meter is at half-way and not indicating charging is happening?
I took a multimeter reading and see that I went up to 6.7v (I was at 6.56v before when I was testing yesterday)
What do you suggest I do? Increase the charge mode number from 45? To what?
Note, even the stock web interface (yes I tested that too this morning when I took rovio off the dock) software showed I was down a bar immediately after leaving the dock. And it quickly dropped a couple of bars with rovio's moving.)
Basically, it's doing the same activity it was before trying the various methods... it's just dropping it's power very quickly. Suggestions?
I believe something wrong with my rovio.
The battery life is 10-15 minutes maximum even if I leave robot docked overnight. Did somebody have such problems? Or maybe battery needs couple of full charge cycles to reach it's maximum?
Maybe you need to drain the power like denodan says to do and repeat the whole process over the next few days. You could have defective equipment too. Try the repeat process.
P.S. the battery indicator on Rovio Commander really only work when Rovio is running and then it is an average of your batteries power.
Rovio Commander II
Record Video, Motion Detect, Sentry Paths and more. All features built in. <br>
http://www.robocommunity.com/download/15769/_New-Rovio-Commander-II/
But, when the battery stops charging and rovio is still docked, what does it mean when your battery meter is showing half-way (as it was this morning?) Should it have read all the way to the right if fully charged yet still sitting on the dock? Or should it read half-way like it was for me?
Cowboyctx, when your software is set up for 45 minutes of "Charge Mode On" time, what does that actually mean? If I'm charging it for hours, how does 45 minutes come into the picture? Just trying to figure out how this all works. Thx!
Kal-El said: Cowboyctx, when your software is set up for 45 minutes of "Charge Mode On" time, what does that actually mean? If I'm charging it for hours, how does 45 minutes come into the picture? Just trying to figure out how this all works. Thx!
It means that every 45 minutes the Rovio Commander will send a command to your Rovio to back up. When your Rovio backs up the charge cycle will wake up and start again. The theory is that the hardware in the Rovio/Dock is not fully charging the batteries and by restarting the cycle you would think you could get a full charge. I use 45, its not a magic number. You need to find out what works for you. Of course it might not work at all, its just easier than re-docking you Rovio manually.
Rovio Commander II
Record Video, Motion Detect, Sentry Paths and more. All features built in. <br>
http://www.robocommunity.com/download/15769/_New-Rovio-Commander-II/
cowboyctx said: Glad to hear it worked for you. I set mine at 45 minutes and seems to work for me. But if 15 works for you then great. Just make sure your battery is not over heating during the charging process.
I know the feeling, I have had my Rovio for 4 months or so and have tried to contact customer service atleast 25 times. I got one responce saying the same thing once. Terrible customer service and if your not a tech person your not going to get far. Pretty much concider it a $300.00 loss.
Sorry guys, found an error in the charge routine for Rovio Commander II, you had to keep the Settings form Open for it to work. The new update will fix this error, look for version 1.6t or above. Also you will now have to click SET but to set the time value. There is also a count down before next command.
Rovio Commander II
Record Video, Motion Detect, Sentry Paths and more. All features built in. <br>
http://www.robocommunity.com/download/15769/_New-Rovio-Commander-II/
Mine is on its way back to where I bought it. It's become too erratic in its movements (all 5-10 minutes of them), probably from overheating of the battery. Never was able to get the battery above 6.7 volts. Will try with a fresh rovio.
Just a wild guess, but could the charging circuit is actually design to charge a lipo battery instead of a Nimh battery. That's why the lack of peak voltage detection. Just a wild guess.
Wow...this is depressing. I tested the battery pack under load and it has a bad cell. From reading this thread, it looks like I either return it to Buy.Com OR I eat the cost of building a new battery pack.
Has ANYONE gotten a new battery out of Wowwee? Anyone? Bueller? (old movie reference-geek points if you get it)
I contacted WowWee when I first got my Rovio and they told me I had a bad power adapter. I then asked if they were going to send a new one and they relied, "yes." I then asked when and they replied that they didn't have any but as soon as they get some they will send one.
Frankly, this company is flaky. If I ran my business like this I would have one to run. Unfortunately, I bought my Rovio from Woot and there is no such thing as a return.
I am going to submit my (our) problems to The Consumerist which is part of Consumer Reports.
Jim
- member since: 12/29/2008
- rank: 1 of 10786
- 3 articles authored
- 43 forum threads started
- 942 comments
BobbyZ & jgeidl, try with some of the charging fixes posted around. My battery also appeared to have a bad cell and/or the adapter was not giving enough power, after going through a day of re-docking with no success I hooked the battery up to a smart battery charger and now I can get over 2 hours continuous use and dock charging seams to be ok for now. I would not depend on support directly from WowWee as they have become reliant on this forum to solve their problems.
Principal Rooney says: "I've got you now ferris Bueller, you little ****"
I called two weeks ago and no one called me back. I say we all file a class action lawsuit. What do you say?
BobbyZ said: Has ANYONE gotten a new battery out of Wowwee? Anyone? Bueller? (old movie reference-geek points if you get it)
I registered my Rovio on the WowWee website and filed a complaint about the batteries with their Customer Support department last weekend.
I received a reply on the 8th, saying that they "are sending out replacement batteries and ac adapters."
The plural response gives me hope that they might be addressing this problem en masse. (i.e. They might be ready to respond to a large wave of complaints.)
I was asked to fax my shipping address and a copy of the receipt to them. Once validated, they would ship me a new battery pack and charger.
I have also been using the Rovio Commander II software to charge the batteries. Even with extended charging, overall performance with the old batteries is mediocre.
I will report back when (or if 
) I receive the new battery pack.
P.S. That was a great film - saw it in the theater when it came out.
"Today we have a similar debate over this. Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before? The Laffer Curve. Anyone know what this says? It says that at this point on the revenue curve, you will get exactly the same amount of revenue as at this point. This is very controversial. Does anyone know what Vice President Bush called this in 1980? Anyone? Something-d-o-o economics. 'Voodoo' economics." (tl;du: The comment was a stinging indictment of Reaganomics.)
BobbyZ,
Now send them a note and ask theM "when?" You'll get the response that they don't have any but will send them if they get some.
Jim
matrix2004 said: I called two weeks ago and no one called me back. I say we all file a class action lawsuit. What do you say?
I'd go for that but you'll never get a lawyer to touch it for $100 items. I'd go for it just to show these companies that they can't just do crap like this and get away with it. I think it would have even more bite if senior management spent some time in jail over it.
Jim
After messing around with a 9v adapter and the battery got so hot I was afraid my rovio was going to burn down the house, I gave up the 9v adapter. To make things worse, my rovio won't charge anymore it would just died after docking. I knew the battery was fine, because I charged with a r/c charger. I knew the adapter was fine, because I measured the voltage and it was 8v. (BTW, I opened up the rovio and the power board it says 8v not 9v). So what's wrong with the god edamn rovio!! Then I read someone had some problem with the docking station, and he fixed it by placing the wire directly onto those two little charging post. I thought to myself, why not attach the d/c adapter's wires directly to the belly of rovio to see if it charges. I am happy to say, for now my rovio is charging. Wowwee should be ashamed for selling a product without quality control. My rovio also has a led with loose connection and it wouldn't light up until I re-soldered it.
Rovio is not meant to be charged at 9V, which is why your battery got hot. I know some do use 9v battery chargers, but the fact is, is it's not designed to use 9volts, you run the risk of wreaking your battery, or worse it blowing up and catching fire.
Get the battery to hot and buggers them.
A follow up. After making sure there are no loose contact in the dock, I am happy to report that my rovio is now charging normally.
hcubeh said:
A follow up. After making sure there are no loose contact in the dock, I am happy to report that my rovio is now charging normally.
On mine, I measured 0.5 to 0.7 Volt lost between power on wire in dock and what is available inside Rovio through all contacts / wire.
I've added a wire on contactor inside dock (that open/close circuit when Rovio docks) also I scratched the surface of Rovio contacts and dock contacts and put welding to redo the surface.
Voltage drop is now 0.1/0.2V so I can use again the 8V adapter .
Since battery pack full charge level is around 7.2V and some tens of volts are also lost in charger board, it seems either improving contacts or putting more volts improves things.
Of course there are still this nasty issues with auto-shutoff on low battery and premature end of charge.
Not sure if these are HW or SW issues but SW fix could probably improve things.
As someone mentionned if you put 9V adapter don't let it charge unattended overcharging NIMH may cause high temps, especially with provided blue packs which seems to be very poor quality.
hcubeh said:
Just a wild guess, but could the charging circuit is actually design to charge a lipo battery instead of a Nimh battery. That's why the lack of peak voltage detection. Just a wild guess.
Now there you got a point.
And it would seem logical.
Lipo batteries (As far as i know) have 3 cells to reach 7.2 V.
And your rovio sits on the dock and is Always on. So its charching discharching all the time.
Lipo batteries need something like even cell discharge / charge. Meaning that if one cell gets below 2.4 V it can get nasty. Ive seen lipos explode or just burst into fire randomly.
A lipo battery is supposed to charge with a divider. which takes care of the cells, so that they are charged evenly.
And well,.,.. I dont see your rovio with a lipo. Seriously it could be to dangerous...
(guys.. am i right on this one ??)
BobbyZ said:
Wow...this is depressing. I tested the battery pack under load and it has a bad cell. From reading this thread, it looks like I either return it to Buy.Com OR I eat the cost of building a new battery pack.
Has ANYONE gotten a new battery out of Wowwee? Anyone? Bueller? (old movie reference-geek points if you get it)
Yess I DID.
The first battery would not charge.
I got a new adapter and a new battery pack (same voltages and Mah) lol but the rovio is working atm. And its On 24/7 .
(the cats love the blue light)
Chip on charger board shows reference LS2516 and according to Google,
it seems to be a NiMH charge controller.
Also, as mentionned, LiPo needs elements to be charged individually to avoid unbalanced charging which is dangerous for LiPos.
So don't try LiPO with this board it can be dangerous.
chris75 said:
I've added a wire on contactor inside dock (that open/close circuit when Rovio docks) also I scratched the surface of Rovio contacts and dock contacts and put welding to redo the surface.
Voltage drop is now 0.1/0.2V so I can use again the 8V adapter .
Just be careful that no one drop metallic object across the battery charging posts when your rovio is out of dock. It could cause a short. And I only got so frustrated with rovio that I wishfully thought maybe rovio can use a lipo battery, but of course it can't!!
New the the forums and after reading all of the battery and charging problems without resolution my outlook is less than optimistic on how they are going to handle it.
I sent in my receipt this evening after this email:
Replied Message: You have received an email from WowWee Customer Service
Ticket No. xxxx
xxxxxxxxx,
Thank you for contacting wowwee. It seems like you have a defective power adaptor. Please send in a copy of the receipt by Fax : 514-344-1252 or by email : Customerhelp@wowwee.com for validation.
Sincerely,
WowWee Customer Service
I will let everyone know how things are going and what kind of time frame it takes. 5 min of run time is pretty much ridiculous to say the least. I did manage to fabricate a low and no light headlight that works amazing from a high output LED and lense. Here is a pic of it in my office....
http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww10/hammersquash/light.jpg?t=1271468752
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