safety shut down/bad battery?

[dukemath]

I have used my Segway since July 2003 an average of
4 days a week and 4 miles a day. A couple days ago,
after going for about 3 miles earlier, I started
with 3.5 bars. After going up a slight rise, the red
light and alarm went off. When I restarted, I still
had 3.5 bars but could only go a few hundred feet before
the safety shutdown hit again. It took several more attempts
to get back and I had to walk it the last couple hundred
feet.

I charged the unit for 18 hours and used it twice for
about 1.5 miles. Near the end of the second trip, with
3 bars showing, the alarm went off. I am trying to drain
the battery to recondition and have left it standing
against the wall. Soon after, it went up to 4 bars. After
an hour, it is back to 3.5 bars.

Is this the proper procedure? Is it time to get more
batteries or could there be another problem?

[Zorba9]

Time for new batteries dukemath. I had the same battery malfunction 2 years ago and had developed a dead cell in one battery. They would charge up fine and ride untill they got to 3 bars - then had to push it home, or re-start and ride 100ft over & over. My batts were under warranty back then so was no big deal. Sounds like they've given you your moneys worth for the last 22 months!

KOG

Zorba9.....

[Dragan]

Have you tried a soft reset to see if that corrects your problem? I think Zorba is probably right that your batteries are going bad, but you may want to exhaust all other possibilities before you drop the coin. Shut down, disconnect the CS from the base and unplug it, leave it for a minimum of 10 seconds, then reconnect. Go ahead with your full discharge/recharge cycle, and see if there's any difference. You may also want to do a full hard reset and remove both battery packs from the machine, then remount them. Just be careful if you do this when the batteries are fully charged; they pack a potentially killing whallop if you mess with the fix'ins and do'ins in the connectors (translation: watch where you stick your fingers!)
Wayne

Segway of Alberta - Calgary
www.mysegway.ca

[austin@SOH]

There is a conditioning that you can perform that will allow you to possibly recover that dead cell. The best thing to do is find yourself a way to prop the machine up off the ground so that the wheels will not touch. Turn it on and in power assist mode, tape the turn grip foward or backward so that the wheel are spinning. Drain the battery completely down and then allow it to charge overnight. Do that about five times and most likely you will have saved your batteries.

Austin Colby
Segway of Hagerstown

[woodenapple]

quote:Originally posted by austin@SOH

There is a conditioning that you can perform that will allow you to possibly recover that dead cell. The best thing to do is find yourself a way to prop the machine up off the ground so that the wheels will not touch. Turn it on and in power assist mode, tape the turn grip foward or backward so that the wheel are spinning. Drain the battery completely down and then allow it to charge overnight. Do that about five times and most likely you will have saved your batteries.

Austin Colby
Segway of Hagerstown

I hadn't heard the idea to drain the batteries while spinning the wheels in power assist mode. Does anyone else here have an opinion on whether this would drain the cells evenly and slowly enough? I occasionally drain my old batteries to keep them useful for a little longer, and it sure takes a long time to drain them when my segway is just balancing up against a wall.

Rodney

May all your days be Segway days!

[Stewbonz]

That makes sense. The machine probably shuts down in balance mode with some energy left.
Draining in PA mode may do a better job?

JEFF JARVIS
http://www.thailandsegwaytours.com/

[cmonkey]

If you get the chance, get to a segfest to get your software updated. With the 14.0 software, and a key that is programmed for the no shut off, you could leave the segway in power assist mode. That mode uses the least amount of power. Hopefully that will take your batteries to the most depleted state possible. However, I recall something about over-discharging cells, but I can''t remember if that applies to NiMHs, ( I know it does for NiCads).

good luck.



I love my magic carpet!

[SegwayUtah]

Does power-assist mode really take much less power than balance mode? It seems that all the electronics are up and running--just not the bit of power to the motors.

Chris

[cmonkey]

I would think so, balance mode will constantly have power applied to the motors. Power assist only puts power to the motors when requested.

I love my magic carpet!

[dukemath]

Thanks to all for your suggestions, but nothing seems to help.
The battery discharge is rapid. A few seconds after it gets
down to 2.5 bars, it goes into safety shutdown.

Looks like it's time to get new batteries.

[Stewbonz]

Ron Reich at Segway say when the batteries die, you will know it.

JEFF JARVIS
http://www.thailandsegwaytours.com/

[W9GFO]

Batteries should drain more completely when the smallest amount of current is pulled from them. I doubt that the difference between leaning against a wall and power assisting is significant.

Try the full discharge / full charge a couple more times just to be sure.

Have you been periodically conditioning the batteries? If not, then be sure to give the conditioning another try.

Rich H

The Un-Official Segway Battery FAQ
http://www.spinfoot.com/SegwayBatteryFAQ.html