One of our battery chargers died, it no longer powers on or shows any status lights, would anyone want to take a look at trying to diagnose / repair it? I could see at least one crispy looking diode in the power section, I left it in electronics if anyone would like to try repairing it.
Ryobi no longer manufacturers this form factor charger, so it would be nice to repair it
It would be cool to have it fixed. Would save the group $100.
If you want to replace it with the same, here is a link to an ebay sell of one.
or the updated design for a bit less money.
I’ll be back in town and at the space on Sunday for the Vector committee meeting and will take a look at it if nobody else has by then.
Sorry, the Vector meeting ran long and I had to head out. I didn’t get a chance to look at it today.
Replaced the TVS diode and an overheated high speed rectifier diode. Checked around and found the fuse on the output of the power supply blown. It was a 3.15A Pico Fuse so I put 2 1.5A ones in parallel to test and the supply still isn’t coming up.
I checked the components around the switching supply section and think that either there’s a bad cap with high ESR or the switching transistor pack is damaged. If someone wants to continue on it by testing the electrolytics for ESR issues, please do.
Raymond
Testing has established that the updated design is garbage
It is certainly far more likely to reject a pack as “defective” than the other model.
@Raymond, was the charger a smart charger or just a power supply with extra LEDs?
I know more and more battery packs are coming with regulator boards already on them, thus making the batteries the brain of charging rather than the charger. If the chargers are effectively dumb power supplies with LEDs, we might be able to build a MEGA CHARGER in a more appropriate form factor for DMS?
It has a Atmel controller inside it, so I’d say it’s smart.
Damn,
I figured with the switch to lithium we might have lucked into a smart battery world.
Oh the batteries are smart - pretty much all consumer products with Li-Ion cells have to be. Issue is that Ryobi (and probably all other power tool manufacturers) have what amounts to DRM in their tools and chargers that “authenticate” the batteries prior to using or charging them. There’s the obvious self-interest to sell high-margin “genuine” batteries, but also a legitimate safety issue since power tools demand high-current cells in their battery packs and it’s bad for business when low-quality knockoffs catch fire on your customers.
Yeah,
The DRM is what I was scared of, I didn’t state it clearly in my response.
BUMP
Has anybody ordered parts to fix this??
Has anybody taken “ownership” of this project??
If no one steps up, the charger is going to the donor shelf end of this week.
Someone had mentioned a specific part that was needed to me … somewhere … and I’ve not been able to locate it. I’ll order it once I know the part number - perhaps even from Mouser.
Thanks. Now I need to track down some power LEDs I wanted so I can complete the order.
Thanks and noted!
Please keep me updated on progress.
Thanks for ordering. Please let me know when it’s in.
Order placed - hopefully the parts (I ordered a spare) arrive sometime this year.
If yo ordered from Mouser, you should have it tomorrow.
