MAYA Budget Telepresence Rover

Step 5: Charging

Here is a little more in-depth description on charging,<br> <br>The Roomba uses 22v to charge. The Roomba power source gives off 22v at 1.5a I believe. Obviously, that is enough to charge a Roomba, but not a 12v battery and a netbook/laptop. I had a universal laptop power adapter with the interchangeable tips which fit the dock perfectly and gave off 4a. When I tried to draw power from the dock, however, through the 22v to 12v DC converter, the dock would start flickering on and off. While the cause of this is unknown, here is the solution. I took the barrel jack and I disconnected the board's connection to the dock, and went from the barrel jack straight to the docking pads. (Wires go to the circuitry inside and to the docking pads, but not from the circuity to the docking pads.<br> <br>Picture of inside of dock shown, without mod but the one with the black wire is with the mod done. You won't have the feature of the docking pads being 3.5v when its not docked, as it will always be 22v, but its still a relatively safe voltage. So the battery and the netbook is connected to the Meanwell 22v to 12v converter. When the Roomba docks, it starts charging, and the Meanwell converter starts up and provides the 12v needed for both components. The part can be found here: http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/Products/ProdDS/212531.pdf<div id="myEventWatcherDiv" style="display:none;">