New Balance Battery Charger Vs. The Blue Charger

Question

I received my JD robot kit about 1.5 weeks ago and it came with the blue battery charger. Today I got an email directing me to new info on the batter charger lesson. On the lesson it talks about the new balance charger and refers to mine as the "deprecated blue ez-robot charger". The word "deprecated" obviously got my attention since I just received this kit. Is there any concern about using the blue charger instead of the new one? Why was there a switch and what's wrong with the old blue charger? Obviously curious why I received the old one, but I know there always has to be a change-over period. Just wondering if there's anything I should watch out for or if I should be planning to upgrade. I also bought an extra battery, so I want to make sure I'm treating them right. Thanks! Jon

CochranRobotics · Answer

I have 6 of the blue charger and haven't had an issue with any of them. They do get very warm as the case is what is used to disapate the heat.

Rich · Answer

Neither of my blue chargers have given any cause for concern. It's likely that the new charger is more energy efficient or charges faster rather than any safety concern (it wont be a safety issue, they would not have sent out the blue ones if they were unsafe). Edit: Having just read the lesson I can tell you that the new charger has a charging current of 1.5A where the blue one was 0.8A therefore the charge time is decreased (almost half the time).

Nomad 6R · Answer

does the new charger get hot? and what are the leds for.

JonPointer · Answer

Many thanks everyone! I never doubted that the blue charger was safe, I just wondered if battery life might be better with the new charger. Sounds like it's just charger efficiency and charging time - so I'll be fine with the blue one. Thanks again!

thetechguru · Answer

According to the new LEARN lesson on the charger, it appears that the new one has some more built in diagnostics as well as cooling vents that may reduce some concerns people had about how hot the blue chargers got. Alan

WBS00001 · Answer

Well darn! I just ordered another charger along with some other parts a week or so ago. The one they showed on-line was a blue one. Had I know, I would have specified a newer black one. Sounds pretty good with the faster charge time. Maybe I'll luck out and they will have to send the new type. Maybe I'll flap my arms and fly to the moon too.

Nomad 6R · Answer

@WBS00001 i think the old charger is not avileble no more .the new wil be sending out now. new member luke has allreddy the new one.

DJ Sures · Answer

The new charger does not have a faster charging time. We were having supply chain issues with the blue charger so we needed to find one that had more availability. It does have a few diagnostic features that the blue one didn't, other than that it's the same. Ps, I changed the tutorial to read "discontinued" which sounds politer thanks for the heads up!

WBS00001 · Answer

Alllllll Righty Then! Thanks for the info DJ. No need for me to suffer from charger envy after all.

JonPointer · Answer

Good thinking DJ! It was clearly that wording that got me worried. Many thanks!

Nomad 6R · Answer

if you mesure the volt out come what chould that be? i got one with 8.44 volt the blue charger

Rich · Answer

4.2v per cell (+/- a small tolerance) therefore your 8.44v is correct for a 2S battery (2 cells in series).

Nomad 6R · Answer

@rich thats strange .the faulty batt where green and red led is on while no batt, is connected,gifs 8.44 volt the 2 others when a batt are connected the green led goes on like it suposed, to do.here i mesure 0.01 volt( mesured whithout batt connected)

Rich · Answer

Depending on the charger, it may be intelligent and have cell balancing and other cool stuff which may affect the voltage applied to the balance port.

Nomad 6R · Answer

@rich ah.rich you know so much. thank you

Rich · Answer

True wisdom comes from knowing you know nothing at all There is a small circuit board in the charger, this does something... if it was as simple as charging with a constant voltage the charger would be pretty much empty other than an AC/DC converter and voltage regulator. The fact there's all kinds of microchips in there tells us that the charger is doing some cool stuff to keep our batteries working well. The specifics of what it actually does I do not know as I do not need to know...

Nomad 6R · Answer

thats a keeper

JonPointer

New Balance Battery Charger Vs. The Blue Charger

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