Ian
–
I
believe that Jeff sees support so we should see a response shortly. Can anyone other than Jeff give an
update on this? Any idea when
CE will be available. This will
be a certification issue. We
must get to a point where software is stable and not undergoing these
constant changes if we ever expect to have products
certified.
Larry J. Dix
-----Original
Message-----
From:
owner-support@dieboldes.com [mailto:owner-support@dieboldes.com]On Behalf Of Ian S. Piper
Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2001 2:05
PM
To:
support@dieboldes.com
Subject:
Battery Status & Charging
See
below.
-----Original
Message-----
From:
owner-support@dieboldes.com [mailto:owner-support@dieboldes.com]On Behalf Of Jeff Hintz
Sent: October 20, 2001 9:17
AM
To: Support Team
(E-mail)
Subject: Johnson
County, KS - Battery Status & Charging
Johnson County, KS
has received 6 AVTS units for demonstration purposes. One of the units
says Low for the Battery Status instead of Charging, this unit has been
plugged in since they received it, over a week now. Does this
mean that the battery is bad, or that the indication of the battery does not
work???
Windows CE 2.12 has
a bug where it always
reports the Main Backup Battery as a "Low" Status. This is apparently
corrected in Windows CE 3.0.
A PIC
microcontroller is used to control battery charging/discharging and power
distribution. The PIC monitors the battery and reports a percentage of
the battery's charge capacity to WinCE, but at this time, the
BallotStation software doesn't use the Battery Charge Capacity
Percentage, only the status word (i.e., good, low, very low.) And
WinCE 2.12 is stuck on "low". I don't know the outlook for
implementing WinCE 3.0. Jeff Dean would be the person to make an
inquiry to on that matter.
They are in the
planning stages of their warehouse, and would like to know what our
recommendations are for charging of the AVTS units. Do the AVTS units
need to be plugged in continously???
No,
they don't need to be plugged in continuously. However, they can
if they wish. It won't harm the unit.
Can
the AVTS units need to be charged on a rotation
schedule???
If it is
logistically more feasible for the warehouse staff to use a rotation
schedule, then they can do that. The battery charging circuit only
needs AC power attached to charge the battery. With the unit
turned off and AC applied, the system will be in slow charge mode and will
only draw a small amount of AC power (0.1A @ 110VAC). At that small of
a current consumption, quite a few units can be attached to a single
circuit.
NOTE: Sealed
lead acid batteries lose approximately 3% of their charge per month just
sitting on the shelf. If left unused, they should be recharged a
minimum of once a year. Preferable would be once every six
months. Obviously, if they have more frequent elections cycles, and
the units are charged before and after each cycle, this minimum wouldn't be
a concern. But if they have spare units that are always held in
reserve and never used, then they should meet the minimum charging
requirements.
Do the AVTS
units need to be charged only 24 hours before an
election???
On
slow charge, a discharged battery will be charged in 12 hours.
With AC applied and the unit is turned on and operational, the charging
circuit switches into fast charge mode. This mode will bring
a discharged battery to 85% of full charge within 3 hours. This
is done by applying the manufacturer's maximum recommended charge
current into the battery. The system will switch to slow charge after
reaching the 85% point. Fast charging past that point can reduce the
battery's life expectancy. The purpose behind the fast charge mode is
to maximum charge time in a rolling blackout
situation.
When
the unit is using fast charge mode, it will consume more AC power ( 0.3A @
110VAC).
NOTE: The
ballot station operation takes priority over the charging of the
battery. If the ballot station operation needs to draw power that
nears the capacity of the power supply (e.g, someone plugs in an unapproved
PCMCIA device that sucks the power down), then the battery charging circuit
will either reduce to slow charge mode or stop charging in favor of the
ballot station load requirements..
I will be going
down to Johnson County, KS on Tuesday for an all paper election, and they
would like to know the answers to these questions.
Currently, an
idle system will take 5-1/2 hours to discharge a fully charged
battery. This is with the LCD panel displaying
constantly. If the software is developed with a sleep mode
for the LCD panel, this discharge time could be considerably longer.
The LCD panel and its backlighting draw the most power.
The
tested configuration for the 5-1/2 hour discharge time used a 32MB
flash memory card as the only PCMCIA device. Other PCMCIA devices
would draw additional power and therefore shorten the discharge
time. Printing a paper tape on battery power draws considerable
power, but that is cyclical and not a concern for overall discharge
time. Unless, of course, it is done continuously.
On
discharge, when the monitored battery voltage reaches 10.5V, the system
will automatically shutdown. This is the 0% capacity point. Some
components in the system require a minimum of 10.2V for operation and the
life expectancy of a sealed lead acid battery will be reduced if it
is used below 10.5V. Life expectancy on sealed lead acid
batteries is 5 years.
I hope
that answers your questions on battery charging
(and discharging). Let me know if you need anything
further.
Ian