Rating: +2
The Handy Board provides three ways to charge its internal battery:
- Adapter plugged directly into the HB. Just plug the adapter into the power jack on the HB, and the yellow “CHARGE” LED on the HB will light. This is a trickle-charge mode, which means that (1) the Handy Board will fully charge in about 12 to 14 hours, and (2) the HB may be left in this mode indefinitely.
- Adapter plugged into the Serial Interface/Battery Charger board; HB connected via telephone wire; “NORMAL CHARGE” mode selected. The yellow “CHARGE” LED on the interface board will light. This is a trickle-charge mode, which means that (1) the Handy Board will fully charge in about 12 to 14 hours, and (2) the HB may be left in this mode indefinitely.
- Adapter plugged into the Serial Interface/Battery Charger board; HB connected via telephone wire; “ZAP CHARGE” mode selected. The yellow “CHARGE” LED on the interface board will not light. The ZAP CHARGE will fully charge the HB’s battery in just 3 hours, after which time the battery will become warm and it should be removed from charge or placed into either of the two trickle-charge modes.
When using one of the trickle-charge modes, the Handy Board itself should be turned off so that the charge current goes toward charging the battery and not simply running the board. In Zap charge, there is enough charge current to operate the board and charge the batteries at the same time (assuming that the board is not driving motors or other external loads).
