Electrical What does a Roomba battery "reset" do?

[Stephen Tashi]

TL;DR Summary

A suggested fix for a Roomba 500 series with a battery that won't hold a charge is to hold down the "spot" and "dock" buttons to "reset" the battery. What, physically, does this do?

A suggested fix for a Roomba 500 series with a battery that won't hold a charge is to hold down the "spot" and "dock" buttons to "reset" the battery. (e.g. ) What, physically, does this do?

Does it completely discharge the battery? Does it change some setting in the computer that controls the robot?

 

[Tom.G]

from: https://www.mpoweruk.com/nicad.htm

This is about 15% of the above-referenced page. Worth reading!

Originally, the terms memory effect or memory problem was coined to describe a cyclic memory problem where the NiCad battery would "remember" the amount of discharge for previous discharges and limit the recharge life of the battery. The problem is less prevalent with modern Ni-Cd batteries, which are designed to avoid cyclic memory issues.

The memory effect is caused by a change in crystalline formation from the desirable small size to a large size which occurs when a NiCad battery is recharged before it is fully discharged. The growth of large crystals increases the cell impedance and can eventually prevent the battery from discharging beyond that point...

Taking the above in to account, you are better off running down the battery instead of charging after every brief use.

The GO TO site for all things battery is https://batteryuniversity.com
https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-203-nickel-based-batteries

The above info, and enough more to put you to sleep, found with:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=nicd+battery+characteristics

Cheers,
Tom

 

[dlgoff]

The GO TO site for all things battery is https://batteryuniversity.com

Yes indeed.

 

[DaveC426913]

There's someone else out there with a 500 series?? My people!