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Scooba's Charging Base provides the battery-charging, control-circuitry needed to emulate the normal charging-rate, and final transition into trickle-charging which also exists in the robot.
The battery's electrical interface to the Charging Base is identical to that in the robot-base; and the Battery-to-Base mechanical-interface is very similar, with differences being two key features: a) the detent, lock-down latch is not employed, and b) there are only semi-sockets to engage the Battery's yellow tabs. These differences stand out in the view provided in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Upper Face of Charging Base Showing Battery-Pocket and Contacts
From a human-engineering view point, replication of the mechanical-interface features of the robot might have been preferable. That's one view. Perhaps that was tested at the prototype stage, then abandoned because two hands were required to remove the battery. If so, that would be odd, because two hands are needed anyway, because the Charging Base is such a very light-weight device. The force required to disconnect the four contacts is greater than the weight of the Base!
Naturally, this connector interface is identical to the one built into the the left side of the robot. Figure 2 illustrates Scooba's Power-Supply Unit receptacle, built in to one end of the Charging Base.
Figure 2. End-View of Base Shows 5-Contact DIN Receptacle for PSU's Pigtail Plug-Cap
Gaining entry, to see what the box contains, is easy. Its main internal feature is a very busy (i.e., high component-density) PWB that occupies most of the lateral space inside the box. Other than the PWB, there is the SPSU's receptacle, and two panel-mounted LEDs. That is why the assembly weighs very little (its weight is much less than the Battery's weight), there are no massive components!
Thoughts of photographing the PWB, were abandoned due to the unit's point-to-point, interconnect-wiring method. There are four subassemblies attached to different locations inside the housing, with about seven, small-gauge, wires interconnecting them. This is one of those assemblies, which if partially disassembled, is then very subject to wire-breakage (due to metal fatigue at the pad-, and terminal-connections), e.g., as a result of tipping the PWB into a particular series of poses (while also attempting to reduce movement and tension of the tethering-wires) for examination or photography. That is why no interior shots are available to display.
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