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Referring to the photo in Figure 1, which shows where the battery will be located while Scooba works, it should be fair to say that the principal mechanical interface features are: 1) the overall, battery-shaped, tub-like cavity in which the battery will reside, 2) the two, small pockets, which are de-marked by the silk-screened arrows and words "Insert yellow battery tabs here", which function as pivot points as the battery is rotated into its latched condition, and 3) the battery's latch-catch, which is located midway between the two pairs of electrical-contacts.
Figure 1. Battery's Mechanical and Electrical Interface
Relative to these yellow-tabs and their pockets, it is appropriate to give a WARNING to Scooba owners. The WARNING is: When connecting the battery to the robot, do exactly what the Owner's-Manual states on page nine. If you don't pay attention to seating those yellow-tabs in their pockets, the Tank will not latch down to its lowest position; however the battery will be latched and connected, and Scooba will respond to a 'Clean' command. Then, as Scooba goes about wetting and scrubbing the floor, the user will be mystified by seeing dirty solution trailing behind Scooba! It can't suck much solution off the floor when the two suction ports, which the Tank normally pushes into a sealed condition with the Cleaning-Head, have been left un-sealed due to the Tank not being at its lowest position!
Someone in the audience will ask: "Gosh, isn't there a sensor that warns us about the Tank not being latched properly?". To that question, the answer is "Yes, but...". A magnet-actuated reed-switch is used here to detect a latched-down Tank. Reed-switches exhibit a range of position-sensitivity, and in this application the sensor works over a range that is too large to discriminate how well the Tank is positioned.
Two pairs of blade-shaped contacts rise out of the upper-chassis and push into contact with the female connectors in the battery case. The LHS-pair, with the barrier between them, carry the cell-temperature data to the charge-control circuit; while the RHS-pair of pins deliver battery-power to the robot. The far-right, outboard pin is the 'positive' side, and its inboard neighbor is 'power-return', zero-volts.
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