Hi there, I have a Parani SD1000 with an extended battery pack however the pin within the charging port has snapped off / broken so the port no longer works. Does anyone have a method to charge the battery / power the parani without use of the DC charging port? Or at least have experience in opening one of these up and tinkering around in them?
Do you have a second parani that you can swap the batteries just to charge? It would be a pain to have to do but it would at least it would work.
No second Parani! The parani is actually a backup method for the WDSL that isn't working right now 🙁
The Parani case appears to be glued, and repair of the broken charge pin would probably be difficult. Replacing the entire unit seems like the best solution, but if that cost isn't feasible, I would think the next best thing would be to cut the case open (likely destroying it in the process), replace the charging port with a standard connector, splice the mating connector onto the charger, and then rehousing the Parani guts in a project case of some kind.
You can power the unit through the serial pins. Serial pins 5 and 9 can power the unit and it has a regulator, so, it can be 5 to 12 volts. From experience, do not go over 12v (a 12v battery can be several volts over 12v) For more confusion a pin diagram is here https://surveyorconnect.com/community/threads/parani-yet-another-thread.316742/ Warning though, Tx and Rx do use the ground as well and I have had issues with using the serial ground on data collector Parani's because of this.
Norm Larson, post: 432070, member: 7899 wrote: From experience, do not go over 12v (a 12v battery can be several volts over 12v)
So my LiFePo batteries that show 14.25 v at full charge would damage the Parani?
That has been my experience with two Parani's
I've opened 2 parani sd1000 cases so far. You have to remove the sicker and you'll find 4 torx screws #7, or #6 , I don't really remember. With them removed you have access to the whole PCB. The charging / power female connector is soldered to the PCB. You could replace it ,if you manage to get the right part (try Digikey), or you could solder 2 wires and use an external female connector from Radio Shack. The input voltage is listed at max 12v. I fed my parani and my Leica robot both from the same external battery which, when fully charged, was showing over 15v. This setup is still running flawlessly to this day.