Looking for Back up Battery?

[PMGRACER]

Just finished checking in Kit. Could not find IFI Back up battery pack. Is IFI or FIRST shipping them out separtately? Did not see them on the check in list either. :confused:

[Mike Rush]

We did not have the battery either!! I don't know if anyone else has them or not.

[GregTheGreat]

We did not have the battery either!! I don't know if anyone else has them or not.


I believe that they are the same as the EDU battery (CHECK BEFORE ATTACHING) so I believe that they may just expect teams to use their EDU battery for the backup battery....

If the batteries are the same (I believe they are) you can purchase them at Innovation First.

-Grg The Great

[m0rph3us]

Yeah, it's not in the list of parts either so I guess we are supposed to use the one from the EduRobot. But they should have definetly been more clear on it.

[Gamer930]

Page 5 of section 5 R39
Page 21 of section 5.8.7.2

I know it was in there more times then that.

Read the manual

[the fabricator]

i dont think the beta bot batterie will have enough power for the whole bot, i mean just for the edubot ours only lasted half hour, the betabot batterie would be totally useless

[GregTheGreat]

i dont think the beta bot batterie will have enough power for the whole bot, i mean just for the edubot ours only lasted half hour, the betabot batterie would be totally useless

I believe that the the back-up is just for those last seconds of a match.... im sure you have had it happen to you before where your battery dies as you go up the ramp or whatever you are doing in the last 15 sec.

-Greg The Great

[Gabriel]

They announced at the rookie workshop that the backup battery is to be taken from the EDUbot kit. Also, the battery is to power the controller and nothing else. I'm not really sure what the point is except to tell you that the main battery is dead and the robot is otherwise OK. This means that we will have to manually hit the reset on the robot controller to turn it off, if you just shut the battery off the controller will stay on and drain the backup.

[FotoPlasma]

In past years, when a robots systems draw too much current, the main system voltage dipped. Under certain circumstances, when the system voltage dipped below the controllers minimum functional voltage, the controller would stop working, and when it regained voltage, it would be completely reset. With this backup battery, the controller should never reset because of a loss or dip in main system voltage. The 7.2V battery is not meant to power any systems except for the controller alone, at all.

[Adam Shapiro]

FotoPlasma is right, the backup battery is used to prevent resets of the program/OI. It is the 7.2V battery supplied with the EDU kit. You are to connect the battery directly to the connecter on the RC and nothing else! When you shut down your robot (or the power fails) the backup will hold voltage to the controller for 3.5 minutes just in case of a problem; in this fashion the controller will never reset unless you want it to.

To shut down the system immediately (for instance after a match) you must first cut power from the 12V, and then hit the reset switch. Without power to the main V+ connecter the controller will not start, hence using the reset switch to shut it down.

Our team's problem is that we never received our EDU kit!! We do not even have our backup battery! I guess we may need to purchase one from InnovationFirst... Anyone else have that problem?

[Bob Steele]

In Manchester at the clinics I believe we were told that teams could use ANY 7.2 Volt NiCad battery for this purpose. Before you purchase one and have it sent all the way from Texas (Innovation FIRST) Check and see if this is correct and look at a local hobby store. We also participate in BEST robotics and we use 7.2 batteries to power those (smaller) robots so we have a bunch of these around.

Another issue was recharging these batteries. The controller will NOT recharge these batteries while hooked up so they have to be recharged OFF the robot.

thanks

[sanddrag]

If using an RC Car battery pack I recommend this charger. http://www.hobbypeople.net/gallery/350360.asp

Just whatever you get make sure it has a charge rate of about 4-5 amps and more importantly it is classified as a "Peak" charger.

Tower Hobbies has some Duratrax ones that are nice but they cost a little more.