Minibot Battery

[Nishant]

I was wondering about the wording of the Minibot rules:

The FRC manual sec4:
R92"exactly one 12V rechargeable NiMH battery pack identical to those supplied in the FTC kit of parts (PN W739057)"
But
"No more than one HiTechnic DC motor controllers"

Since FIRST did not choose to say "No more than one battery", are you required to have the 2lb battery on your Minibot?

Thanks,
Nishant

[AllenGregoryIV]

I interrupt that rule to mean that all Minibots must have the battery on board. However that is something to ask the GDC for an official ruling on the Q&A.

With that being said, building a Minibot that climbs the pole with out a battery would be very difficult. Not impossible, but it is far more likely that all Minibots will use a motor and battery to climb the pole.

A solution that uses only the bending of material, surgical tubing or rubber bands as sources for stored potential energy would be very impressive.

[synth3tk]

*note, the following statement is my opinion. it is not based on any sort of solid ground.*

I assume that the GDC wants anyone who plans on building a minibot to use some sort of motor or electric devices to climb to the top. Although, just because you have a battery, doesn't mean you need to use it.

[Nishant]

FIRST has made a mandate for the use of the battery:

<G19> After DEPLOYMENT, MINIBOTS must remain completely autonomous and move up the POST solely through electric energy provided after DEPLOYMENT by the permitted, unaltered battery and converted to mechanical energy by the permitted unaltered motors (and associated, appropriate circuitry). Violation: The TOWER on which the MINIBOT is DEPLOYED is disabled. If the MINIBOT is not deployed DEPLOYED on something other than a TOWER, then the ALLIANCE’Ss

(Team Update 1)

[DonRotolo]

Yeah, we wondered about that funny wording, but now in light of Team Update #1 it makes sense.

[Stephen of REX]

*sigh*, no surgical tubing wind up toys allowed.

[OmerSD]

Could anyone please upload or link to the battery's specifications?
I've tried looking the part number (PN W739057) on google and browsed through several threads here on CD, but found nothing.

By Specification I also mean dimensions and weight.

Thanks in advance. :)

[Bmarquez]

PN W739057 does not exist as a part for one reason, PN is a designation by FIRST in their own organization

a search for W739057 however turns up the component in the tetrix kit Battery (http://www.legoeducation.us/store/detail.aspx?ID=1664&bhcp=1)

[mikets]

http://shop.pitsco.com/store/detail.aspx?KeyWords=battery&by=20&ID=5476&c=0&t=0&l=0

Don't have dimension or weight though.

http://www.all-battery.com/rectangularnimh12v10000mahbatterypackforsolarpanel emergencelightrobot.aspx

This is a similar battery but 3.3 times the capacity. It's also a 10-cell. So the dimensions should be similar but probably heavy than the 3000mAH pitsco battery.

Actually, we have a few of the 3000mAH batteries from our FTC team. I will measure and weigh them tonight.

[Alan Anderson]

This post (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showpost.php?p=998077&postcount=38) has numbers for the weight. The size is ten upright C-size cells in a 2x5 array encased in thick heat-shrink material.

[mikets]

Yep, I weighed the motor and the battery pack tonight and they came out very close to the numbers in the other post:

Motor: 0.469 lb
Battery: 1.320 lb

[OmerSD]

thanks a lot for replying! this sure will be helpful with the minibot design.

everyone's enjoying the build season I hope :P

[Al Skierkiewicz]

PN W739057 does not exist as a part for one reason, PN is a designation by FIRST in their own organization

PN is an industry abbreviation for Part Number.