Battery Carts/Shelves
 

Our team is remodeling our battery cart. :confused:
If anyone has any ideas that can help us out, I'd really appreciate it. :yikes:
We need to store 10 batteries, 3 individual battery chargers and a triple charger.
The space limitations are 26in x 20in x 20in (height x length x width)

If you have any ideas that can help us out, that would be helpful.
Thanks. :cool:

--Team 1967, Janksters

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

Stack all your batteries on one side, 10 tall with the terminals pointing out. Put the single chargers along the side, with lights visible, and cords accessible within reach of the battery shelf. Put the Triple bay charger on its side and mounted in a similar position. You could use Hook-and-loop fastener (Velcro) to adhere the chargers to a wall.

EDIT: actually looking at your dimensions, you may have to do 2 stacks of 5 batteries, placed back to back, with terminals facing away from each other. The chargers could be on one side of the block to have access to both shelves

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

Rest of your advice is sound, but I wouldn't advise this. I would advise to either screw or bolt your chargers down. Otherwise, with the constant jostling of a competition and transport, they will come loose and cause havoc.

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

You just got to use enough Velcro. :) Admittedly sometimes screws are easier than enough Velcro.

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

The beginning posts of this thread might have some info on what you are looking for :D ;)
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=118330

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

Thanks for those suggestions.:)
It's really helpful.:rolleyes:
If anyone has any more ideas, I'm still in the process of designing it.
Thank you.:P

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

Take your time and impress your team

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

Haha..yep.
I plan to.

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

k. then quit posting and get started :D

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

make sure it is an ergonomical design, so the batteries go in and out efficiently

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

We build this last year to transport and house our batteries. It holds 10 batteries, 2 triple chargers, bumpers and is a nice shelf for a tool bin. Transport and storage are all built on to a standard hand truck from Home Depot.
20 deep x 20 wide x 36 tall (not including the hand truck).

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

I don't have a picture of the final project, but we built one for last year's competitons based on similar size constraints and info from here.
Ours is 24"x24"x36" when closed, it folds in half and locks together making a rolling box for travelling; each half is 12"x24"x36" with piano hinge, locking clasps, collapsable handles and caster wheels. It holds 8 batteries standing on edge in slots on the bottom with battery chargers on a shelf above (4 at the bottom of each half). A shelf above for some parts, controllers, etc. Complete with wired power strips so all we have to do is "plug it in" and its going.

The attached image is our "rough draft" before we built it, which doesn't show how we actually built the battery slots and shelves, but you get the idea of folding within itself and locking. One thing we learned, get big enough diameter caster wheels to handle rolling on pavement etc, not all surfaces are smooth floors.

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

What about pneumatic wheels to absorb some shocks, or if you want to get advanced, an entire suspension system :p :p :p :p ::ouch::

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

Pneumatic wheels are not a bad idea, except problems with size constraints.

In our example, the footprint of each half 12"x 24" needing a minimum number of wheels limited the size of wheels/base plates that could fit. The bigger the wheels, the further away from the edges the wheels would be. We needed to make sure wheels would be at all 4 corners when closed for rolling when travelling, and enough wheels on the inside edges when opened so it was sturdy.

We went with 8 swivel caster wheels with the 4 outside being "lockable" so when opened up in the pits we could lock the wheels and it stayed opened and didn't move.

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

We chose a handtruck that had pneumatic wheels for this exact purpose.

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

Spoiler:
Weird way of getting around bumps:

Or, if you want to get complex, spring-load the wheels to a hinged bar below. That will be a shock absorber. However, use only when you know that the conditions will be rough, or if you will be driving solid wheels over a nailbed :D :D :D :D :D

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

Also make sure your chargers have plenty of ventilation or you could have a serious problem. Our battery cary has extra power outlets on it so it doubles as a power strip in the pit, and that is incredibly convenient.

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

Here's a pic explaining what I mean :D

Re: Battery Carts/Shelves
 

Could you place a small cooling fan to aid charger cooling by ventilating it in small places?