Charging station for the stands
 

I am not a hardware guy but are there any plans out there to turn old robot batteries into a usb charging station for use in the stands?

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

The other option is to get one of the multiple cigarette lighter socket adapters wire that in and use one of the many cigarette lighter to USB adapters that are available on the market. You can usually pickup a 3 socket unit for $10 or so at an auto parts store or WalMart. There are even some that have a couple of USB outlets integrated.

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

One FRC battery can charge 8 or 9 smartphones (average ~2000mAh or 2Ah), assuming you don't lose a substantial amount of energy in the charging process. (Which is probably a foolish assumption.)

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

Ahh, I misread the initial post. I don't know why I thought this was for charging laptops. Depending on the number of outputs, robot batteries would be sufficient then.

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

Done it several times. Robot battery + fused car 12VDC adapter + USB chargers or a battery + inverter + power strip + wall chargers.

Phones will charge all day. Laptop might get 2 or three charges out of it, depending on the laptop charge state and power consumption.

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

We use a 750 watt inverter for our scouting power setup. Everything has Anderson connectors so we can use a robot battery in an "emergency".

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

Now that I have a little more time here are a few of the many options.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/281399158226?lpid=82

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/361070603224?lpid=82

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...YAUA&gclsrc=ds

Just cut off the existing plug or use the hard wire connector in the case of the one at Radio Shack and wire it to an Anderson connector and you are good to go.

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

/thread.

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

Um....No that is not what they are trying to do.

Even if that is what was desired, as much as I love AM and Andy I have a hard time paying for them to pay someone to cut off a cigarette lighter plug, install a Anderson connector and they pay to ship it across the country when you can pick up a similar inverter at many local stores.

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

Just add one of these and bingo, he's in business.

True, but it does answer his question of creating a USB charging station out of old robot batteries. Now he knows what to buy (at wherever they like) (or do it themselves), if they wish to. However, since the OP said that he is not a hardware guy, I'm assuming that he would prefer buying a solution rather than learning how to do it himself. Though you do know what happens when you assume... :rolleyes:

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

But this device http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/361070603224?lpid=82 that I posted earlier, provides the solution in a single, smaller, cheaper device.

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

All of these options will work.

It never hurts to have an inverter available for those times that you need AC, like at the Driver's Station and no AC is provided for those aging Classmate PC's that are still hanging around.

Now, the EE in me must speak up here.

Doing a double conversion using an inverter and then a wall wort is not the most efficient way to go. If you are already using batteries deemed unworthy to drive your robot, you will not want to waste what little energy you can get out of them by inefficiently converting it to +5vdc. Using something like Mr V linked to is a much smaller and more efficient way to go.

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

You could make it a project for some of the kids who don't always have their hands on the robot

You could make an enclosure and order some USB ports and hook them up with either a spare DC/DC converter or a BEC from hobbyking (although they normally give out anywhere from 4.9-5.4 volts (I think 5.25 is the max a phone can handle )) or you can use a buck converter like this one http://www.pololu.com/product/2866

Thats 5v @ 9a and I hear it's pretty true to 5v. That's the option I would take because 9a can charge 4-9 phones. It's pretty efficient too (80-95%).

For the USB ports, if you do make an enclosure (out of water/laser jetted aluminum) you could add these cool USB ports that are overly tough but look cool http://www.usbfirewire.com/Parts/rr-211300-30.html

I am using this on a charging rig for my LiPo batteries to charge my phone

Anyways, that's a cool project if you have the resources and time

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

That gives me what I need. We have a lot of kids and sometimes it is difficult to keep them occupied and since no one wants to do busy work. We have a lot of batteries that are going to waste right now.

Last year during events everyone's batteries died (usually thanks mainly to refreshing frc spyder). This way we can have a portable charging station. If the batteries die they can be taken to the pits to recharge.

Now if I can just get them to build into the recharging station a little fridge and keurig for me then I will be very happy. :D

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

You just need a 5V DC voltage regulator that will take a 12V input. Most car chargers do exactly this.

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

We keep it all DC as well.

you can get fairly inexpensive 12V chargers for most laptops, and you obviously can get 12V based usb outlets.

We charger several laptops and many USB based devices w/ no inverter.

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

Mike,
Insulate the terminals on top of the battery shown in your picture above. Any metal dropped into your case is a hazard.

Re: Charging station for the stands
 

Thank you Al. We will make sure to do that at our next meeting.