Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

I can really see this becoming a problem in Atlanta. Teams leaving their pits after lunch to go to eliminations and not coming back for hours. And then for a select few moving on to Einstein. Yah, there are a few plugs available, but they will get a lot of use out there. Teams need to be wise about when to have it on and when to shut it off.

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

Well when they yelled at us they said something along the lines of "Batteries are only to power robots, etc, etc" They didn't talk to me, but that's what I got out of it from overhearing them.

And we wern't which may have been the problem (but that still didn't justify their reasoning)... We were using insulated clips on the battery. We may make an Anderson connector one for the future competitions!

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

I might have backed them up on that decision. The power contained in one of our batteries is capable of sever damage if misused.

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

I am an advocate for using an automotive DC/AC converter but do it safely.

Any good auto parts store will sell in-line maxi-fuse holders to put just after the battery. Good, solid, well insulated connections and some planning should placate the safety police.

JMHO,

Mike

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

Job #1 is Safety - get rid of alligator clips. I'd back up the safety guys if you didn't have Anderson connectors on the inverter.

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

REX has used the inverter solution for the past several years. Previously it let us do functionality checks in queu, but now we use it to top off the Classmate. We've used robot batteries with no problems, but occasionally we'll bring some much larger batteries that we bought for the purpose.

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

PowerStream has a line of dc-dc converters
for those who don't want to run inverters.

www.powerstream.com

Model ED1060-20V-5.5-2.1 appears
to be a match for the classmate.

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

This was a huge problem for us in SD in eliminations.
Our team borrowed a charged one from another team, but that in itself along with worrying about winning matches drove us nuts!!
I was going to post on Q&A.

I hope the GDC/FIRST instructs regionals to provide the power needed for classmate plugin or adaptor at the stations. It seems the easiest to address instead of asking all these teams to buy/make an adaptor for them.

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

For teams currently at this week's regionals, is there any power present at the drivers station? I'd kind of like to know if this is something they might implement, before I spend the time and money on my own solution.

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

No power at the WPI driver stations yesterday.

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

Just for some more ideas we use one of these (or its smaller cousin)

apc universal laptop battery

this one too


Just do an online search for "universal laptop battery" and you will find many devices. The advantage of these is they're typically small enough to either fit under the netbook or right next to it. All day Saturday and part of Friday we ran one of these, kept it plugged right on sitting right next to the classmate. Once we got back to the pit we plugged the classmate charger into the battery.

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

I ordered the unit noted below from PowerStream,
but they sent me model ED1075 (a more common unit)
instead. The hole for the center pin on this one
was 1.7mm and it is likely too small for the classmate.
If you order from these guys you need to call them and
make sure that they have what you need.

Eugene

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

Until we can convince the powers that be to provide Classmate power at the driver's station, teams who are not playing in the finals, may want to top off their Classmate batteries and offer them to teams who are playing in the finals. This is not the best solution but it will insure that finals teams can continue to control their robots.

Also, to any teams that are using the inverter/robot battery solution, I would like to recommend an inline fuse to protect the battery and inverter. These are available at automotive stores and a 20-40 amp breaker should do the trick. Please use the same wiring size vs fuse choice that is listed in the robot rules.

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

If you are using the PSoC board make sure to unplug it between matches, it's a real powerhog. At Chesapeake Regional, our Classmate was charged going into Elims. By SF 1-2 our Classmate battery was in the red and the PSoC was failing to connect (so we stopped using it). In SF 1-4 (a back to back match), the battery was very low and may have contributed to periodic network communication error. We would run for about 10sec then lose communication for about 2 sec (not sure the Classmate was the problem but since we didnt play a match afterward, it remains a possibility). Back in the pits the PSoc wouldn't work till I plugged the Classmate in. I couldn't reproduce the communication errors while tethered.

Re: Power Management Recommendation for driver stations
 

One of our team members has an uninterruptable power source: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...2224&CatId=234

Would we be able to use this on the field to power the laptop?