Can a robot battery be used on the driver station?
 

My team was wondering if we can bring a 12 volt robot battery to our driver station to power our laptop. we could not find anything in the rules relating to this, so we were wondering if anyone knows if this is legal.

Re: Can a robot battery be used on the driver station?
 

If you're planning to use the Classmate, you don't need it. There's a Classmate power supply in every station.

Now, for another laptop, is there a reason that laptop's own batteries won't hold up for long enough to run a match on a normal charge?

I don't see anything against it either. However, I'd ask the Q&A before doing this, just to be on the safe side.

Re: Can a robot battery be used on the driver station?
 

I had to do this at a competition one year. Someone forgot to turn off the laptop and charge it after they were using it so near the elimination matches the battery was nearly dead. There isn't a whole lot of opportunities to charge during the elimination matches so we took a battery and borrowed another team's power inverter (THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, YOU NEED A POWER INVERTER).

We didn't get in trouble or anything for using it, so I guess it is fine.

I have NEVER been to a competition where this was true. Is this going to happen just for this year's competitions?

Hell, half the competitions I've been to there wasn't even OUTLETS, so even if we brought our own charger we still couldn't have power.

Re: Can a robot battery be used on the driver station?
 

Yes, this is new this year. See the blue box underneath <R75> for confirmation.

There will not be outlets available in the driver's stations per the same blue box.

Re: Can a robot battery be used on the driver station?
 

I would guess that it'll continue until Classmates aren't the normal driver's station. Look in the blue box following <R75>. There won't be an outlet at the field, but there will be power for Classmates.

Re: Can a robot battery be used on the driver station?
 

As confirmed, yes, there will be power for classamates. However, I would not count on being able to bring any other type of power beyond a pre-installed laptop battery. Even if you request through the Q&A, the field staff and FIRST are usually pretty careful about things like power sources around the field, and it would like be ruled no.

Re: Can a robot battery be used on the driver station?
 

Taking a different approach to this, does anyone have any ideas about the legality of plugging a DC/DC converter into the classmate power supply and using it to power other electronics? I can't find a rule that says that the provided classmate power supply can only be plugged into a classmate...:)

Re: Can a robot battery be used on the driver station?
 

Section 2.2.8: "Each setup location also includes a power adaptor cable that may be used to power the Classmate laptops that were provided to teams in 2010 and 2011."

The blue box associated with <R75> says "Please note that 19V DC, 2A power will be provided at the PLAYER STATION for Classmates provided in the 2010 and 2011 KOPs via Classmate power adapters."

The intent is clear. If I were running the field, I wouldn't permit anything but a 2010 or 2011 Classmate to be connected to that power.