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Last season, we had a college student mistakenly put in a battery from a few years ago, that we only used for purposes of powering up in the pit, upside down in the robot. This caused the UNINSULATED poles (I have no idea why there was no electrical tape on them other than it was old and had fallen into 'disrepair') to touch the aluminum base plate the robot was built on. The result was a foot tall flame for a few seconds and a spot-welded steel fastener. The robot escaped with only a scorch mark (that is still there). The battery, slightly burnt, was kept as a reminder of what not to do.
A few years ago in my high school days, a teammate mistakenly set our 'big' battery charger for 24V, dangerously bulging a battery to nearly twice its original size in the process. It is lucky no one was hurt.
Moral of the stories:
Assign one person to handle all things battery. Then there is one person who can tell you if a fresh battery is installed in the robot correctly, to make sure all the batteries are being charged correctly, and that all batteries are in good working order.
Adam
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