Quote:
Originally Posted by EricH
LiFePO4s have one significant drawback, though.*
Whoever is in charge of shipping them has to have certifications of some type to ship 'em. And that means that if a team should have to ship their robot--you know, like maybe they make one of the Champs--they need to find someone to handle shipping their batteries. Or get certified, which I have no clue on how to do at this time.
If y'all are interested, I happen to know this because of shipping a robot running a pair of LiFePO4s as its primary power source. I wasn't directly involved, but I know that to get the robot--and its batteries--home, arrangements had to be made at that robot's competition for someone to assist.
I'd put those as 2020s technology, most likely. Love 'em, but I don't think they're quite practical enough to use for FRC just yet. I particularly like the fact that they'll run at pretty much the same voltage for a long time before suddenly dropping out--great for embarrassing any battery-changers that forgot that it's every 3 matches instead of every 5 matches.
*Ignoring the price, that is. They aren't all that cheap, yet.
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There is not that much science to shipping Lifep04 batteries, if you use fedex or ups you just need a sticker and normally a declaration on the packing slip. There is also a weight requirement and they may require you to ship separately. Nothing crazy, a bunch of hobby shops ship lithium polymer all over the world for drones, rc cars etc.. LiFeP04 is a factor of million safer, also according to our fedex rep lithium phosphate will soon follow under its own declaration and no longer require a sticker.
I also do a bunch of shipping of lithium phosphate batteries from Shenzhen to the US, which has also been NP.