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Unread 28-07-2016, 21:10
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MecaNaught MecaNaught is offline
Automation Engineer
FRC #3102 (Tech-No-Tigers)
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Join Date: Jan 2014
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Re: Use of Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries in place of Lead Acid for FRC r

Wow, this thread got a lot more attention than I thought it would. Thank you all for your replies.

The biggest reason I see here that it wouldn't work is the 20A max output.

I do know that lithium batteries of all types are more hazardous due to their ability to rupture and spill out toxic fumes. However, lipo4 (supposedly) is a much safer chemistry. Combine that with good physical and circuit protections, I think these batteries would be usable for teams that know what they are.

The main reasons I wanted to use this battery was for better consistency with charges, lifetime, consistent output over the duration of the output, and it'd be a nice piece. I see now though that there is atleast one major drawback that prevents them from being used in FRC bots.

Someday I hope there are better batteries FRC can recommend, because we go through a lot of lead acid batteries every year, and it seems to be quite hit or miss if they'l keep their charge over time. One of our big things in competition is making sure the battery we put on our robot has the highest charge, because many shooting/throwing mechanisms will change depending upon the charge of a battery.

Last edited by MecaNaught : 28-07-2016 at 21:21.
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