[Venkatesh]

Why would you guys need a power supply of any kind to run the robot in the pits? I can see the use if you guys don't have many batteries available - then a power supply unit could be handy. But in my humble opinion, purchasing another battery might be a better use of resources.

The batteries available should provide sufficient power for both testing and field operations. Last year, team 30 had established an interesting rotation cycle on batteries, to determine which ones were charged and which ones weren't ready. This year, with freedom to use old batteries, we had far more power available. =)

By the way, these batteries seem to hold charge for tremendously long periods of time. I have a battery in my garage from FIRST which has not been charged since the 1999 season. It is still holding a lot of energy, enough to run a toaster for up to five minutes. Repeatedly.