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Unread 25-12-2004, 18:22
eugenebrooks eugenebrooks is offline
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Re: 12V Battery Maintenance

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce C.

If you were going to load test the FIRST batteries for capacity comparisons, what amp draw would you use? C/10 or 1.8A seem reasonable? Or should it be a 20 hr rate?

Bruce
C/10 is a reasonable value to test the capacity of a battery at, but your goal should be to evaluate the batteries as close to the actual robot loading as is possible with your tester. I would test right below the continuous power limit of your tester, with enough margin that you are sure that you won't damage the tester. Assuming 13 volts, the 100 watt limit is 7.7 amps. You are looking at close to 2 hours for a fresh battery.

The highly variable current loading in a competition is actually much higher than this (on average), and most would call it abuse of the battery, but that is what we are doing in the robot...

Last edited by eugenebrooks : 25-12-2004 at 18:25.