[Mike Betts]

Originally Posted by Kirk

We were having issues with voltage drop so we took the batteries to a local motorcycle shop and had them tested. They told us they were bad and needed to be replaced.

~Kirk

Travis, Kirk, et al,

We have been doing FIRST for 11 years now. Since we went to the SLA batteries in 1998 (or was it 97) we have only had three failures. Two of the three failures was physical and only one would not hold a charge. We have over 20 batteries now of which 8 are the new EX/ES (grey case).

We get about 20 minutes of practice from a battery and a minimum of 3 competition (2 minute) rounds (we limit to 2 rounds during actual competitions).

Be advised that the reason that IFI/FIRST incorporated a NiCAD backup battery is that teams were experiencing voltage drop issues (logic reset during competition) with brand new batteries a few years ago as the current draw from the kit motors increased. This phenomena will occur with any and all FIRST batteries and is inherent to the battery design.

I am extremely skeptical of your results from this motorcycle shop.

Could you give more information as to the nature of your voltage drop problem?

Regards,

Mike