[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by jskene

The rules say:

<R56> The 7.2v backup battery may be charged on or off the ROBOT. When off the ROBOT, the battery is to be charged with the provided 7.2V backup battery charger. When mounted on the ROBOT, the backup battery may be charged from the 12VDC primary battery by using the custom charging circuit available from Innovation First Inc. (note: IFI will provide the design for this circuit on the IFI website, however teams must obtain the parts for this circuit and assemble it themselves). The use of this circuit is strongly encouraged.

This rule does not say that it MUST be charged with the IFI circuit. This wording appears to allow an alternate, on-robot charger. We should get an official ruling from USFIRST on this.

Jerry,
Read that rule as "if you charge it on the robot it must use the IFI charger. If you charge it off the robot then you must use the supplied charger". There is no other alternative.