[Mike Betts]

Originally Posted by zachriggle

Actually, the capacitors I had in mind are car-fi capacitors, designed to work at 14 volts, tolerant up to 20. Perfectly safe, aside from the potential to weld metal should they be shorted. Definitely no more dangerous than a lead-acid battery in that regard (the welding-when-shorted bit).

When hooked up to a high-resolution voltmeter, there is a significant drop in voltage with the motors and compressor running, down to about 10v on a full-charged system. Tests with two 1-Farad Rockford Fosgate capacitors from my car resulted in the voltage staying above 11.5V, thus ruling out wiring as a potential fault.

In accordance to <R02>, the energy would infact be derived from the batteries, since that is where it would charge from. I don't see how this effects <R63>, because it does not alter the pathway.

Regardless, the safety could be called into check, and that's a big one on FIRST's list. Just an idea :-D.

I agree with Al and believe that most inspectors would rule against this. However, I would have your team's rules expert post your request to the FIRST Q&A.

You never know...

Mike