How does your team charge & test batteries?

[Japper]

I have seen a few teams with some elaborate battery stations but I am looking for an inexpensive way to ensure that our batteries are fully charged before each match.

Recently I bought a Wel-Bilt 125 Amp battery load tester from Northern Tool but not sure how well this will fit the bill.

Anyone with experience with this tester or with helpful suggestions is appreciated.

Thanks and Best wishes to your teams at the competitions...

[faust1706]

As a preseason project, we made a batter charging station. it is on wheels and painted our team's colours. It can charge 12 batteries at once and is nicely organized.

[mschwab013]

We just use the load tester you bought to test batteries preseason. During competition we a Fluke voltmeter to check how charged the battery is. As for a system of charging batteries, we label each battery a letter. Starting with A we use them sequentially for each match. This seems to work for us because the battery we use next is the one that has been charging the longest and theoretically should have the best charge. I hope this helps!

[Akash Rastogi]

Buy a Battery Beak!!! Such a great product! I sound like an infomercial but after using one of these things I will never need anything else for batteries.

http://www.crosstheroadelectronics.com/Beak.html

[adciv]

We use the battery beak during competition. Full charge is 115% or above. In the off season we perform a capacity check on the batteries to ensure they are still useable.

We also built a 9-battery charging station using the tripple battery chargers from Andymark. They are much better than the charger FIRST supplies with the KOP.

[blackbirdfan]

Our battery charging station uses 2 4-bank battery chargers (http://tinyurl.com/a95lyts) to charge our batteries. It can probably hold 12 batteries, but we only have 8 good ones which is why we bought two 4-bank chargers. The chargers have led lights that are supposed to represent the charging state of each battery, and they seem pretty reliable, but we just use a standard multimeter to test batteries. That Wel-bilt tester seems like it would work fine, but it doesn't seem to do anything that a multimeter couldn't. Anyways hope this helped!

[Cory]

Originally Posted by blackbirdfan

Our battery charging station uses 2 4-bank battery chargers (http://tinyurl.com/a95lyts) to charge our batteries. It can probably hold 12 batteries, but we only have 8 good ones which is why we bought two 4-bank chargers. The chargers have led lights that are supposed to represent the charging state of each battery, and they seem pretty reliable, but we just use a standard multimeter to test batteries. That Wel-bilt tester seems like it would work fine, but it doesn't seem to do anything that a multimeter couldn't. Anyways hope this helped!

The only thing a multimeter will tell you is voltage. You can charge a battery that is shot to 13V, but it could drop out on you 15s into the match. A multimeter won't catch that.

[coalhot]

Originally Posted by Cory

The only thing a multimeter will tell you is voltage. You can charge a battery that is shot to 13V, but it could drop out on you 15s into the match. A multimeter won't catch that.

This. I accidentally put a battery just like this in our robot in 2009, went from 13 to 7 volts after the match started (the battery had been killed by trying to test a motor that was shorted, and happened to find a way into the rotation of good ones).

You can ask Akash, we were allied with 11 in that match. There's nothing worse than losing a match because of an error.

Edit: I wish I had a battery beak, it would have prevented the mistake from ever happening. Reason being that the battery beak puts a load on the battery, so if it's actually dead, the beak will show it. Best. Tool. Ever. Wish they existed in '09

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by coalhot

This. I accidentally put a battery just like this in our robot in 2009, went from 13 to 7 volts after the match started (the battery had been killed by trying to test a motor that was shorted, and happened to find a way into the rotation of good ones).

You can ask Akash, we were allied with 11 in that match. There's nothing worse than losing a match because of an error.

Edit: I wish I had a battery beak, it would have prevented the mistake from ever happening. Reason being that the battery beak puts a load on the battery, so if it's actually dead, the beak will show it. Best. Tool. Ever. Wish they existed in '09

The battery beak is an awesome product for a quick check, but it absolutely will not identify poorly performing batteries.

For that, I strongly recommend what Al has suggested a number of times. A West Mountain Radio battery tester.

Even this year, we found several batteries that would test fine on the battery beak, run fine at a 1 or 2 amp draw, then suddenly dump down so that their final amp hour rating was 13 or 12 Ah, rather than around 18.

[Mr V]

The Wel-built load tester like most inexpensive load testers intended for testing automotive starting batteries just load the battery at 125 or 100 amps so you can measure the voltage and infer the CCA based on the voltage under that load.

They do not put excessive strain on the batteries if occasionally used per their instructions and they are a good way to see how the battery will perform when asked to supply the kids of loads that one might see in a match.

The Battery Beak is good for seeing the internal resistance of the battery, which does give you some insight as too its health, and it's SOC.

A volt meter will only give you and indication of the SOC but no info on the health of the battery.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Mr V

The Wel-built load tester like most inexpensive load testers intended for testing automotive starting batteries just load the battery at 125 or 100 amps so you can measure the voltage and infer the CCA based on the voltage under that load.

...which is why I said in my previous post that changing the CCA setting on that tester doesn't change the load, it just changes the way the tester computes and reports the battery's health: Presumably if you've told the tester that the battery under test is 500 CCA it expects to see a somewhat higher voltage under load than for a 200 CCA battery.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Ether

...which is why I said in my previous post that changing the CCA setting on that tester doesn't change the load, it just changes the way the tester computes and reports the battery's health: Presumably if you've told the tester that the battery under test is 500 CCA it expects to see a somewhat higher voltage under load than for a 200 CCA battery.

You are correct.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by blackbirdfan

Our battery charging station uses 2 4-bank battery chargers (http://tinyurl.com/a95lyts) to charge our batteries. It can probably hold 12 batteries, but we only have 8 good ones which is why we bought two 4-bank chargers. The chargers have led lights that are supposed to represent the charging state of each battery, and they seem pretty reliable, but we just use a standard multimeter to test batteries. That Wel-bilt tester seems like it would work fine, but it doesn't seem to do anything that a multimeter couldn't. Anyways hope this helped!

Using a multimeter to check the voltage of a battery is only accurate to know the charge status of a battery, not whether it is "healthy" or not. Some batteries may appear to be fine after checking the voltage but will not be able to provide high current draw without significant voltage drops.

Load testers will give a more accurate assessment of the health of a battery.

[Japper]

Originally Posted by mschwab013

We just use the load tester you bought to test batteries preseason. During competition we a Fluke voltmeter to check how charged the battery is. As for a system of charging batteries, we label each battery a letter. Starting with A we use them sequentially for each match. This seems to work for us because the battery we use next is the one that has been charging the longest and theoretically should have the best charge. I hope this helps!

Do you use it to test Cold cranking amps (CCA) and a start test or do you just connect it to
a battery to measure the voltage under a load?

If you are testing CCA what are you setting the CCA value to?

Not a bad tester for $24 (on sale)...but I had to upgrade mine with a pair of anderson connectors
beween the unit and the clamps...

thanks

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Japper,
I would recommend against the use of the device you list. It is intended for batteries with a much higher capacity/peak current. Continued use of this device is likely to shorten your battery life.
The use of the West Mountain Radio CBA III or the Battery Beak is a much better choice for FRC batteries. The CBA will allow you to test the battery the same way method as used by the manufacturer and the Battery Beak is a simple, pocket tool to give a good indication of battery health.
As pointed out above, a voltmeter tells you nothing other than a cell is shorted of the battery is open.