Backup Battery...Yay or Neh?

[dez250]

So the Offical 2004 season has been over for a few weeks now and i was wondering what everyones thoughts on the backup battery was, and what you would like to see of it in the future.

[Dan Richardson]

It was good, because in past years if you ever lost batter connection, or had a incidental short somewhere when got hit.. you could not compete. Your controller would keep resetting and it was quite annoying. The backup batter kept it from being reset which was nice, and you didn't have to wait for the controller to boot up each time.

It didn't do any harm, only annoying part was having to charge it, which rarely happend.

[BillyGoats]

I did not like how it controlled the servo's. Other than that it was alright. just change it so it does not controll the servo's and its all good!

[Joshua May]

I believe that it was a good feature. The only problem that I had with it was the power remaining after the robot was turned off. I didn't know until comp that the Reset button could turn it off afterwords, so for most of the time we just pulled out the plug, which stripped the connection, and posed a few power problems. Other than this little fact, however, I think that it was a useful addition.

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by HHSJosh

The only problem that I had with it was the power remaining after the robot was turned off. I didn't know until comp that the Reset button could turn it off afterwords, so for most of the time we just pulled out the plug,

Was that documented somewhere that I missed? Or was this just a secret? I wish I had known that.

Also, like BillyGoats, I don't think the battery should power the servos. I'd also like to see the battery be charged from the main robot battery (Especially if it is going to power the servos).

I think the backup battery was a good step this year, and with continual improvment will be very valuable.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

Was that documented somewhere that I missed? Or was this just a secret? I wish I had known that.

We first found out from an inspector.

[Manoel]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

We first found out from an inspector.

We didn't found out about it 'till the 4th week of build season. One of Innovation First papers about this year's control system does say something about that...
From this thread I take that lots of people didn't read it, which kind of confirms something I had thought earlier this year... The documentation on the 2004 control system is a bit confuse and obscure; it should have been more publicized considering the drastic change from last year's electronics.

[tiffany34990]

it was a good idea-- not a good idea when u can't find the charger or somebody fries one now-- lol--

and remembering to plug it in sort of helps- one thing we forgot to check was it in or not since we weren't use to having it on the robot--just the main battery all zipped tied up

[jimfortytwo]

The backup battery completely removed the problem of low voltage resets we've experienced in the past. I wonder if those who unconditionally hated the backup battery have had the pleasure of the low-voltage reset before? To me that alone made it worthwhile.
It would be nice if there was a more intelligent sync between the main power system and the backup battery net-- but I understand that this year's system was probably intentionally brutally simple from a design and implementation standpoint.

[Allison]

we never seemed to have a need for the back up battery aside from competition when it is required we don't even plug it in.

and as for turn off the RC we were told at the SLT regional by IFI after the third time we forgot to plug in the battery.

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by jimfortytwo

I wonder if those who unconditionally hated the backup battery have had the pleasure of the low-voltage reset before?

Note I don't like the backup much, but that I did mention that.

[jonathan lall]

To all those who are indifferent about the backups, just don't worry about them and you'll be fine. The RC still runs off of the main battery, and a lot of teams will never have to worry.

To us, they are a godsend, considering the current draw our robot has. Two years ago, when we tried six motor drive for the first time, lack of a backup battery was one of two major setbacks; this lack of available power would cut out our RC in pushing matches. In 2003, they fixed the other problem with the nice 120 amp breakers we take for granted (which used to sometimes pop when we stalled our gearbox). Finally this year the second problem was fixed and we no longer have to worry about our RC cutting out after too much pushing.

In the end, there's nothing really that should make you unhappy with the backup batteries; either they are very useful, or they are neither bad nor good.

[Andy Brockway]

I liked knowing the robot would not reset on the field. What I would like is someway to know the voltage level in real time just as we have with the main battery. Several times the IFI person came and told us, just as a match was starting, that our back-up was dead. We had to play with the hope that there was enough juice to power our winch latch servo. Luckily each time it was when we had switched starting positions on the field and it was our partners that had not been plugged in or they never charged it because they did not need it.

[MOEmaniac]

Originally Posted by Andy Brockway

I liked knowing the robot would not reset on the field. What I would like is someway to know the voltage level in real time just as we have with the main battery. Several times the IFI person came and told us, just as a match was starting, that our back-up was dead. We had to play with the hope that there was enough juice to power our winch latch servo. Luckily each time it was when we had switched starting positions on the field and it was our partners that had not been plugged in or they never charged it because they did not need it.

That would be a definate improvement if we the operator could tell what the voltage on the backup batter was.

[Mark McLeod]

I like the time delay operation of the RC using just the backup battery. We used it pretty extensively to test over in the programming corner without having to setup a 12v power supply. It was also handy just dropping new programs in without having to power-up the rest of the electrical sub-systems.

Originally Posted by Andy Brockway

What I would like is someway to know the voltage level in real time just as we have with the main battery.

You can use the User Mode display on the OI (or the dashboard) to display the backup battery voltage, just like the main battery display. You just need to use the matching code. I think the default code was setup to display it.

#define backup_voltage	 rxdata.rc_backup_batt*15.64/256

It does have that floating-point number that you might want to shift out of the way.