pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

[CD47-Bot]

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[Ali Ahmed]

Wait,I don't get it. Did they just leave it there or was it part of their robot cart?

[Pierson]

They (571) wheel it out on Saturday and then use it for their battereis during the quarter-final, semi-final, final matches. The simplicity and innovation amazed me!

Here is another thread on this: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?p=265777

[Ali Ahmed]

Ok. That clarifies things. Thanx

[Jay H 237]

I want one of those! It could come in handy for the batteries of my 1968 Mustang and 1987 Chevy when I put them in storage for the winter.

[Astronouth7303]

Wow.
Does it do AAs too?

[Steve Howland]

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

Wow.
Does it do AAs too?

No - net yet anyway!
A lot of people on my time have put a lot of time into the design and building of this cart and it is very useful for teams that may want to build their own. We use 6 regular chargers with the silver connectors inside the red battery connectors, but we add on another set of wires to the silver pieces before the are crimped and placed in. These wires are then sent through a voltmeter (after a set of male and female connectors so that the chargers can be removed for travel, etc.). These are the numbers appearing underneath each charger in the picture. We have found this feature to be especially useful during elmination rounds because we run through batteries so quickly that sometimes it is hard to know which one has the most power (If you are planning on building one yourself, then it should be noted that when determining the most charged battery then the chargers should be switched off, otherwise the charger's flow of electricity will be measured and not the battery itself).

We have recently installed a battery load tester and perhaps we can get that updated in the white pages soon. If you have any questions please let me know and I can talk to the engineers or the other major battery student on our team.
-Diobsidian

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by diobsidian

No - net yet anyway!

It does! it does! take a charger and stick it in the plugs on top!

But very cool idea. actually, I here that for some kinds of batteries, the voltage actually goes down a little when it's fully charged. But I think thats NI-CAD or NI-MH.

[Steve Howland]

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

It does! it does! take a charger and stick it in the plugs on top!

Come to think of it, I believe somebody did plug in a AA charger for something or other at one point, but we no longer have the black power strip attatched to the door because it would no longer close. I also meant more built in type features; for example we can plug in our backup battery charger in a built-in outlet, but once again the door won't close and it is not permanent.
-Diobsidian

[Joshua May]

Looks very nice. I think I'm going to look into creating something similar (and smaller) for a robot transportation cart, it would probably have 4 battery holders instead of six, and I'd have to lose some of the trimmings, but I'm thinking that'll work. Also, thanks for posting the White Paper on building this thing, should be a great resource!

[DougHogg]

Originally Posted by diobsidian

We have recently installed a battery load tester and perhaps we can get that updated in the white pages soon.
-Diobsidian

Hi,

I am interested in how you implemented the "battery load tester". Can you give us some details?

[Steve Howland]

Originally Posted by DougHogg

Hi,

I am interested in how you implemented the "battery load tester". Can you give us some details?

Other people on the team were involved in that more than I was, but I will talk to them today and try and have more information on it tonight.
-Diobsidian

[geo]

Nice charging station!!!!

[Ryan F.]

Very nice charging station!...much better than the good old masking tape on battery technique.

[Astronouth7303]

Masking tape? we just had a power strip and 2 chargers. Besides, your supposed to use DUCT TAPE!