Tetrx Minibot Battery Charge Cycle during Regional Play

[Chris_Elston]

I was wondering if anyone has put any for thought into the charging cycle of the minibot batteries. At $50 a piece, it's something to THINK about.

According to the spec's of the battery, the recommended charge rate is 0.9 A. This rate is a very slow trickle charge and take a few hours to charge the 12 V battery back to a green light status. Using a faster charge rate than 0.9 A will damage the battery packs according to some of my hobby experts I've talked with, the risk of killing the battery if one was to purchase a fast rate charger was not recommended.

So that leads the question...the minibot only needs to run 10 seconds at the most, there is quite a long period to recoup the discharge of 10 seconds of run time verses the charge time of 2-3 hours verses our next match is in 7 minutes....anyway...food for thought...

Suggestions? What energy studies has your team done? I suspect with a race, battery being fully charged or not in your next match could mean milliseconds of time which could catch up with you as the day wears on.