Illegal KOP Battery

[jlee0119]

Today a couple of my teammates were sorting through all our batteries and putting them into a pile of illegal batteries and legal batteries. I noticed that our brand new battery that we got in the Kit of Parts was in the pile of illegal batteries. I double checked there work and the battery was very close to one on the list but not exact. Did we get a illegal battery or a legal battery or does the B matter? I just want to make sure it legal or illegal.

KOP Battery : Enersys NP18-12B
Legal Battery close to that number: Enersys NP18-12

[magnets]

That's weird. I do recall that FIRST once did a similar thing, and the extra number/letter just meant the battery was more fire proof or something like that, and teams were fine. However, I'd recommend contacting FIRST and asking.

[Steven Donow]

That battery is legal, the only difference is the casing. From last year's Q&A (Q615, R34):

Q.Are batteries labeled "NP18-12BFR" legal? Our regional planning committee (Hawaii) is
wondering whether or not NP18-12BFR batteries are legal. They were clarified in a team update
last year as legal but no one asked this year and the RPC is not a team that can post questions. In
2011, the NP18-12BFR was made legal in this team
update.http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles...pdate%2020.pdf The BFR suffix I was told means that
it has a fire retardant case. The reason why they are asking is that we are having a lot of
international teams and do not believe that spare parts will have enough batteries to realistically
last them competitively throughout the regional. I believe last year each team only got one or two
batteries. The RPC would like to purchase extra batteries locally for these teams to borrow but only
the NP18-12BFR is available. Thanks!

A.Both the NP18-12B (supplied in the Kit of Parts) and the NP18-12BFR (the same battery with a
fire-retardant case) are allowed.

This has been brought up past years, and this has been the answer from the Q&A. Of course, I'm not the GDC, but I'd be surprised if you Q&A'd this and got a different answer

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

This has been brought up past years, and this has been the answer from the Q&A. Of course, I'm not the GDC, but I'd be surprised if you Q&A'd this and got a different answer

Which is no reason not to QA it. With something as essential as the battery, better safe than sorry.

[Racer26]

I would Q&A it to be safe, but I suspect that the intent of the rule being written as it is, is to imply that all variants of Enersys NP18-12 (B, BFR) are allowed.

This year, the battery rule seems to be less restrictive than any year I can remember, and it seems to go even further to say that if you have another 12V 18Ah SLA battery, to ask if it can be allowed.