Be aware of battery and charger inconsistencies!

[sanelss]

Originally Posted by Steve W

I am sorry to disagree with those that state there is no rule about chargers. It is found in the safety manual and as LRI's we have been told to enforce it. The highlight is mine but a direct quote. From the safety manual:

"Charging and Handling
 Keep the battery-charging area clean and orderly.
 Place your battery charger in an area where cooling air can freely circulate around
the charger. Battery chargers can fail without proper ventilation.
 Do not short out the battery terminals. If metal tools/parts contact the terminals
simultaneously, it will create a direct short circuit. This may cause high heat to
develop in the battery terminal/part/tool area and the battery could explode.
 If a quick disconnect is not available and you must use tools to disconnect the
battery, make sure metal tools don’t contact both terminals at the same time.
 Do not charge battery at greater than the manufacturer’s maximum recommended
rate."

We consider the safety manual as guidelines not competition rules. If everything stated in that manual were enforced then every single team would be disqualified for one reason or another. Also the chargers state they automatically set he charge current. Even if they do deliver more than 7A it's not for a very long time either. Worst case is we do bulk charge on old 6A chargers then top off with these. That way they never do get charged higher than 6A but this is just playing around a technicality and more or less on a guideline rather than a competition rule anyway. Either way it won't really be an issue if that's all we have to adhere to.