Power in the stands

[Hallry]

For a cheap solution, we use a Marine Battery. Holds a long charge, is 'relatively' portable, and doesn't take up too much room. I'll add a link to an example if I can get one. We also have a charging station in our pit structure as well.

EDIT: We just got a new one, but here is what our older Marine Battery looked like: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...ier=95824_0_0_. We can run about 10 laptops off of it.

[s_forbes]

We used a battery (I believe it was a deep cycle battery for marine use) and inverter last year to keep the scouting laptop going. Easy solution.

Depending on the venue, I wouldn't be surprised if you could bring in a long extension cable to bring power from a nearby outlet.

[sanddrag]

We bring 500lbs of gigantic sealed batteries and UPSs to every event, and I'm glad we did which is what saved us at Central Valley (and Long Beach last year). We have them built into mobile power unit carts. For those of you suggesting putting robot batteries or marine batteries in the stands, from a safety perspective, is that really what we want? Wouldn't some power drops be a far safer solution?

Originally Posted by s_forbes

Depending on the venue, I wouldn't be surprised if you could bring in a long extension cable to bring power from a nearby outlet.

At Central Valley, teams were asked to remove all cords from the stands on Sunday. This was a blanket policy applied without giving teams an opportunity to remedy the situation.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

We bring 500lbs of gigantic sealed batteries and UPSs to every event, and I'm glad we did which is what saved us at Central Valley (and Long Beach last year). We have them built into mobile power unit carts. For those of you suggesting putting robot batteries or marine batteries in the stands, from a safety perspective, is that really what we want? Wouldn't some power drops be a far safer solution?

At Central Valley, teams were asked to remove all cords from the stands on Sunday. This was a blanket policy applied without giving teams an opportunity to remedy the situation.

I'm not an expert on batteries or safety, but if I were hosting an event in a high school gym, I'd feel much more safe about batteries than having to figure out some way to route power through bleachers.

[Hallry]

Unless the power can come from overhead, I'd be worried about the obvious cables running across the walkways and up the bleachers...they can still be a hazard no matter how well their protected. Besides for that, I'd also be concerned about the control for the 'battle of power' between teams in the stands. Whose to say which teams get how much power from where, and who would be responsible for regulating that?

Originally Posted by sanddrag

We bring 500lbs of gigantic sealed batteries and UPSs to every event.

Is that an exaggeration? Or do you really bring 500lbs of batteries to every event?

[artdutra04]

Between laptops that hold a useable working charge for 4-6 hours (or tablets for 6-10 hours of use), and using a 12VDC->120VAC inverter (with Anderson connectors) powered by FRC batteries, it's not that hard to keep your electronic scouting effort going in the stands in a safe manner.

[nixiebunny]

This is a good project for your electrical subteam.

Robot batteries are the best solution, in my opinion. You already have chargers and a supply of last year's batteries (sorry, rookies) to cycle through. Power inverters are cheap.

[Seth Mallory]

We have been using old batteries and a inverter for about 5 years now. It frees us to pick any place in the stands and not having to worry about tripping on our cords. We have even powered other teams laptops at the same time.

[theawesome1730]

Our scouting team has transitioned to an iPad app written by a team member (check it out here!) so power in the stands is crucial for us which is why we bought a deep cycle marine battery and a fairly beefy inverter 750 or 1000 watts IIRC. Its enough to charge 8+ iPads and run a Mac Mini and a monitor all at the same time. The battery will typically last a day of competition and we charge it with our robot batteries over night. We also keep a robot battery and a smaller inverter on our robot cart to charge the driver station.

[wendymom]

This is something that the venue has control over not the planning committees. It would be a major safety issue to run cables all over the stands and I imagine most of the insurance companies would have a fit.

[cgmv123]

We have an inverter with an Anderson connector on it. We use it with a spare robot battery mainly to run a monitor for our Chairman's presentation.

As for scouting, our stands scouting is low tech. We use wet erase markers and laminated sheets. Our scanner is located elsewhere in the arena where we can find an outlet.

[sanddrag]

With 8 laptops, a network switch, and a camera, we have not found robot batteries to be adequate. Also, it doesn't help that they shut off the power on the pits at night.

[Seth Mallory]

With the distance that we travel we can not bring a larger battery. It also limits how much we bring to run off the inverter so it works for us. I found that robot batteries are easy to carry up and down stairs.

[goofy173]

Sort of like 7 years ago when my company, Bayer Healthcare, was taken over by Siemens Healthcare. Being a big tech company I was expecting great things. We took a step backwards of around 10 years in technology.

[EricS-Team180]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Between laptops that hold a useable working charge for 4-6 hours (or tablets for 6-10 hours of use), and using a 12VDC->120VAC inverter (with Anderson connectors) powered by FRC batteries, it's not that hard to keep your electronic scouting effort going in the stands in a safe manner.

...good for scouting in the stands and for long bus rides...

We built an Anderson connector and a 12v source socket (cigarette lighter) into a Radio Shack project box. Plug your favorite 12v battery in one end and an inverter / laptop / whatever into the other