Best way to charge batteries

[ILAMtitan]

Originally Posted by Mr V

Spend the $20 bucks on a load tester at Harbor Freight. http://www.harborfreight.com/100-amp...l#.UzMU04WtJCA That is the closest you'll come to finding out how your battery performs with robot like loading. Yes that is a 100a unit but you can find 125a and 150a units too, but will likely pay much more since you'll have to go someplace other than Harbor Freight.

The CBA might be great for testing the battery against its designed usage but we don't use the battery anywhere near that discharge rate. The Beak is a great way to test the SOC and internal resistance but that only tells part of the picture.

Thanks for the tool link, I'll have to pick one up for the team. I think your point about these all telling part of the picture is most important here. Being able to test all the aspects of your batteries is very important, especially with how much we rely on them.

A beginner team should be ok with using new batteries and a multimeter along with the driver station debug plots to evaluate battery health, but getting more advanced tools should be a priority for their second season. As you start to develop an arsenal of batteries, with some being several years old, proper care and testing to evaluate worthiness before regionals is critical. Combining good charging and storage with proper evaluation can really set your mind at ease about this when you're rushing to the next qual match.

Bill_B, I would just replace those jumper cables with an Anderson SBS (the big one on the batteries). It might not be a bad idea to put a breaker in line either. Then you just plug in the battery, and flip the switch to connect it. At the push of a button the test stops.