Battery power for OI?

[P.J. Baker]

We're doing a demo Thursday where I work, and the spot they gave us is about 100' from the nearest outlet.

I'd like to avoid the huge extension cord and also don't want to run with tethers. So I was wondering if anyone had ever tried just making up a 9V battery pack to run the OI? Please let me know if you've tried.

Thanks,

P.J.

[Ameya]

I'm pretty sure that we used a regular, commercial 9V battery for the OI last year during a demonstration where the robot was driven around closed-off streets. It worked fine.

[Mike Soukup]

Soon after the season ended, we took the robot to the school district board for a demo, but no one brought the AC adaptor for the driver control. We didn't have enough time to get it, so our electrical engineer used a few wires and hooked up our spare robot battery to the DC input. We didn't have any problems with it.

Mike

[Jon Abad]

We used a 9v battery once during a freak power outage on campus... some construction guy cut power or something random like that and we needed to test something or other... ah... the memories...

[David Kelly]

Could someone tell me exactly how you connet a spare robot battery to the OI? It would be good to know in an emergency.

[Mike Soukup]

I'm pretty sure he just took a wire from the positive lead on the battery to the positive input on the OI & the same for negative, and used some tape to make sure the two wires didn't touch. I didn't closely inspect the set up because I didn't really trust it And it's not really anything I'd recommend. But then again, I'm a computer/software guy and only had a couple of EE classes.

[P.J. Baker]

Demo went off pretty much without a hitch. I went to Radio Shack and found a 9.6V 1100 Mi-MH rechargeble for $25, complete with charger. This worked great for powering the OI. As far as I'm concerned, every team should put one of these packs together for themselves.


p.s. - at the Demo I got to see something I've been waiting quite a while for: Both 2001 Bobcats working together to balance the goals from off the bridge. Thanks to Eric, Tommy, Pam, and Kim for coming out to run the machines.