How many extra batteries should you bring, and where can you buy more?

[Lindsey]

Originally Posted by Stonefan5271138

The batteries this year, are they different than the ones last year, and if they are, can we actually use last year's batteries, or do we have to order more new ones?

The batteries have been the same for the past few years. Each battery has the part number on it (top left of the front side?) so you can check each battery. Just be careful using older batteries they tend to wear out and not hold as much charge.

We typically bring 6 batteries to competition, at least 4 of them being legal for competition. We use the extra/older batteries while in the pit. Before each match our pit crew goes through a pre-match checklist that ensures our robot is 100% (all bolts tight, electrical connections secure, arms or other mechanism function correctly). Part of the check is to put a fresh battery in the robot, not usually necessary just something we do. While the robot is powered up for the check we use an older battery to keep the new one fresh.

We also bring at least 3 battery chargers to keep all our batteries toped off. Also don't forget the backup battery and charger. We have 3 backup batteries we take to competition.

Lindsey