Vex Powerpack (quick dying battery)

[RyanN]

Originally Posted by ddmflame

Hi everyone, I have a question about he vex power pack I bought from radio-shack about a month ago. I haven't had much time time to toy with it until about a week ago. It seems like the battery dies within abut 5 minutes of playing with it. I find this odd behavior, especially after letting it charge for over 3 hours like instructions say. Is this normal behavior or is mine particularly defective. Here are my robots specs:

2 servos
underneath a

Box Metal Frame

attached to
4 wheels

Being a first timer I just followed the design from the binder.

Please reply to this if you have an answer. Thanks!

It may be the design of how you have your motors laid out. With my 2 speed vex bot, I cannot drive it in high gear that much because it acts like it has a dead battery, but it is actually the servos overheating. On the robot controller, when the battery is dead, the power light will turn red, or flash red if it's almost dead. Maybe try to change your gear ratio. I'm not sure what my gear ratio is, but i know it goes really fast. A simple trick that might help is spraying WD-40 on the gears and bushings. If it is the charger, Radio Shack usually has a 90 day warranty. First try to check your gear ratio, then bring the charger and battery back to Radio Shack. Hopefully I left you some good advice.