Amount of power drawn by FRC controller?

[JBotAlan]

Originally Posted by Teger

Its a relatively simple question; How much power does the FRC controller (the one on the robot, I hope I have the right name...) draw from the backup battery?

I am unsure of this. I know that after a few minutes the RC goes dead if running on backup, but I'm not sure if that's because of a timer or the battery going dead.

Originally Posted by Teger

Also, the FRC board has the ability to output power, and according to the rules of this year, the only legal way to use a backup battey is through the FRC controller...would it also be possible to use this output power to power the fisher-price motors? or, for that matter, any of the motors in the kit?

The backup battery will not power any motors...ever. Your main battery is the only power source for motors, and motors must be powered by Victors or Spikes.

Good luck
JBot

[teh_r4v3]

From the 2006 controller docs (the 2007 kit still uses the 2006 controller):

The +12V and GND connectors on the Robot Controller are intended to accept power from a +12V
battery. The current draw for the Robot Controller is typically between 0.75A to 1.5A. The maximum
voltage allowable is +15.0V. Exceeding the +15.0V limit may damage internal voltage regulators and
will void the warranty. The minimum required voltage to maintain radio link is +7.0V.

On the controller board website:

The total combined current supplied from all 16 Analog and 18 Digital +5V Power header pins is 1 Amp. The 1 Amp max can come from a single +5V Power pin.

So basically the controller board probably won't be able to power any drive or arm motor without some external power.

The backup battery (or at least last year's, I'm not sure if the new one is different other than being yellow) was 700mAh I believe, which would power the controller anywhere from less than half an hour to less than an hour, assuming "typical" power usage. With such little power, I doubt it would be useful for powering motors even if you were allowed to. (You're only allowed to use it as a backup battery, and as far as I know there's no way to channel off power from it when the main battery is connected and charged.)

[eshteyn]

Originally Posted by JBotAlan

The backup battery will not power any motors...ever. Your main battery is the only power source for motors, and motors must be powered by Victors or Spikes.


JBot

From what i know about the back-up battery is that it is strictly a back up as it name states it to be. The only motors it can power are the servo motors on the camera system. Everything else gets powered form the main battery through victors or spikes.