Batteries

[Mike Martus]

What do teams think about the rule of shipping the two batteries that were sent ( in orig. containers).

[JBotAlan]

Don't get me wrong, but what I think is irrelevant--the rules say we have to ship the batteries, and even if I don't want to ship the batteries, I will ship the batteries, for no other reason than the fact that the rules say to ship the batteries.

However, our team has many, *many* old batteries that, while aren't competition-legal, are equivalent to the batteries we have to ship, so practice with our practice bot won't be hurt at all. The bigger blow is that we have to ship the controls. Usually that's a 6-1/2 / 7th week project...

I'm not worried about the battery rule. I see no problem with it.

JBot

[Armando]

we have to ship both batteries? even if we don't need them?

[Justin M.]

Originally Posted by Armando

we have to ship both batteries? even if we don't need them?

My guess is that every team will need both batteries....

[Armando]

well that sucks! i better warn my team...

[JBotAlan]

Originally Posted by Armando

we have to ship both batteries? even if we don't need them?

Seeing as 1 match is enough to make our drive system "mushy", we'll definitely need every battery we can get our hands on. We ordered a few more batteries, because we change out our battery after every match.

But yes, the batteries do need to go in the crate, in their original packaging.

JBot

[lukevanoort]

Shipping both batteries is not a huge inconvenience to us, as we have plenty of extra, old, illegal ones to mess around with, but we can't really do much anyway because we don't have the organization or money to build two robots. I still really dislike the rule, primarily for the original packaging bit because it is very easy to misplace that little brown box in a room with a lot of little brown boxes. (I found ours being used to store chain, actually) What would you do if the box was completely lost? You must ship the batteries, but you must ship them in original packaging, so you can't ship them, but you must ship them, but you can't ship them, etc.

[Kautz]

This is bad will cost extra for shipping.

[yodameister]

I have no problem sending the batteries, it makes sure that I don't forget one.

[Matt Gardner]

Being on a team with no time, money, or enough participants to build an extra bot, I see no reason to keep the battery at school...

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by Kautz

This is bad will cost extra for shipping.

Remember that you get free shipping to one event from FedEx, and drayage for the first 400 lbs is included in your registration fee. I doubt that the 26 lbs from shipping the two batteries will matter much.

Wetzel

[Donut]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

Remember that you get free shipping to one event from FedEx, and drayage for the first 400 lbs is included in your registration fee. I doubt that the 26 lbs from shipping the two batteries will matter much.

Wetzel

Actually, our team might be effected by this very situation. We purposely built our crate extra sturdy and expected to go over the 400 lb mark like last year, when we had a crate + robot + bumpers that totalled 465 lbs. This year though, the addition of 2 batteries puts us up to 491 lbs., and the addition of the control board and a battery box could cause us to go over the 500 lb mark and have to pay another $50 shipping for each competition.

This is not a huge amount of money, just an inconvenience as we have to get cash to pay for it since we don't know how we would get a PO to handle this.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I think that shipping in the crate should be at the teams discretion.

[JudyVandy]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

I think that shipping in the crate should be at the teams discretion.

I ditto Al.

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

I think that shipping in the crate should be at the teams discretion.

I agree.