Stiffening Capacitors

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Zach,
Yes they violate the rules stated above and therefore cannot be used. Capacitors to my knowledge have always been illegal. The drop you are seeing is the voltage drop across the internal resistance of the battery which is .011 ohms. When you draw large currents, a voltage drop will occur. The caps are holding up the power supply but only in a way that the current from the battery is reduced and so the voltage drop is reduced. All teams suffer this indignity and that is why the backup battery is reguired.

If this was an allowable device, I would recommend that they could only be used with a suitable bleeder resistor in parallel with each one.

You can minimize the drop in a variety of ways. A clean electrical design following the Tips and Guidelines is a good start. Short wires and a mechanical design that does not put significant loads on the drive train during turns are also a big help. Remember that any time the power supply falls below about 8 volts for a short period, the RC will go into standby and draw current from the backup battery. During this time, the PWM outputs will be disabled.