pic: Team 237 Memorial Day Parade

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by Marc P.

The DC-DC transformer on a robot battery or cigarette lighter will indeed keep the OI running all day long, but it won't keep the robot itself running on a 2.5-3 mile parade route. The generator on the trailer was also charging/topping off spare robot batteries, which are usually swapped out every half to three quarters of a mile.

True, you can't use one of the DC-DC converters to charge batteries. But for a three mile parade route you really only need six batteries, eight if you want to be on the safe side to keep the robot running. And if you charge up eight before the parade, you can go the entire parade without having to worry about recharging batteries.

We still have about eight or nine of the Exide batteries around collecting dust, in addition to four of this year's batteries, and that's what we usually do for parades/etc.