Robot Controller

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Posted by Mckinley.

Student on team #368, Kika Mana, from Mckinley High School and NASA Ames.

Posted on 1/30/2000 4:08 PM MST



Hi, we were wondering if any of the other teams out there is experiencing the same problem that we have. Our problem is that on the robot controller, the low battery light goes on for a few minutes, the it goes off, and then back on again. So how are we supose to know when our battery is low?

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Posted by Justin Stiltner.

Student on team #388, Epsilon, from Grundy High School and NASA, American Electric Power, Town of Grundy.

Posted on 1/30/2000 4:27 PM MST


In Reply to: Robot Controller posted by Mckinley on 1/30/2000 4:08 PM MST:



Im guessing that the battery light comes on while your running the robot then goes off after it slows down or you turn some motors off if this is true your motors are pulling enough voltage to lower the battery below 10 volts. Then when the load is taken off the battery it can supply more than 10 volts and the light goes off. While there isnt a fix for that you could customise the program to turn the light on at a lower voltage.

Justin Stiltner
Team 388

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Posted by Mike Dubreuil.

Student on team #175, Buzz, from Enrico Fermi High School and UTC/Hamilton Sundstrand.

Posted on 1/30/2000 4:35 PM MST


In Reply to: Robot Controller posted by Mckinley on 1/30/2000 4:08 PM MST:



As a good rule of thumb you should have a fresh battery before each match.
You have an LCD display and a 'select' button on your operator interface. The LCD display is used to show you 3 pieces of information: your team number, the channel you are running on , and the voltage of your battery. By pressing the select button you can access each piece of information. Your voltage should be around 12 volts. It is common for the voltage to drop sharply during robot use because of motors pulling a lot of juice.
You could also just use a multi-meter to monitor the battery voltage.
- Mike
Team # 175


: Hi, we were wondering if any of the other teams out there is experiencing the same problem that we have. Our problem is that on the robot controller, the low battery light goes on for a few minutes, the it goes off, and then back on again. So how are we supose to know when our battery is low?

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Posted by Eric Rasmussen.

Engineer from FIRST.

Posted on 1/30/2000 8:21 PM MST


In Reply to: Robot Controller posted by Mckinley on 1/30/2000 4:08 PM MST:



: Hi, we were wondering if any of the other teams out there is experiencing the same problem that we have. Our problem is that on the robot controller, the low battery light goes on for a few minutes, the it goes off, and then back on again. So how are we supose to know when our battery is low?

This would be a good question for the folks at Innovation First.

The basic behavior is that once the light starts blinking (or goes on solid), it stays that way until you reset the R.C. My guess is that your battery is getting low enough to turn on the light during moments of extreme current draw, then you keep going and it drops voltage enough to reset the board, then you drive gently for a while so that the light doesn't go on right away.

-Eric