MK Battery Problems

[Mark McLeod]

During finals the drive team got a battery from Spare Parts, but it was defective on the field. There's no telling though how it was treated beforehand.

One of our own MK batteries was bad in the finals as well. I'll get more details from the pit crew about when good batteries go bad...
We will also be bench testing our failed battery this evening.

[fatjoe3833]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

During finals the drive team got a battery from Spare Parts, but it was defective on the field. But there's no telling how it was treated beforehand.

One of our own MK batteries was bad in the finals as well. I'll get more details from the pit crew about when good batteries go bad...
We will also be bench testing our failed battery this evening.

Mark, was the second battery from spare parts okay? Maybe there was a problem with the chargers at SBPLI. I saw the spare parts people charging the extra batteries troughout Saturday. Maybe the batteries were abused or mishandled at another regional.

-Joe (Elimnation Match Spare Battery Guy)

[Wayne C.]

Actually team 25 has found that two of our new MK batteries from this season have failed (in Hawaii). They seem to be taking a charge but they rapidly lose it and are spent well before the round is over. We were attributing it to the fact that for the first time we have the battery mounted sideways and I was assuming that the cells were being jarred from robot impacts.

Normally we mount the cells upright and a battery lasts past a single season. We are ordering a few replacements for the Championships later this month.

If this is a "bad batch" of batteries I would like more info. We charge with the exact same type of chargers the kit has included for the last few years (prior to 2008)

WC

[Al Skierkiewicz]

For those of you that measure the battery at full up no load and then it drops under load, what is the measured load terminal voltage? Does it fall by a multiple of 2 volts or does it go down to zero? Please give lot number/date code when you post.

[Chris Fortmeyer]

Originally Posted by fatjoe3833

Mark, was the second battery from spare parts okay? Maybe there was a problem with the chargers at SBPLI. I saw the spare parts people charging the extra batteries troughout Saturday. Maybe the batteries were abused or mishandled at another regional.

-Joe (Elimnation Match Spare Battery Guy)

Joe,

I am actually the member of the drive team that noticed the bad battery from Spare Parts. The robot was continually resetting and not staying on long enough to even get a voltage reading on it. The second battery from Spare Parts seemed to work fine, even though it was not fully charged at the beginning of the match.