Useful Idea for Champs?

[rich2202]

Originally Posted by TehSwegGey

Let me try to clear things up. My ideal circumstance for this would be to have a powerstrip or extension cable attached to the battery, mounted in the cart.

And that is what the other guys have suggested with a much cheaper setup.

On the other side of the strip would be the battery charger with the batteries plugged in, and possibly the laptop charger (we try to not plug our computer in during the match to keep setup and takedown simple with our complex to set up camera pole) on the other side.

And what is different about your setup from the other guys, except that you have a 25 hour battery?

That way, the batteries would always be on you and charging, and when you have an extended time in the pit, you could switch power from the battery to the pit's plug.

Ok, so we have to swap out the robot battery every hour or two. Not a big deal. We are never an hour away from the pit, and our cart can bring a dozen batteries.

That way, you aren't wearing down your robot batteries while using AC, and so that your robot batteries are always on you when you need them, in case of a quick match turnaround.

We have "Competition" batteries and "old" batteries. We use the Old batteries for the cart power. The cart power does not need the high current draw like the robot does, so they work just fine.

I thought this would be a cool idea, espeically since there are other uses for it (maybe charging strategy tablets with it's included USBs) but idk.

Nothing wrong with your setup. If that's what you want, go for it. It works. Other people have found cheaper alternatives that meets the need of the Team. We use something like this ($30):
http://www.lowes.com/pd_329147-10018... Ntt=inverter

In fact, we have one on the cart (for the Driver Station), and a second one we use in the Stands for laptops and pads we use for Scouting.

If you can get away with an inverter that drains your robot batteries instead of charging them, that works.

It is our Team's 10 year anniversary. We have lots of old batteries that are not good for competition, but are ideal for low current draw, such as this. We don't use Competition batteries to power the laptops.

There are "Problems", and then there are "Solutions". Understand the Problem, and keep your mind open to alternative solutions. Don't get married to a Solution.

[Billfred]

The first real details on the Powerhouse hit Facebook this morning:

https://www.facebook.com/Anker.fans/...03837939695608

$499 ($399 with a promo code), 434 watt-hours inside there. A standard FRC battery is 216 nominal, so you've got a hair over two robot batteries of power available. But you couldn't get two charges out of that, due to efficiency losses in the inverter and then the battery charger.

Still a cool piece of kit, but if I was spending team money I'd probably stick with the inverter and retired battery system unless there was an overriding reason.