Rules Change I Would Like to See - Batteries

[FrankJ]

As I see it. The problem the second battery solves is not losing your sensors and CPU from brown outs. The old (pre 2009) control system had a battery for this purpose because a brown out would cause a loss of control without disabling the robot. A second control power battery Powering the Rio and radio along with other custom circuits would solve a lot of issues. It would also add cost and complexity to the robot.

Would another possibility for the auxiliary processing be the android system used in FTC? The come with batteries and meet the COTs definition.

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Jaci

While we're at it, I think it's worth a mention that you are allowed up to 3 Additional VRM units on your robot according to R48 of the 2016 Manual.

That's not what that rule means. It gives you permission to break the one wago one load rule with up to 3 VRMs. It doesn't limit you to 3 additional VRMs, you could have as many as you want limited by the number of 20amp breaker slots there are * 3 VRMs.

[David Lame]

Originally Posted by Peter Johnson

Exactly. There are safety concerns as well given the prevalence of lithium ion chemistry batteries. You do NOT want a large one of those punctured or shorted. Cell phones and Kangaroos have pretty small batteries, and laptops are typically above the $400 cost limit (or considered too heavy). Punctures in even small LiPo batteries can be quite destructive, and a large lithium ion battery on a FRC robot sounds like a really bad idea when DC to DC converters (or doing vision processing on the driver station) are perfectly viable alternatives.

Well, that's a pretty compelling argument against my proposal. If there's a genuine safety concern, that pretty much trumps everything else.

The DC-DC converter plan seems like a better idea.

[FrankJ]

The safety aspect can be dealt with fairly easily. Cost and complexity still remain. The battery powered tool industry has pretty much gone to Li ion for everything except the bottom line tools. They get badly abused and have a low risk of fire/explosions. First could pick one or two commercial solutions and restrict maximum current draw and require specific chargers.

Another option for Arduino and PIs is somebody to package it with a battery and case. As long a it a company and they make it available for sale, it becomes a legal COTs device. (insert the usual future rules disclaimer here). Make it nice enough and maybe AndyMark would stock it for you.

[asid61]

Originally Posted by David Lame

snip

I think a lot of what you're describing is just the reality of FRC, and robotics in general. The mechanical people need somebody to program PID for them, the electrical people need the programmers to make the lights blink, and the programmers need the other two to do everything they need to.
I agree that finding people who know electronics is hard (of the entire "Electrical" division on our team, maybe 2 of them know electronics; the rest are programmers only). But the knowledge that it takes to wire a 5v circuit shouldn't be something beyond the capabilities of a few mentors to tackle.
Personally, I've found my knowledge both of electronics and of programming to be very useful, especially when it comes to using microcontrollers. Also in helping the programmers figure out electrical problems.