Batteries, vettran teams question

[pdmgrimreaper]

Are we still allowed to use previous years batteries for this years evets?

thanks!

[rbayer]

Depends on what year. As long as they're the same model Excide 18Ah, you should be fine. The Yuasa's from a few years, however, are illegal.

[Stephen Kowski]

The Yuasa aren't very well made neways imho.

[Curtis Williams]

Last year we had a 2001 battery develop a bad cell. It died 1 minute into a match after full charge. Old batteries are EVIL.

[Adam Krajewski]

Last season, we had a college student mistakenly put in a battery from a few years ago, that we only used for purposes of powering up in the pit, upside down in the robot. This caused the UNINSULATED poles (I have no idea why there was no electrical tape on them other than it was old and had fallen into 'disrepair') to touch the aluminum base plate the robot was built on. The result was a foot tall flame for a few seconds and a spot-welded steel fastener. The robot escaped with only a scorch mark (that is still there). The battery, slightly burnt, was kept as a reminder of what not to do.
A few years ago in my high school days, a teammate mistakenly set our 'big' battery charger for 24V, dangerously bulging a battery to nearly twice its original size in the process. It is lucky no one was hurt.

Moral of the stories:
Assign one person to handle all things battery. Then there is one person who can tell you if a fresh battery is installed in the robot correctly, to make sure all the batteries are being charged correctly, and that all batteries are in good working order.

Adam

[mtaman02]

gee my team also lives by those morals to. for the past 2 years my team has left me in charge of the batteries don't know about this year since i graduated but when i was in charge my team always had a charged battery ready for them.

[Joe Ross]

You may use a purchased EX18-12 for practicing, etc., but should use the provided batteries during official FIRST competition matches.