24-05-2004 20:29

Ali Ahmed

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

Wait,I don't get it. Did they just leave it there or was it part of their robot cart?

24-05-2004 20:30

Pierson

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

They (571) wheel it out on Saturday and then use it for their battereis during the quarter-final, semi-final, final matches. The simplicity and innovation amazed me!

Here is another thread on this: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?p=265777

24-05-2004 20:33

Astronouth7303

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

Wow.
Does it do AAs too?

24-05-2004 20:33

Ali Ahmed

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

Ok. That clarifies things. Thanx

24-05-2004 20:39

Jay H 237

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

I want one of those! It could come in handy for the batteries of my 1968 Mustang and 1987 Chevy when I put them in storage for the winter.

24-05-2004 20:53

Steve Howland

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

No - net yet anyway!
A lot of people on my time have put a lot of time into the design and building of this cart and it is very useful for teams that may want to build their own. We use 6 regular chargers with the silver connectors inside the red battery connectors, but we add on another set of wires to the silver pieces before the are crimped and placed in. These wires are then sent through a voltmeter (after a set of male and female connectors so that the chargers can be removed for travel, etc.). These are the numbers appearing underneath each charger in the picture. We have found this feature to be especially useful during elmination rounds because we run through batteries so quickly that sometimes it is hard to know which one has the most power (If you are planning on building one yourself, then it should be noted that when determining the most charged battery then the chargers should be switched off, otherwise the charger's flow of electricity will be measured and not the battery itself).

We have recently installed a battery load tester and perhaps we can get that updated in the white pages soon. If you have any questions please let me know and I can talk to the engineers or the other major battery student on our team.
-Diobsidian

24-05-2004 21:01

Astronouth7303

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

It does! it does! take a charger and stick it in the plugs on top!

But very cool idea. actually, I here that for some kinds of batteries, the voltage actually goes down a little when it's fully charged. But I think thats NI-CAD or NI-MH.

24-05-2004 21:06

Steve Howland

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

Come to think of it, I believe somebody did plug in a AA charger for something or other at one point, but we no longer have the black power strip attatched to the door because it would no longer close. I also meant more built in type features; for example we can plug in our backup battery charger in a built-in outlet, but once again the door won't close and it is not permanent.
-Diobsidian

24-05-2004 23:51

Joshua May

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

Looks very nice. I think I'm going to look into creating something similar (and smaller) for a robot transportation cart, it would probably have 4 battery holders instead of six, and I'd have to lose some of the trimmings, but I'm thinking that'll work. Also, thanks for posting the White Paper on building this thing, should be a great resource!

25-05-2004 01:55

DougHogg

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

Hi,

I am interested in how you implemented the "battery load tester". Can you give us some details?

25-05-2004 08:06

Steve Howland

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

Other people on the team were involved in that more than I was, but I will talk to them today and try and have more information on it tonight.
-Diobsidian

25-05-2004 18:54

geo

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

Nice charging station!!!!

25-05-2004 19:46

Ryan F.

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

Very nice charging station!...much better than the good old masking tape on battery technique.

25-05-2004 19:52

Astronouth7303

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

Masking tape? we just had a power strip and 2 chargers. Besides, your supposed to use DUCT TAPE!

16-03-2009 22:28

sparkscarz

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

thats an awsome charging station all we got is a stool with a power bar on it...lol

29-11-2012 14:08

sk8rdude623

Re: pic: Battery Charging Station (571)

How are the voltage meters hooked up? If it is directly hooked up to the charger, wouldn't that just read the voltage the meter is outputting? None-the-less, my team is building a battery cart and some information about wiring a voltage meter would be helpful.