I need to know if I can use more than one batterie cable (like an extension) to connect the baterie to the power supply and turn the robot on
EDIT: I re-read your question several times, and made a couple diagrams, and I think I know what your question ACTUALLY is:
"Can I be simultaneously charging my battery while it’s powering my robot at the same time?"
No, for safety reasons you do not want to be doing that. It would not be allowed at any competition, and it should not be done at home, either.
1 Like
If your question is whether or not you can have multiple SB50 connectors between the Battery and PDP, the answer is no. See rule R47.
2 Likes
No. According to R47, you can only have one SB connector between the battery and PDP.
Having an “extension” would mean there would be one SB connector on each side of the extending cable, which would be illegal.
1 Like
No extensions using connectors.
You can make the cable from the PDP to the switch any length you need by using the appropriate cable and connector.
If you make your cable at the battery end longer than 12" you will need to accommodate the extra weight into the robot’s weight for passing inspection.
Keep in mind extending those cables can affect power performance.
Hope this helped.
You are only allowed 12" of wire between the battery and its Anderson connector. There is no specific limit of wire between the robot side of the connector and the disconnect switch and or PD board. So make the robot side as long as you need.
I re-read your question several times, and made a couple diagrams, and I think I know what your question ACTUALLY is:
"Can I be simultaneously charging my battery while it’s powering my robot at the same time?"
No, for safety reasons you do not want to be doing that. It would not be allowed at any competition, and it should not be done at home, either.
2 Likes
As they have all said its not competition legal. However we do it for long hours of programming with a trickle charger as to not have to change batteries out. We have never made a split Anderson connector though we use a clamp style charger on the battery posts.
Thanks for the idea.
Please be very careful doing this. Battery chargers are not meant to power actual electronics in the manner you are using them. In addition, alligator clips are dangerous.
Interesting. If you were to use split Anderson PowerPole connectors, so that it’s done safely, and the robot’s up on blocks so that there’s NO WAY the robot is going to get away from you, and you’re ABSOLUTELY going to be SAFE, as a mentor I might entertain the idea. But probably not. The likelihood of unsafe behavior is just too great.
Back in the cRIO days I just bought a 24V DC power supply and powered the cRIO directly so we could program for hours and hours. I would recommend buying a reasonable 12V DC power supply and power the robot control system directly from the wall; so long as you didn’t run any compressors or pneumatics (if you had any hooked up in your test bed) you’d likely have enough juice to run everything in the system (roboRIO, radio, motor controllers, sensors, etc…) without browning out. That way you can program and test without relying on your robot battery.
The problem with using a power supply is that many aren’t meant to run motors and won’t tolerate the back EMF like a battery would. You would need a significantly more expensive supply to run a whole robot from the wall. If you just want to run a control system with no load at all, that would be fine, but as soon as you introduce motors, you run the risk of killing the power supply.
Yeah, I agree, if you are planning on running motors of any kind (motors, compressor, bilge pump for the water game, etc…) you also shouldn’t have a charger plugged in either.
It’s too bad there’s no standard way to tell the motors to just “disable, don’t move, I’m in test, but make the LEDs on the motor controller show me what they WOULD do if I weren’t in test.” Ugh. The perfect world in my head is screaming to be let out.