Does anybody have any good ideas for a battery cart that charges FRC batteries in the pit?
Or does anybody have any pictures of one/
thanks!
Paragon, Team 571 has a paper posted in the white papers section for building one. We’re building one based on it.
I won’t be at the site until Monday, but I will get a picture of the 571 one and post it here if another member doesn’t already 
We have used the one pictured below for 5 years, and a number of other teams have built duplicates from the plans.
Key features: Easy to build, Easy to move, Minimal Footprint when upright, holds 8 batteries and 4 chargers, one person loadable into a truck/van.
PM me and I can send the Inventor model and build drawings if you are interested.
my team has very good one but it’s in the robot box and I think it will return from Atlanta next month. basicly it’s 5 shelf cart. every shelf is in the size of 2.5 batteries and the depth of every shelf is a depth of one battery.
when it’s not in use we have place in every shelf to 2 batteries and one charger. when it’s in use, all the chargers are standing on the top of the cart so it will be visible thatit’s working and more safty to everybody!
when the robot will rturn froom atlanta I will post a picture.
Ours is similar to the one Jim Zondag is talking about. It’s also diamond plated. If you want pictures let me know and I will see what I can do.
Cass
Here is ours.
This is our battery cart. It uses a KOP tote, with 4 chargers, and can hold 8 batteries. The cart itself has 4 casters and a fold-down handle for easy transport. C-Channel is used to make a lip around the tote so that it cannot slide off the cart. The wood seen is 5-ply, because the original steel cart buckled under the weight of the batteries. As such, we stole the handle and casters off of it, and built the new one out of plywood. Also, there is a plug strip on one wall of the tote, to connect the chargers, and also programming laptops in the pits.
last year we built one out of wood:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2112/212/5/1170180417/n1170180417_30263185_5815.jpg
the back/shelves are 1/2" plywood. the sides are white ash.
it was later finished with green stain and our logo dremel-routered in and painted in black… i have pics somewhere of it…
639 made 2 battery “arks”. It’s basically a long toolkit with a handle on each end. Roof is made of thin cardboard (waterproofed with duct tape!). 4 people can cary them into competition, set them down in our pits, then we get out a power strip and plug in the chargers. All of our good batteries and chargers can fit in them with room to spare. It also can make it very easy to pick out a battery. Highest charged ones are kept on the side closest to the robot, just slide them all forward when you swap a battery out.
When we’re at home we just have a tote with wheels that carries everything
Our team (2481 - Roboteers) has a crowd attracting cart. We always have people asking us about it and taking picture of it at the Wisconsin Regional. Some of its features include:
-4 charging ports
-Automatic voltage refreshing system linked to a flat panel monitor (allows us to tell when we achieve optimum charge)
-Under-glow!
-Upgraded wheels that can handle the weight of all our batteries and charging equipment for easy transportation
Unfortunately, I do not have a picture at this time but should be able to post one as soon as Monday!
Ours has two shelves, each hold six batteries. The chargers themselves are Auto Meter chargers that can charge up to six batteries each (they are pricey, we had the assistance of our school district to pay for them). The whole thing is attached to a dolly.
Chargers can be found here: http://test.autometer.com/productDetails.aspx?ID=3&subid=5&productID=54&isKit=0
Our cart can carry and charge up to 12 batteries and is attached to a dolly. We mounted two Autometer battery chargers to the sides of the cart. The chargers can be found here: http://www.usatoolwarehouse.com/usatoolwarehouse/ATM-BUSPRO660.html. (They are pricey, but they work great. We had our school district help pay for part of them.)
1714’s had one since 2007. We got help from Rockwell Automation on the project; I believe they donated a lot of the parts including the touch screen. If you guys send our head mentor an email, he can get you more information than I am. Since you guys are also a Rockwell Automation team, you can probably get the same amount of help we did.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/25703
We bought this Interactor 5 bay charger in 2006. Interactor even supplied the unit with the Anderson Power Pole connectors installed. This unit is compact and requires only one power outlet. Don’t quote me on this, but at the time the entire charger was cheaper than 5 individual Interactor brand chargers.
We built a wheeled cart around the unit as well. I’ll have to get a picture to post.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1530 This is the paper that Dana spoke of
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/18664
This is a Picture of it from Championships in 2004
Did your team attend Buckeye in the last 4 years? I remember seeing a really sweet battery charger, and the team was sponsored by Rockwell Automation? If that was you, major props to an awesome charging system!
I currently have a vague aspiration to design a multi-battery battery charger from scratch. I figure I could learn about power, maybe figure out switching power supplies or something… I need to figure out how complex the logic for a fast-charge is, and if it’s even safe enough for me to attempt.
Our team has something very similar only it holds three batteries and three chargers allowing it to be small enough to fit on our shelves in the pits and light enough for one person to carry.
My advice, smaller is better in the pits, but make it usable for other purposes such as storage when in the pits.
1714 has a very cool system. Pictures from Pat Fairbank:
http://picasaweb.google.com/patfair/Championship2010Part1#5464186435073315410