Over the past couple days I have spent sometime searching Chief Delphi for good battery charging station ideas. The most popular design I’ve come accross is the one from Team 571 http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/18664
It looks really nice but unfortunately we don’t have the funds for such a project. I know I could reduce costs by cutting corners, but I thought I’d ask the community for some good ideas.
we just use the table they give us and a shelf we bought at lowes…
we probobly should make something before atlanta…
We’ve just been using the floor inside our crate. The front of the crate splits apart to allow for storage space.
a hand truck and a KOP tote is going to work nicely for us this year.
We recently got a five-battery charger, but before we just had the chargers that FIRST gave us. The new charger helps, but even without it, we always just had the batteries plugged into the charger under the table. On the floor, we have a piece of tape that reads “Charging… Charging… Charging… Charged!” and we line up the batteries in order of chargedness, with any and all completely charged batteries all on the Charged! end.
On a completely irrelevant note, I think this is not the first time I have written and posted this. 
Get a dolly from Lowes or Home Depot. Make 6 or 7 plywood shelves that can hold the chargers they give us each year + a battery. Each year, mount another of the First chargers on it.
Paint it your team colors, and mount a powerstrip on top if it and your rechargable drill bases too.
I have seen some teams with sweet touch screen monitors on there battery charging rack!!! that was sweet!!!
On a budget:
We built a battery charging cart that holds 5 chargers and 10 batteries. It looks a little like the photo, but it is tall and not wide, looking more like a handtruck. Cost was about $40.
We built it out of 3/4" hardwood plywood - a 4 x 4 sheet is plenty - glued and screwed together. The box is about 16" wide, 10 inches deep, and 4 feet tall. The bottom is a piece of aluminum somewhat larger than the box base, for stability. We mounted 8" wheels to it, and a handle - that way, we can wheel it around, full of batteries. The front cover screws on but is not used when we’re charging batteries, just for transport. We also have a power strip on back, and some 1.5" holes for the power cords. Each ‘shelf’ holds 2 batteries and one charger.
If you want me to take a photo or any measurements, let me know.
Barstow,
I would be remiss if I did not interject a word of caution. The picture you reference looks very cool but I must tell you and all teams that electrical codes in your area may not meet or exceed local codes in the areas where you compete. Although this particular cart does appear to make extensive use of conduit and metal electrical boxes, we do not know how it is wired, grounded or fused. The UL safety people at each event can give you further guidance but they also have the authority to ask that a particular homemade electrical device be removed from service for code violations. A UL approved, multiposition charger is a sure bet though, and one that many teams use.
Al,
Do you have a recommendation regarding a possible place to purchase a multiposition charger or a specific mode #l?
We travel from Seattle to Atlanta every year and it be really nice to ship this in our crate. It is such a hassle carrying 5 chargers…
We would like to have one that would be legal for FIRST and handle several batteries. Do you have any suggestions?
R
Bob,
If you search for multi chargers you will find at least one or two other threads that I posted the charger we are using. Although it’s cost is initially high, we have used it for many years. Charge is maximum of 5 amps per output.
We followed Al’s excellent suggestion and purchased the same 5 channel multi-charger several years ago that (what I consider the best electrical team in FIRST) 111 uses…
AutoMeter BusPro-600s
http://www.remybattery.com/Products/Auto-Meter-BusPro-600S-Battery-Charger__BUSPRO-600S.aspx
They are awesome…
We currently use a rather low-quality one made of MDF which holds 4 chargers and batteries stacked vertically. Probably going to remake it out of plywood so it will last more than another year or so.
Unless you’re looking for something really fancy, it’s not hard to design one that works reasonably well. A bit of advice from my experience: don’t make it out of MDF, it’s a terrible material that splits when you screw into the edges, pilot holes or not. Plus, it outgasses formaldehyde.
Wow, that is an old picture!!
anwyay, the uberbots battery box consists of 4 thick plexi shelves supported by a frame of x-wing. It wasnt all that expensive to build, but it is heavy and the wheels were poorly constructed. Oh well, live and learn.
anyway, if you are looking for a neat solution, in 2006 pre-battery-box we simply used a plastic foldout workbench from home depot, and came up with a neat charging system to handle all of our batteries. all you really need is a clipboard with a sheet of paper attached to it and an organized student, and you have your ‘battery box’
We all so learn about this charger form 111, We haven’t had a problem yet!
What we did was we get a dolly and some scrap angle iron and weld it all together and add some paint. Its really easy to move and easy to use. Sorry i didn’t have a better picture, but if your going to Atlanta you can stop by our pits and get more info on it.
We built a very simple board with dedicated spaces for the batteries and their accompanying charges and put a metal handle on it. I know we are on an extremely tight budget, so the cost was minimal. It was more just to keep things organized so we would be able to easily tell what was charged and what wasn’t. It hold 5 batteries and charges, I believe. I will try to take a photo at our meeting this afternoon and post if for you here.
Now THAT it is really cool! Thanks for the great idea!!! We were thinking about modifying our cart this year and this might be the ticket!!!
The Power Hawks have a charging station we call the Juice Box see the attached photos. it holds eight battery and is mounted to a hand cart. it also has two fan out the back to keep it cool. 
Here is our battery charging station. It was designed using Pro/Engineer software. It holds 8 batteries and 8 chargers. The bottom is for a power strip and hiding the wires. The two sides can be closed and locked up for transportation. They are on caster wheels.
Eight chargers is an overkill for competition but it is good to have that many chargers for practice sessions.
Ed Law
There is no need for that Don. Your cart is amazing. It definitely helped me out last year in Atlanta. We’ve been modeling one for our team off of yours, just with minor modifications. 