My team has been hit with some degrading batteries and as such we are looking for a way to identify if a battery is dying. We have investigated options such as the CBAs that AndyMark sell but these do not seem to have a sustained load that would simulate a frc match. We were wondering what other teams use for this purpose.
Thanks in advance.
Battery Beak or CBA are the answers you’ll likely get.
@Al_Skierkiewicz will likely tell you how to use the CBA… by linking to a previous post.
You can search for my opinion in other threads recently. However, there is no sustained load in FRC matches unless your robot gets into a pushing match. Current varies greatly over a match and depends on robot driving, tasks and general mechanical efficiency. Most teams will find that batteries they have not used for a year or two are likely below levels they were when new. I have been testing batteries over the past week and a half and have found several batteries are showing less than half the Amp Hour rating they did when new. One of the advantages of the CBA tests are that you can overlay the tests curve with previous curves and note the differences.
We feel that the CBAs give a realistic estimate of how a battery will perform during a match. batteries with 14+ amp hours will perform adequately for most of our robots, whereas batteries with 12 or below will often leave us browning out at the end of a match.
Can confirm that the CBA works beautifully. 12 batteries tested this year, only 3 good from 2020. Sigh.
Thanks for the helpful advice, I will look into these options.
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