We are looking at the specifications of the batteries made available by first to find out whether or not they can be used lying down, as a judge warned us about it. But we’re not finding anything that says whether it can or not.
These batteries are sealed, and I know of many teams that have mounted them on their robot lying down. I haven’t heard of any issues resulting from laying your batteries down. I will say that we have had issues when the battery is not properly secured to the robot.
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We’ve used them lying down in our robot last year with zero issues so I shouldn’t see a problem with it.
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We also used them lying down. One thing is that you will need to make your own battery holder as the KOP one is only made for it standing up. It is also a little harder to pull the battery straight up when its lying down as there isn’t a good spot to hold it.
You can discharge the batteries in any orientation. Just be careful when charging them to do it either standing up or lying down (i.e. not upside down) to make sure any excess hydrogen can be properly vented
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If a judge warned you about this (judges wear blue polo shirts) you can thank them for the advice and move on.
If a referee (striped or yellow/black shirt) warned you about this, you can ask to be shown where it is mentioned in the rule book, or find an inspector to show you a rule that supports the warning.
If an inspector (yellow hat) warned you about this, you can ask to be shown the rule in the rule book that they are referencing, or ask to talk to the Lead Robot Inspector (yellow hat and black vest).
Just keep in mind that folks may offer helpful information, but those who can enforce a restriction are guided by the rule book (inspector, referee) and those who are offering free advice are simply offering free advice, and should be cross-checked. Good work seeking clarification here regarding whether the advice makes sense.
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The only orientation concerns I’ve ever heard with SLA robot batteries like ours is that batteries can be more prone to damage as a result of the force of robot impacts (not direct contact, just the shock load) depending on the orientation of the internal glass plates in the batteries (IE, with a sufficient enough impact in the right orientation, you could crack/short/damage the internal plates thus either making the battery perform worse or making it unusable.
This is the kind of thing you’d only ever be able to diagnose if you opened up the battery (DO NOT DO THIS) to look at the plates, so I’m not sure how common of an occurrence this may or may not be. As a general rule though, we always try to orient our batteries so the terminals face either the front or back of the robot, regardless of if it’s laying down or standing up (since the plates are allegedly stronger in that orientation).
As others have pointed out, there’s no rule against any battery orientation other than it must be “safe” and mounted “securely”.
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…but not in the hockey sense
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