we don’t seem to have the mini battery, (i understand it was supposed to be with edukit?) I guess it was lost, or misplaced, or never sent, not really sure.
But anyway, I sent a fax to first asking for another one, b/c I don’t think we ever got one, but in the meantime should I just make one that fits approx? or is there a place to buy ones that’ll fit well? (and be legal in the competition)
http://innovationfirst.com/FIRSTRobotics/edu-rc.htm
It’ll cost you $7 to get an official battery from IFI. $24 for the official charger.
You can use any 7.2 v NiCAD battery. See <R39>. They should be readily avalible from a local hobby shop. You can also order it from Innovation FIRST for $6.95.
I’d recommend getting one from a local hobby store as the shipping from IFI is rather large (about 3x the cost of a battery).
Adam, you will still need to get a connector from FIRST … the connector on the Robot Controller is NOT the same one that is on a hobby-type 7.2 battery pack (they use mini-C size cells). We bought the plugs from IFI and made our own adapter so we could use either battery. The battery packs from IFI are AA-size cells and are 6.95 each, the Battery Connector pack is $3.50 from IFI. We bought 2 sets of battery connectors, two sets of battery pwr-connectors ( so we could also make jumpers to use a charger that we already have for the larger hobby type batteries for the smaller IFI batteries) and we bought 2 extra battery packs all for $42.40 with shipping and everything…got here real quick too…