Our last competition was 6 hrs long, 10am to 4pm. Our robot didn’t really draw a lot of power. It had 4 269 motors total (it was our first competition). We brought 2 7.2v and 1 9.6v and ended up using up all but 1 7.2v.
How many batteries did you guys go through during your last competition? How long was it? How many motors/how much power did you use?
Do you guys recharge them during the competition? We do but we never really get a chance to get to use 2 full charges in 1 competition because it takes too long to recharge.
We use 2 batteries per robot per match. We have 8 x 7.2 volt batteries we are constantly charging and swapping out in between matches. We only have 2 of the new NiMH 3000 mAh batteries, but we are slowly replacing our old ones. This type of use is likely degrading our batteries, but our robots also work best on freshly charged ones.
We rarely replace our transmitter’s batteries during a competition.
We alot 2 3000 mAh NiMH and 2 2000 mAh NiMH batteries for each of our robots (we use the power expander). In addition we bring a few old batteries for practice matches. We also bring 4 Smart Chargers, and one old charger.
we are usually fine when it come to batteries during qualifiers, but when we go to the finals we usually end up using a set of batteries for 2 matches before we replace. Next year, we will attempt to add more batteries and chargers. (Personally, I would like to double our batteries and chargers if funds allow).
Last year, my team had to swap out batteries every single match.
We had a holomonic control system, and because our robot weighed close to 20 pounds, in order to have an accurate autonomous system, we had to have fresh batteries…
On the other hand, our second bot, which was a tank drive, with a catapult on it, could go through upwards of 6-8 matches without changing their batteries…
I think it really depends on what you are driving with it… Obviously a robot that has 10 motors will draw more power than a robot with 6, but you also want to remember how much those motors are being used, what the weight and torque they are being used under is, and even the weight of the robot itself…
we use a fresh set of batteries for each match.our bot uses 2 7.2v batteries and have gone two matches without changing them. the only time that we use the same batteries 2 consecutive matches is when we are using the new NiMH batteries. if we are using the old batteries we only use them one round just to be safe.
Our robot is very light, and doesn’t put much strain at all on motors, which in turn does not suck much power from the batteries. With our robot we do not utilize the Power Expander, (in order to save weight) and we go through normally one battery every 2-3 matches. We normally try to replace the battery after the second match. Also we are using the old NiCAD batteries.
I replace mine every match. I use the power expander. In practice sessions i can go like 12-15 minutes without replacing them without a ton of speed loss but in competitions i have the time to charge batteries so i figure i may as well use them.