V5 Battery: Care & Best Practices

VEX V5 Technical Support OFFICIAL Tech Support
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Hi Folks,

So there are quite a few posts about problems with V5 batteries but I couldn’t find anything about PREVENTATIVE measures. I Figured it might be a good topic to start a discussion. Here are some questions I have right now:

  1. Is it OK to leave the battery plugged into the brain for extended periods of downtime? Like over a weekend or over a long break? I know (or at least read on the forums) that with the VEX IQ batteries you shouldn’t ever leave them plugged into the brains as they will slowly drain. Can a similar thing happen with V5?

  2. Is it OK to leave the battery plugged in and charging indefinitely or should you unplug it after it has reached a full charge?

  3. Should we be careful not to bend the power cable that connects the brain to the battery? I noticed one team had theirs so bent that one of the 4 cables looked like it was starting to come out. I think that’s probably something to avoid similar to Smart cables. Also is there a connection between the 4 cables in the battery wire and the 4 coloured cables of a smart cable? Just curious.

  4. What are some other things to be aware of when it comes to battery care?

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I’m 3D printing a stand for ours.

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  1. Yes
  2. You could (I’ve left batteries plugged in for many days) but it’s probably best to avoid that really.
  3. Always avoid unnecessary stress on cables. There’s no correlation between the four wires of a battery cable and a smart port cable.
  4. There are some articles about the battery in the V5 knowledge base under electronics.
    https://kb.vex.com/hc/en-us/categories/360002333191-V5
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Found a vex site that says:

“Place the V5 Robot Battery on the V5 Robot Battery charger whenever it is not in use, like between matches at competitions.”

“Charge the V5 Robot Battery before it is below 10% charged.”

Unfortunately, I’ve had 8 out of 16 batteries go completely dead while being charged over the past 2 years. The have been used by one class for a few weeks. There’s something seriously wrong with these batteries.

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