Robot Batteries

[chapter30]

I'm building a new robot platform and I want to see if anybody has suggestions for a good type of battery to use.<p>The robot will have two 12VDC motors each drawing 1.4 amps. Eventually there will be a large amount of low power electronics and a more power hungry arm attached.<p>I want to be able to run the robot for about two hours at a time if possible. I wish to accomplish all of this while trying to keep the battery weight down to a minimum. Cost may or may not be an issue since I am going to be taking a long time to complete this project.<p>Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[George Herzog]

Lead Gel Cells are the least problematic. Simple to charge, hold a charge for a long time, and easy to acquire.<p>Nickel Cadium or Nickel Hydride don't have as much power and have special charging requirements.<p>Lithium batterys have lots of power, but cost a lot and may even explode into a fireball during charging. [They are really only need for very small, lightweight technologies]<p>Alkaline are very good power output, but cannot be recharged.<p>Refer to 'The Art of Electronics' for a good comparision.

[rshayes]

Another alternative is sealed lead acid cells. The gell cells still release some gas in normal charging. Its a small amount, but it does have the potential for corrosion. The sealed lead acid cells are design to only releasse gas as an emergency measure when the cell is abused. Normally the pressure vent should not open.<p>Gates was the original manufacturer. Then the product line was sold to General Electric, who combined it with their Nickel-Cadmium operation. The combined operation was later sold to someone else, possibly Panasonic. You probably should try a google search.<p>These cells show up fairly frequently in surplus operations such as All Electronics.

[chapter30]

Thanks,<p>I will be lookig for these in surplus places due to the price.<p>Good plan.