Subject:
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Re: Pure Energy & the RCX
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Wed, 17 Nov 1999 21:53:44 GMT
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Viewed:
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644 times
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In lugnet.robotics, Jack Gregory writes:
> I fully concur. They seem to work well initially, but managing a set of
> them is fraught with peril. It wouldn't be so bad if there was a "bad
> battery" tester. But there isn't. So some freak battery that isn't cutting
> it gets in your pack, and you can't find it. But the pack won't work as a
> set for long. There is no way to find the bad one. I even made a single
> battery tester consisting of a motor that would run on 1.5 v, and I still
> had a hard time.
Yep, and when one is bad, it takes down the rest of 'em...
> It is really too bad. I think the battery industry is very "bad" in
> general, and try to keep competitors out. So you hear all sorts of FUD when
> a new thing comes along, and there is the usual attempts to keep competitors
> off shelves.
Don't know about retail and shelf space and so on, but I know there's one
distributor that gets first pick of all sub-c Sanyo NiCd's that come off the
line....
> But here is the real question: Why didn't LEGO make the batteries separate
> from the RCX? Changing batts in a built-up creation is a nightmare. We
> should be able to have a battery pack and just swap it. Then we could make
> a 7-cell NiCd pack to replace the 6 (8.4v vs 9.0) in the RCX, and we could
> have several. I am actually surprised that more people don't discuss this,
> and LEGO doesn't recognize the flexibility such modularity would have. Of
> course, they would need to have some kind of female connector.
Well, that's easy enough to build yourself.. I'm not sure about the newest
RCX's and other bricks, but mine has a female adapter jack on its tail end.
You'd just need an appropriate male barrel connector, and wire it up to a
battery of the cells of your choice. Although with NiCd's I'd recommend 8 or
even 9 cells. NiCd's tend to start with a roaring peak for the first few
seconds (I've got some cells that start their cycle at 1.5v) then run most of
their cycle around 1 to 1.1 volts per cell. You want to stick within the range
of 9 to 12 volts without under- or over-powering the brick for any length of
time.
Odd, I've been into R/C racing and the related battery stuff for years, but I
never thought to point those skills in the direction of my RCX.. >doh!<
Now that I've said it can be done, I suppose I'll have to do it. :)
If there's plenty of interest I could be convinced to take pictures....
K.M.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Pictures of RCX on external batteries
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| Kevin, I'm already using a set-up as you described. I suppose this is what you mean: (URL) you can see, I'm using 8 NiMH cells. This gives approx 9.6 volts. The motors actually run slightly faster than on regular alkaline batteries (and a lot (...) (25 years ago, 17-Nov-99, to lugnet.robotics)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Pure Energy & the RCX
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| I fully concur. They seem to work well initially, but managing a set of them is fraught with peril. It wouldn't be so bad if there was a "bad battery" tester. But there isn't. So some freak battery that isn't cutting it gets in your pack, and you (...) (25 years ago, 17-Nov-99, to lugnet.robotics)
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