Heavyweight battery

[webby]

I now have some 24volt motors and i was wondering what is a cheap battery to use? Are SLA's to under powered?

[craig_colliass]

I have used SLA batteries in my heavies for years and still do.

They don't give as much power as other types and they are heavy but they are cheap and reliable.

I used 2*12v 16 amp hour. charged by a car battery charger!

cheap and simple

[webby]

Awsome, thanks for that

[maddox10]

The Dutch robots had very good results with 9ah SLA batteries (36V tough).
Gravity 5 and TAN still use those.

Now, those 2 machines use large gearratio's. Gravity 5 runs on a 15-1 , TAN 20-1.
That makes a huge difference.

[daveimi]

A car battery charger is genius.

[maddox10]

Depends. A good car battery charger is an affordable simple charger that can recharge a robot battery in 2-3 hours. Any faster and you're not talking about a cheap, good charger.

Problem with the real cheap chargers is that they cook the SLA, reducing the amount of chargings it can take hugely.

On the other side. 6 events a year, and 10 test runs. 16 charges a year. Wit a reduced lifespan of 100 charges... 5 years+. Even letting the SLA sitting there will ruin it faster.

[craig_colliass]

The Battery charger I use cost about £30 from the local auto factors,
I split the charge leads so I charge both batteries together, they stay as a matched pair, and I have 4 sets I take with me,

This means at a weekend I can run the robot 4 times and not even worry about charging! I store the batteries fully charged and then top them up before the weekend fun. they have lasted years using them like this.