Battery Charging

We (Student Robotics) manage the charging of all batteries at the competition. Battery Charging volunteers are responsible for ensuring that there is a continuous supply of charged batteries available for use by teams.

Equipment

• Battery chargers
• Discharged battery box
• Charged battery box
• Damaged battery/charger box
• Red insulating tape
• Example good batteries (one brand new, one squidgy)

Volunteer Requirements

Every volunteer performing the Battery Charging role must have read this document fully. Any doubts must be discussed with Rich Barlow ASAP.

Safety

The biggest risk of damage or injury is from the banana plugs coming unplugged from the charger. These are the red and black plugs that go into the side of the charger. All of the chargers should have the cables cable-tied to the charger to make it difficult to remove these plugs. Under no circumstances should these red and black plugs be unplugged from the chargers.

The batteries themselves have many built in safety features and, unless severely abused, are completely safe. All batteries undergoing charging must be placed inside a fireproof charging bag. In the extremely unlikely event of a fire due to a battery DO NOT attempt to tackle the fire - the batteries contain a flammable metal (Lithium) which cannot be safely tackled with most fire extinguishers.

If at any point you have any doubts about safety, immediately summon the Competition Team Support Coordinator (Rich Barlow) and the Health & Safety Coordinator (Scarzy) via Helpdesk.

Procedures

Swapping a team's battery

Teams will bring discharged batteries to the Battery Charging station and require a replacement charged battery. A Battery Charging volunteer should receive the discharged battery from the team and place it in the discharged battery box. A charged battery should be removed from the charged battery box and handed to the team. Do not allow teams to take batteries from the box themselves - we want to prevent teams from hoarding batteries.

Charging a discharged battery

All of the battery chargers will be set-up and ready to use. Before a battery is connected the screen must display LiPo BALANCE 2.2A 11.1V(3S). If it displays anything else then please do not use it and ask Helpdesk to summon Rich Barlow. Batteries are charged as follows:

1. Check that the battery is not physically damaged. There should be no splits or tears in the body of the battery, no nicks in the wire insulation, no exposed wire and the battery should not be so swollen that it is no longer squidgy. There will be a couple of example batteries at the Battery Charging station to compare to.
2. If the battery is damaged, tape over the yellow XT60 connector with red tape and place it in the damaged battery box.
3. If the battery is not damaged, plug the yellow XT60 connector into the charger cable and the white balance connector into the 4-pin socket on the side of the charger.
4. Place the battery in the charging bag next to the charger.
5. Hold down the Start/Enter button for about 3 seconds until the screen displays R:3SER S:3SER CONFIRM(ENTER). If both numbers are not 3 then disconnect the battery and summon Rich Barlow via Helpdesk.
6. If the display is as expected, press Start/Enter to commence charging.

After about 1 hour the battery should complete charging - the screen will display a charge complete message. Simply disconnect the battery from the charger and place it in the charged battery box.

If at any point throughout the charging cycle the charger indicates an issue (e.g. a timeout, capacity or cable error), disconnect the battery from the charger, apply a piece of red tape to the yellow XT60 connector on the battery and place it in the damaged battery box. Inevitably there will be a small number of faulty chargers. If you suspect that a particular charger is faulty (lots of batteries fail to charge on it), disconnect it from its power supply, apply red tape to its XT60 connector and place it in the damaged battery box.