Re: Batteries (time sensitive)

[Joyce Poon <poonj@ecf.utoronto.ca>]

Sorry.  I did not check my email yesterday afternoon.

Upon more reflection, a more plausible explanation of the short circuited
batteries might actually be the fact that they were hooked up in parallel.
(Remember what Kevin said, Cindy?)  Hooking up batteries in parallel does
strange and funny stuff since the 2 sets of batteries cannot be guaranteed
to be at the exact same voltage.  Motors do not short circuit themselves &
they worked fine anyway.  Hence I am led to the conclusion that the AAs
should be changed to something else.  Maybe all we need is 1 small lead
acid battery and both motors can run off the same power source, rather
than having 2 lead acids.

You know how some cordless power tools (ie cordless drills and
cordless screwdrivers) have rechargeable battery packs.  Do you think
those will work for our robot?  Do screwdrivers & drills req a lot of
torque to work?  (Nevermind, our robot probably needs more torque than a
screwdriver due to the mass.)

I know I was shot down before with this idea: how about lantern batteries?
Do they provide more amps?

In conclusion, here's my take:  Change the batteries.

Joyce :)