Power Efficiency

[want2learn]

What would be more efficient ?

A robot carrying 2 battery packs, one seriously large one for drive and a smaller one for the circiutry.
                                                          OR
A robot carrying only the seriously large battery and regulators to feed the circuitry.??

E.g. 36V Gellcells and 4.8V NimH or 36V Gellcells and regulators.

I'm not sure how to work out the efficiency of the first option to compare them

[HDL_CinC_Dragon]

ummm your best bet might be to get a switching regulator to feed the circuitry.

[Razor Concepts]

I would just go the simple route and run the circuits off of a different power supply. If something happened to your main battery supply, the circuits won't be affected and will be safe.

[want2learn]

I meant switching and linear regulators, Sorry I wasn't clear on that.

I'm not sure how I would compare the two setups (Given Identical conditions)

[Razor Concepts]

To compare them, think about what you are going to use it for and what do you have. Are you going to spend the money on regulators or go cheap and use a smaller battery? Will you mind charging the smaller battery and the big one to drive the wheels? What if the regulator fails?

If you are looking for the most effecient (as in electrically), the difference would be negligable if you are using a switching regulator. So it basically won't matter if you use a switching regulator or a small battery.

[want2learn]

Thanks Razor Concepts. Thats exactly what I wanted to hear

Regulators can be smaller and lighter than the battery pack. I also think I can built the regulated supplies for not much more than the price of the battery pack