Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: exl949 on March 01, 2006, 01:16:45 AM

Title: suggestions for charging batteries
Post by: exl949 on March 01, 2006, 01:16:45 AM

ok, so i have plans for something, but i have one problem, my bot will be away for long periods of time, like weeks, and it will spend most of its time in a breezy environment, is there someting out there to charge the batteries using wind? its a dark environment too so solar is out of the question, i guess i havent been looking for the right thing so far. any suggestions?

thanks in advance..

Title: Re: suggestions for charging batteries
Post by: Admin on March 01, 2006, 08:01:11 AM

hmmmm sounds like you got a tricky problem . . . look into mars rover technology as it is very similar to what you want . . .

you will probably need to consider all of these options, and possibly even a combination of them:

1) use a lot of batteries (calculate how much power you will need for 'weeks')

2) make your robot extremely power efficient

3) wind power generator . . .

making a wind power generator is very easy. it is just like hooking up solar panels to a battery for recharging it.

steps:
get a highly geared DC motor, make sure the gears are very efficient and new
attach a long blade fan to it
attach the ground wire of the motor to the ground of your battery
attach motor power wire to the + end of a diode
attach the - end of the diode to the positive end of your battery

the diode prevents the battery spinning the motor, so that power can only come out of the motor . . .

you will also have to consider how to shut down all your systems until your battery has been recharged again. consider a battery power monitor.

and you will probably have to lower the fan when your robot moves so as to not resist the movement . . .

can you have a recharge station?

Title: Re: suggestions for charging batteries
Post by: zamboniman60 on March 01, 2006, 10:12:08 PM

Get some energizer lithium batteries as a backup. These batteries hold a lot of power, and can be used as a backup, maybe even as your main powersource. Consider getting a fuel cell kit (http://www.discoverthis.com/fuelcelcaran.html) and cannibalizing the cell; just use ant weight pneumatics (http://www.robotmarketplace.com/marketplace_ant_pneu.html) to store the hydrogen.

Title: Re: suggestions for charging batteries
Post by: exl949 on March 01, 2006, 11:06:10 PM

thanks admin! i will try that!

Title: Re: suggestions for charging batteries
Post by: jonas on March 10, 2006, 11:38:16 PM

here's a link to the technology of the mars rover http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/technology/