The Power of Thunderbolt - robots

Bot: Thunderbolt
Status: Active
Weight: 118 lbs
Builder: Eric Pond
eric@killerbotics.com

Power!

I was running two 7 amp SLAs in series for 24 volt for testing on Thunderbolt. This worked good, I got about 5 minutes of run time, and with my kick-ass Powersonic 24 volt charger it only took 20 minutes to fully charge them. But it was too heavy, and it didn't give me any redundancy (if I lose battery I am done).

So I turned to NiCADs. And Steve Hill of www.battlepack.com is the man. It was only a week before the event (TCMW) and I needed three packs. Needless to say Steve hooked me up ASAP, take a look at these beauties!: I can run entire Thunderbolt for 5 minutes on one 24V pack! I added the Anderson connectors.

Now I needed a charger, Dick mentioned at BB 4.0 all the big guys running NiCADs used the Astroflight charger. Mike (No Bull) had a 112D and loves it, so I got online with Towerhobies and ordered me one up. Then talked with Dan Dentrick of Team Delta and got one of his big ole AC to DC power supplies. Here are my goodies all lined up and working.

Now this setup works fine, but I don't want to drop a screw driver or finger into the power supply, so I did a little improvising. I had some spare Lexan around so I made a decent cover for it. Then I was worried the thing might overheat, so I went down to the local Radio Shack (please don't hate me) and got a simple 12 volt fan to help move the air around a bit. Overall I think it is a nice looking unit, pretty safe also!

With this setup I can run Thunderbolt for around 12 minutes very Hard, then swap out my Battlepacks and run again. More and more fun for me!

The Battles of Thunderbolt
| Twin Cities Mech Wars III January 2002 |