Batteries Clarification

[SciOlyBot]

Hey, guys! It says in the rules that the electrical energy used must be stored in at max 8 AA batteries. Does that mean I can connect the batteries together so that it is connected as a series? Or does it have to be connected parallelly? Thanks for your time!

~SciOlyBot

[Schrodingerscat]

Standard disclaimer: Scioly.org is not the place for official rules clarifications, and this post and all other posts regarding rules interpretations should be regarded as the personal opinion of the author and may not reflect the interpretation of the rules at competitions. Furthermore, this personal post does not represent Scioly.org as a whole. Finally, it is the readers responsibility to ensure their own safety and the safety of others, and any instructions contained herein should be followed with additional caution.

First, read general rule 1 that states that anything not prohibited by the rules is allowed if it is neither unsafe nor violates the spirit of the problem. According to my reading of the rules, there is no rule regarding any configuration of the batteries. It seems to me that part of the spirit of the problem is to configure the electrical system to work well, so a given battery configuration is unlikely to violate the spirit of the problem.

That would leave safety as the most probable concern, but it seems manageable. For a series arrangement, the main hazard would be the increased voltage. Part of it could be well avoided by using properly insulated wires, per the new policy, so you never come in contact with a complete circuit. The other part, which comes to mind, would be to make sure any motors or other electrical components are designed to operate on 12V. In fact, a parallel arrangement would present an additional hazard that you need to ensure the voltages are balanced between the parallel branches to prevent reverse current flow through the batteries. It's generally manageable through considerations like not mixing new and old batteries, and AA batteries generally prevent a lower hazard for this than batteries with lower internal resistance, but it is still something to consider.

[cheese]

Just making sure, we can use nickel metal hydride batteries as well, just not lithium and lead acid. Please correct me if i'm wrong.

[antoine_ego]

Just making sure, we can use nickel metal hydride batteries as well, just not lithium and lead acid. Please correct me if i'm wrong.

You are allowed to use NiMH.

[Chowlurd]

Hello, I was wondering if instead of 6 1.5 volt batteries, we could use a 9 volt battery. This isn't specified in the rules and I would appreciate if someone could clarify this for me.

Regards
Chowlurd

[shrewdPanther46]

read the rules one more time lol. only AA commercially available batteries, 1.5V. There was an FAQ about 1.2V rechargeables and it was OK'd. take a look