Batteries

[Dark Sabre]

Forgive me for my ignorance, but can you tell me more about photosensitive resisters and what sort of store I can purchase them at?

Check out the Photocell Bonus Thread and the Photoresistor Circuit Wiki. Those should answer a lot of your questions and give you some ideas. Feel free to ask specific questions if you don't understand something about what we're talking about.

[aubrey048]

Thanks! Now it makes a lot more sense!

[Balsa Man]

OK, a battery question.

Using a 9.6v cordless drill battery for a number of components. Threw the voltmeter on it when setting up the photoresistor piece. Fresh off the charger, we were seeing a tad over 10.1v on the voltmeter.

I'm assuming that with the battery a commercially available, clearly marked as "9.6v" unit, this is not a problem/issue......right?

[Dark Sabre]

Yeah, as long as it doesn't look like the batteries have been tampered with (which is against the rules anyway), there's no reason for a judge to pull out a voltmeter.

[Balsa Man]

Yeah, as long as it doesn't look like the batteries have been tampered with (which is against the rules anyway), there's no reason for a judge to pull out a voltmeter.

Thanks. I'll sleep better tonight.

[cypressfalls Robert]

This is just a random thing i learned about battereies.
Ok so I was at competition and we had just finished with our mission and without thinking I just shoved the extra 9 volt batteries I had in my jacket pocket. In an hour I began feeling a burning sensation as I was walking and then relizing it was the batteries I threw them from my pocket, the were boilling hot !!! The plastic coating was melting off and one battery had expanded abnormally creating a hole in the battery.
Lesson learned---->KEEP BATTERIES IN SEPERATE HOLDING CONTAINERS!!!!!!!or just not touching any other metal.

[Primate]

This is just a random thing i learned about battereies.
Ok so I was at competition and we had just finished with our mission and without thinking I just shoved the extra 9 volt batteries I had in my jacket pocket. In an hour I began feeling a burning sensation as I was walking and then relizing it was the batteries I threw them from my pocket, the were boilling hot !!! The plastic coating was melting off and one battery had expanded abnormally creating a hole in the battery.
Lesson learned---->KEEP BATTERIES IN SEPERATE HOLDING CONTAINERS!!!!!!!or just not touching any other metal.

Wow, I'm impressed you managed to keep the two terminals touching for so long. Did they end up getting clipped together. (Which, by the way, is a known flaw in 9V batteries.) My recommendation is to bury your nine volts deep beneath the surface of the earth, and replace them with a nice set of 4 D-cells .

[cypressfalls Robert]

What is a good way to keep all those wires out of the way in the mission, because mine are just there, with maybe some tape here and there but thats it.

[andrewwski]

Ty-raps?

[Uncle Fester]

Besides the tie-wraps themselves, they make those little square things you can stick or screw to your box, and run a tie-wrap through a slot in them. They're great-- you can fasten stuff down ANYWHERE without going into contortions.