The first two points are complex enough that further elaboration would merit their own posts today I want to focus on some technical details of battery capacity and current and touch on the sloppy attitude that leads to the last two mistakes.Ī battery stores energy the “capacity” is how much energy it can store. Forgetting about a property, such as capacity, as soon as it wasn’t in my face.Thinking that my motors would draw a fixed amount of current.Not understanding that my circuit would draw whatever current it wanted from the battery, as opposed to the battery forcing a given amount of current into the circuit.I made many common mistakes in going about my battery selection: Apparently, once the battery capacity wasn’t in my face, I forgot about my concern that they would force too much current into my motors. No one understood that the batteries were labeled with capacity, not current, and since the smallest 12V motorcycle and alarm system batteries in town were 3Ah or 4Ah, I went home empty handed. When I began designing my second robot, I found some 12V, 1A motors (what a “1-amp motor” might mean is a topic for another post) and promptly wasted many hours dragging parents and teachers to Radio Shack and car parts stores looking for a 12V, 1A battery. The batteries were prominently labeled “1.5V”, and I was happy in my understanding that putting four in a battery holder got me to 6 volts when the motors slowed down, it was time for new batteries. My earliest electronics projects and my first robot were powered by regular alkaline batteries, and I didn’t think about current or the capacity of those batteries. I used battery holders for eight “C” alkaline cells on my robot after not finding a 12V, 1A battery.
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