Everyone,
Just a heads up here.  Over the past two weeks, the pair of robots we 
use have started to exhibit some strange behavior.  For example, turns 
were becoming increasingly inconsistent and the robot would sometimes 
move in jerky movements at slow speeds.  The robots are 3 and 4 years 
old and initially we thought it might be a motor problem or possibly the 
new NXT software.  Our teenage mentor suggested that the Lithium Ion 
batteries may be going bad.  While we were initially skeptical, since 
both batteries showed full charges, we replaced the rechargeable 
batteries with alkaline batteries and the robots were back to their 
"normal" selves.  Aha!

The lesson here is if you're using a robot with a rechargeable battery 
that is a few years old and you see some strange behavior, try swapping 
out the rechargeable with a new set of batteries.  It could save you and 
your team from going mad.

John

-- 

John J. Barrett
Industrial Medium, Inc.
1616 Anderson Road
McLean, VA 22102

(c) 703-231-5094
(p) 703-286-0818
(f) 703-286-0888

http://www.industrialmedium.com

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