we had this same issue a few years ago - we settled on one brand of replaceable batteries - we went with energizers which we switch out right before every run during the tournament. One reason is that the discharge curve drops off pretty severely after a short while - also the rechargeable batteries have less and less staying capacity as we go along. We also run the robot a few times through its program set before the competition round - takes the edge off the discharge curve. Here's the AA discharge curve that backs up my thinking: On Tue, Nov 25, 2014 at 5:44 AM, John Davison <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > As part of our rookie lessons learned for next season, does anyone have > thoughts about the pros and cons of using rechargeable vs. regular > batteries? Early on, we found that our robot performance varied quite a > bit based on how fresh the batteries were, and we seemed to be burning > through lots of regular batteries. So we switched to rechargeable > batteries soon before the competition, but then had to tweak our > programming because the output of rechargeable batteries is different from > regular batteries! If we stick with rechargeable batteries for our next > robot design, are there any potential problems or downside that others have > experienced? > > John Davison > > Sent from my iPhone > > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit > https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or > leave the list". > > -- VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via > VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit > https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-ANNOUNCEMENTS-l.html to > subscribe. > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list". -- VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-ANNOUNCEMENTS-l.html to subscribe.