ATR Electrical Power and Wiring

See our prepackaged ATR Kits or Contact Us for a custom designed/built special purpose ATR

Electrical Power Hookup

Robots need their batteries. We sell several different batteries. The motors require 24V to run. You can look at the motor pages to see what the current draw is for each motor. If your using small motors and don't have the robot weighted down, the motors won't not draw much juice so a 1500mAhr battery pack should be fine. However if you are going to load the robot up and run it in thick carpet or grass, or if you just want a long run time, then the 4000mAHr batteries would be a better choice. We sell NiMH batteries so you won't have memory issues and will get much better performance from these as compared to NiCad's. We recommend you get the connectors with them so you can easily unplug them and charge them or swap them out with a second set.

This basic schematic shows one possible way to wire up the robot using our Electric Power Hookup kit. You can view this as a PDF here.

24V is too much voltage for the PIC controllers, plus its best to have the instruments and controls on a separate source than the motors. You can use either a 9.6V battery or a 7.2V battery. The OOPic controller or our expansion boards will regulate it to 5V. The regulator typically needs at least 6.5V. Either battery will go for a very long time depending on how many extra sensors are being used.

Again, the batteries we sell are NiMH batteries, so they won't form a memory and will last a long time (typically 1000+ charges). We recommend you get the connectors with them so you can easily unplug them and charge them or swap them out with a second set. If you are going to use an expansion board, they come with battery holders, or you may prefer the battery packs. We sell single AA NiMH batteries for the expansion board battery trays.

We sell plain old transformers for chargers, but you have to be careful not to overcharge the batteries, and it is difficult to determine if they have peak charged. You will not likely get the same life out or your battery packs charging them manually with transformers as opposed to using a peak charger.

A peak charger will monitor you battery as it's being charged and shut off when it has reached it's peak charge. The automatic peak chargers we sell are ideally suited for NiMH battery packs.

Finally, you will need some wire, fuses, and switches. The kits we sell is simple and will allow you to turn you robot on and off and protect everything with fuses.

Electrical Power Hookup Kit

• Electric Power Hookup Kit

Drive/Power Batteries

• 12V 1500 mAHr NiMH Battery
• 24V 1500 mAHr NiMH Battery
• 12V 3500 mAHr NiMH Battery
• 24V 3500 mAHr NiMH Battery

Controller Batteries

• 7.2V 1500 mAHr NiMH Battery
• 9.6V 1500 mAHr NiMH Battery
• AA batteries for Expansion boards
• 8 AA batteries and charger kit for Expansion boards

Transformers

• 9V 1000mA Transformer for 7.2V and 9.6V batteries
• 14V 1000mA Transformer for 12V batteries
• 24V 1200mA Transformer for 24V batteries

Automatic Peak Battery Chargers

• Astoflight 110 Deluxe Charger/Discharger (4-24 Cells)
• Hitec CG-340 DC/DC Charger (4-16 Cells)
• 100W Switching Power Supply (used to power peak chargers)

Electrical Motor Hookup

Electric noise is one of the most frustrating issues when working on robots with DC motors. The EMF coming from the motors will reek havoc on the microcontrollers, any RF equipment, or other sensitive electronic equipment. We recommend you use the following kits to wire your motors. These kits will provide the wiring from the speed/motor controller to the motors. You will need one kit per motor. Follow this link for more information on how to hook up the motors.

• Electric Motor Hookup Kits