The robot is powered by a rechargeable battery which comes with a charger. Both battery and charger are part of the Tetrix FTC Kit. Battery has a fuse and on/off switch in series with the +V terminal.
The battery has the following specifications:
- Chemistry: NiMH
- Cells: 10
- Voltage: 12V (10V discharged, 13V charged)
- Current Capacity: 3000 mAh
Battery power is distributed to the rest of the robot through a Power Board. The Power Board supplies power to the Motor Controller directly at 12V and to the Raspberry Pi and aLaMode Boards through a 12V to 5V (1A) switching regulator. An identical switching regulator is used to provide 5V to power the speakers. There is room for adding a third 12V to 5V switching regulator on the Power Board for future power requirements. The 12V to 5V switching regulators were obtained by dis-assembling two identical car cell phone chargers bought on eBay for about $2 a piece.
References:
MC34063A-Switching-Regulator-Datasheet
