Ok. Do post back and let us know how it works.
Oh, and we do like pictures.
I’ll certainly take some pictures! Maybe video too if I feel it’s worth it.
EDIT: actually found that arduino has a separate website to sparkfun with all this info on it. Kind of wish I found that out earlier. Got the info I needed.
Battery:
LiPo Charger Basic - Mini-USB
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10401
Polymer Lithium Ion Battery - 2000mAh
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8483
JST Vertical Connector, connects to RAW and GND.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8613
The motors seem to use 75-85 amps so am I correct in thinking that 2000mAh will give something like like 20 hours battery life? How do I work out the power consumption of the rest of the circuit? The arduino specification says nothing about input current, just “MAX VOLTAGE INPUT: 16VDC”
That's 75-85 milli-amps (mA), where 1 mA = 1A/1000. And since the motors can't be on all the time, you can compute some time averaged amount. The current drawn by the Arduino will depend on the code running ... a total guess might be 30 mA on average.huwp:
The motors seem to use 75-85 amps so am I correct in thinking that 2000mAh will give something like like 20 hours battery life? How do I work out the power consumption of the rest of the circuit? The arduino specification says nothing about input current, just “MAX VOLTAGE INPUT: 16VDC”
Almost ready to order now. One…last…thing.
These are the common specifications of all the lipo batteries
Standard Discharge Current 0.2C
Max Discharge Current 2.0C
Discharge cut-off Voltage 2.75 V
Max discharge means it’s current can go up to twice it’s mAh
But Standard Discharge Current, what does this mean? Google says nothing about it (learned a lot about batteries regardless). 0.2C, does that mean the circuit will always draw 400mA even if using less? Does it mean there’s a minimum requirement of mA for the battery to work? (do batteries have a minimum operating current?)
Not really. It means that if your circuit draws 0.2C (or less) on average you won't overheat the battery and you will get the longest runtime/charge and longest life from the battery. Your peak current is < 0.2C. Circuits will draw whatever current they will, if the power source doesn't limit it somehow.huwp:
(do batteries have a minimum operating current?)