Hi All,
Just a quick question about testing. Does each competitor get a set of fully charged batteries on each run or do you use one set in each monsterborg for the entire test session?
The reason I ask is, in test session 1 I was getting around 18 second laps. In session 2, I was down to around 16 second laps and I only made minimal changes between them. Now I'm scratching my head trying to work out how!
The only thing I can think might be different is this time I ran closer to the start verses last time I was near the end. If the batteries are the same throughout then the slower lap times in test 1 could be because of the batteries having less power left by the end.
Thanks
Jamie (The I.T. Guy)
I think the confusion is the slight difference in the robots between test 1 and race 1.
For Test Rounds 0 and 1 we did not have any of the production versions of MonsterBorg ready. This meant all competitors were sharing our two prototype MonsterBorgs. The result of this is that the first couple of competitors had a fully charged pack and the rest had a slightly less charge and would have been slightly slower.
This will give you an idea of the voltage from the batteries over time:
Full article here: http://madscientisthut.com/wordpress/daily-blog/aa-battery-discharge-curves/
From Race Round 1 we have had a full set of ten production MonsterBorgs, all calibrated to match each other. These are given a fresh pack for each competitor so everything is fair. In other words this time around everyone started at peak voltage from their battery pack.
In practice what we have found is that the first two or three laps are slightly faster than normal. After that the lap times are reasonably consistent until about the 2½-2¾ hour mark, at which point the lap times start becoming noticeably slower.
A 2.5-3 hr final endurance race would be epic! Added risk of running out of charge.
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