Robotics & Engineering - Week of 10/20/25
This week had both positives and negatives.
We finally got the 12v converter installed and wired up completely on the Golf Cart (which I think is more of a car than a golf cart) and also installed the separate enable wire.
In order to provide power to it, I had to wire it through an unused fuse port left over.
Originally, we tried to use heat shrink and solder to connect the wires, but the thick strands and low gauge proved to be extremely difficult.
Instead, we opted to use wire nuts, which worked fine. If these don’t last we will need to look for a more reasonable replacement.
On Wednesday, particularly after school, we drove the golf cart all around for over an hour. The batteries barely dropped! This was great new to hear from us.
On Thursday we discovered something less than ideal. After letting the golf cart charge over night, I probed the frame of the cart which was, once again electrified. Because this happened a few weeks ago, I knew how to fix it, so I began to take the seats off in hopes of removing the damaged cell.
I quickly realized that this was not going to happen, because the fully charged cells had swollen up (0.5-1mm per cell) and because all the cells expanded, they lodged themselves good and proper in the frame making it impossible to remove.
I think I will be able to simply discharge the batteries and they might shrink back down which will allow them to be removed.
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