Astrobot Wiring

Astrobot is powered by six 12 volt, 12 amp-hour valve regulated lead acid batteries. Two batteries are connected in parallel to give us 12 volts at double the amperage. Another two batteries are also connected in parallel to give us the same thing. These two "packs" of two batteries connected in parallel are then connected in series to give us 24 volts at double the amperage of a single battery. The other two batteries are connected in parallel to give us 12 volts (and twice the amperage) to power things that need a lower voltage.&#160; So our Astrobot system has 24V and 12V sources. Before the 6 batteries are connected in these varied ways, their positive terminals are connected to 6 different relays. The reason for this is that we have 6 different chargers that will simultaneously charge the batteries when they need charging. This way when the chargers are connected the relays will switch to charging mode and not power the Astrobot system in any way.