FIRST
Battery Cart
A battery cart designed to handle and charge batteries in FRC 8033's shop and at competition.
Summary
In the weeks before the 2024 FIRST World Championship, I sought to improve our battery storage in our pit and in our shop. While we had a basic cart previously, it was unwieldy and not visually appealing. With this cart, I sought to make something that would integrate perfectly with our existing pit tables and tool chest. That meant a finished plywood top, a pre-set depth and height, and four wheels.
Given the design and time constraints, I chose tab-and-slot construction using 0.5" and 0.75" plywood for the cart. The plan was to CNC it, and then glue and screw it together. In the end, the cart also got some additional quality-of-life features, like a power conditioner to power our pit tools and lights on sometimes subpar competition electricity, and an integrated drawer to store battery-related materials. This was all in addition to the two NOCO Genius chargers wired to hard-mounted SB50 (later upgraded to SB120) connectors, along with an integrated power strip and USB ports.
Gallery
The project was a neat combination of carpentry, CNC, and design skills. The end result was a success, and the cart is still used today—I even released the files publicly, and a few others have been built by other teams.
Check out the CAD here.