Power Consumption

Two different hardware configuration are used. Either using LiPo batteries, ones that are used in hobby RC vehicles/drones, or using Li-ion battery packs that are generally used to recharge your everyday life products (phones, laptops...) when traveling.

LiPo batteries offer a better charge and discharge rate than most other batteries and they are cheap. They are perfect for motors consuming high currents, which is generally the case when motors stall.

Li-ion batteries are more common batteries that are used with low discharge rates. They can still be used with robots with little motors, such are the case for small model boats.

We list here batteries that were used with the boats.

Battery	Model	Description
LiPo	Turnigy 2S 2200mAh	This gives approximately 2-4 hours operation for the boat
Li-ion	20000mAh Anker	This battery gives a tremendous amount of power, which lets the boat be operable for more than a day

One of the issues found using consumer battery pack is that they have no on-off switches. Instead they switch on when enough power is drawn from it.

Normally, the current drawn by the Raspberry Pi is enough to keep it awake. But we have found ourselves multiple times with a turned off battery in the middle of a task. Be careful with it.