jaydag71

Hi again all, its been awhile since last visit! Anyways, heres the issue:

I am trying to design a robot based on a old radio-shack truck platform. The rear motor is going to run from a 12V 1A regulator through an H-bridge.

My batteries are all from salvaged sources- about half from old cordless phones and the others from the rc truck. I have disassembled each pack and now have about 23 1.2V cells, all AA but half reading a bit under 600mA and the others over 600mA. They are not new, have been sitting for a long while but most seem to be good. What I want to do is make a pack that can deliver about 14V @1.2A. I was thinking to tie the phone cells in series to make up the 14V, and the rc-truck cells in parallel to roughly double the current...is this the way to make a pack? Does it matter much if the cells are not matched (either in series and/or parallel)? I'm not seeking 'racing' performance here, just want to supply the platform properly with what I have. The regulator module I have designed takes the ~14V input and splits it between a 12V 1A reg and a 5V .5A (or less, might switch out to ~200mA--its for the micro),, I am wondering if I am going to need more current to properly supply this platform? Any ideas, tips or hackling welcomed, particularly about designing for battery powered devices,,thanks in advance, jd