Garcia uses a standard high-performance NiMH battery pack.  This is a 6-cell pack which means the output voltage of the pack can vary from near 9V down to 7V depending on the level of charge.  The pack has an Amp/Hour rating of 4200 mAh which should yield several hours of continuous operation.  Actual run times depend on the robot's configuration, amount of motor use, and motor speed.

Plugging in the battery inside the robot.

The supplied charger is an advanced peak-detection charger which is ideal for charging Garcia or other standard battery packs and it works well with both NiCAD and NiMH chemistries.  The included charger documentation describes the setup and use of this charger in more detail.

Included with Garcia is a charging harness that should be plugged into the charger.  The bare, soldered wire ends can be inserted in the terminals with matching colors.  The red wire goes in the red terminal and the black wire goes into the black terminal.  The other end of this charging harness has a plug that plugs directly into the Garcia charging port located in the back of its head.  When the charging harness is plugged into the robot, all robot power is disabled to allow a dedicated charging connection.  This prevents having the robot take off while connected to the charger.

Once connected, the charger completely manages the charging of the batteries.  When the charge is complete, the charger plays a happy little tune and then backs off to a maintenance charge until the robot is disconnected.  The battery pack in Garcia uses a standard hobby connector which allows additional batteries to be used with Garcia.  A spare pack can be left charging while the robot is operating.  The packs may be swapped quickly to limit down time.

The Garcia API actively monitors the battery voltage of the robot and when the voltage drops to the "empty" level, all operations report a battery-low error and all sensors and motors are disabled until the robot is charged back up.

Battery level can be checked at any time using the "battery-voltage" or "battery-guage" property in the Garcia API.  The voltage is reported in volt units or as a normalized capacity-remaining value.