How to maintain equal discharging on batteries

Question

I am currently building a robot that has one 12V battery for each drive motor. The system was originally setup so that the two motor/motorcontroller/battery systems were completely separate. After testing, I discovered that one motor is used significantly more resulting in the batteries discharging at different rates.

I would like to leave the batteries on opposite sides of the robot for weight reasons. Would it be possible to connect the batteries so they would recharge each other when one battery was low?

Why don't you just put them in parallel? Attach the positive terminals together and then attach the negative terminals together. This will create one virtual battery. — horta, Feb 19 '15 at 18:13

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 19 '15 at 18:32

Given that you mean (as Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams commented) "drain at the same rate", then it's easy. Easiest, of course, is just to short the batteries. If that doesn't appeal to you

schematic

^{simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab}

will do the trick. I've specified Schottky diodes just because they dissipate less power than regular power diodes for the same current. Note that you'll have to provide a proper heat sink for them, while you don't need any such thing if you just short the batteries.

How to maintain equal discharging on batteries

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