Official Q&A: VEX U Robotics Competition 2025-2026: Push Back

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From an additional lithium ion, lithium iron, or nickel metal hydride battery pack (only one (1) additional battery can be used for Sensor/processing power). This additional battery pack must operate at a maximum of 12 volts nominal.

Our team is looking into using the Xiaomi 165W lithium ion powerbank that the manufacturer specified, contains 4 battery cells with each cell having a nominal voltage of 3.6V.

Four battery cells with a battery power equivalent to 10000mAh: The power bank features 4 battery cells with a nominal voltage of 3.6V and a rated capacity of 2500mAh each, which is equivalent to the battery power of a single cell with a nominal voltage of 3.6V and a rated capacity of 10000mAh.

The power bank specification page also gave various combinations of input and output parameters that the power bank is capable of outputting after conversion. We would like to check if the rule "operate at a maximum of 12 volts nominal" means that the voltage of the physical battery pack connection must be at or below 12 volts nominal or that the battery pack output voltage after conversion must still remain below 12 volts? Based on our understanding, this power bank has a cell nominal voltage of 3.6V but is able to output up to 20V-2.25A after conversion. In this case, would this battery pack be legal since the nominal voltage of the power bank itself is 3.6V?