This guide walks you through replacing the default 18650 battery pack in the Viam Rover 2 with a more reliable power source: a wired 15V DC supply or an RC LiPo battery. This is ideal for testing, long runtimes, or lab setups where battery charging is a hassle.

What You'll Build

Prerequisites

What You'll Learn

What You'll Need

Remove batteries and battery input

  1. Power off: Power off the rover and unplug any power cables.
  2. Remove cover: Remove the top cover of the Viam rover base so you can more easily access the internals.
  3. Remove batteries: Remove the four 18650 batteries from the compartment underneath the Viam rover. remove batteries
  4. Identify the VIN terminal: Identify the battery input terminal block. It is the upper PCB in the corner of the base, which contains two screw terminal blocks labeled VIN and VOUT. Find the one labeled VIN. identify terminal blockremove battery wires
  5. Remove wires: Unscrew and remove the battery wires from the battery input terminal block (VIN). Optionally, you can tape off the loose ends to avoid accidental shorts.
  6. The terminal labeled VIN is where your new power source will connect.

Wired 15V DC Supply

  1. Plug your DC power supply into the barrel jack-to-screw terminal adapter.
  2. Connect two jumper wires. Double-check polarity before applying. Power—reversed connections can damage your board. In the example below, the power (positive) wire is brown instead of a typical red color.
    • Brown (positive) wire to +
    • Black (ground) wire to – connect adapter to jumper wires

Connect power supply to the rover

  1. Insert the brown (positive) wire into the VIN + terminal on the rover's upper PCB.
  2. Insert the black (ground) wire into the VIN – terminal.
  3. Tighten both screws firmly.full power connection

Power On and Test

  1. Plug in the power supply or connect the RC battery.
  2. Observe the onboard voltage display, which should show the inbound voltage. The Viam Rover 2 has a buck converter to safely downgrade the voltage to 12V.
  3. Confirm the rover powers on normally.power on the rover

Wired setup

For bench testing, navigating with a wired power supply can be awkward.

Depending on your power supply form factor, you may want to mount various components directly on top of the Viam Rover. You can also tape down wires to prevent them from coming loose or use wire fasteners to keep cables tidy.

RC battery setup

For mobile operation using a 3S LiPo battery, mount the battery securely on top of the Viam Rover. This enables untethered movement and avoids the limitations of a wired setup.

What You Learned

Keep learning with Viam

Now that you have a much longer runtime, this opens up all sorts of possibilities to explore.

Additional resources