Race against time

Race against time

The final week

This is the week where we have to have the new design built. It doesn't have to fully run, but just roll. We have to work together with the mechanical and design team to get this chassis built, and rolling.

The current progress of the chassis

End of the Week

End of the Week

We almost have a chassis

This week, mechanical has been working on welding the chassis and getting that ready for midterms. We're still just kind of waiting. Hopefully we'll be able to start wiring and figuring out the solar panels soon.

Unfinished, but going well.

Manic Monday

Manic Monday

Not sure what to do now...

At this point in the game, we're really just waiting for stuff to happen. We can't start wiring anything until we get the rolling chassis done. So at this point, we're just trying to help out the other teams with whatever we can as well as working with robotics to get ready for the competition this Saturday.

Kickstarter and Other Stuff

Kickstarter and Other Stuff

All of the videos have been taken for the Kickstarter video. Our executive team just needs to put it together now. For the meantime, most of us are kind of stuck. We're waiting for the mechanical team to put the chassis together so we can get rolling. We're trying to help them as much as we can. But for the most part, blogging is all we can do.

Pretty much what we're doing right now.

Helping the team

Helping the Team

This week is a short week. Two days to be exact. Because it is such a short week, we are helping the other sections of our project. We are working on making a video for our kickstarter to help people see what we are trying to do, while working on designing on the connections and support beams for the solar panel, and putting the car together.

Dat Progress

Dat Progress

The prototype panel

This week we were able to come up with a new aerodynamic design that we will use for the solar panel. We were also able to find new batteries that will soon replace the ones we currently have.

One of our potential prototypes for the solar panel.

A new solar panel

The new solar panel

Designing from scratch

Our goals for this week is to come up with a design for the solar panel. We are making a new one because we want it to be more aerodynamic then a regular solar panel. We are also going to work on finding batteries to replace the bad ones that we currently have on the solar cars.

This design of  a solar panel will allow us to have low drag, while being able to maintain a high speed.

Still Looking for That Transmission...

Still Looking for That Transmission...

Turns out we're not entirely sure about the transmission shop we found. We think it might be a tad sketch so we're just going to have to keep looking. *sigh*

Just keep searching, just keep searching...

Transmission is the Mission

Transmission is the Mission

It might be over soon

We discovered that a local motorcycle shop sells transmissions, we are hoping we can buy one for our "Harley". If we cannot get one from the shop then this will be a issue because we cannot continue until we find one.

Jason Working Hard. Look at that concentration...

SK1 and A Slight Re-Naming

SK1 and A Slight Re-Naming

Ready to Roll on Both Ends

SK1 is looking good right now. Everything's all hooked up so the only things we're waiting on are the batteries, which will be coming along very soon. We had a slight problem with the brakes earlier, but our mechanical team got that fixed in no time. In addition, we've decided on a new name for SK4/SK2.Whoa. Most people were not really feeling SK2.Whoa and SK4 seemed so boring. We had a quick brainstorming session and came up with, drum-roll please, Solar Templar! Neat, huh? Our next steps are to keep working on ST and hopefully figure out this whole transmission situation once and for all.

SK1's Motor Controller and Charge Controller, respectively

Beginning of the Week

Beginning of the Week

A Change in Plans

This week we have a new objective: Get SK1 rolling. There is a parade on the 23rd that we've been invited to participate in and SK3 isn't really feeling up to it right now so it's up to SK1. It's our first solar car and right now it's more or less put together, we just have to hook up all of the wiring and slap some batteries on it.

SK1!

Transmission Impossible

Transmission Impossible

Turns out it's not so impossible...

This week we scoured the internet looking for a transmission we could put on the solar car. We wanted one so that we could reach a higher top speed. However, the internet seems to have a lot to say about transmissions so it turned out to be slightly more difficult than was previously expected. After much research and deliberation, we finally found one we all could live with. A 5-speed manual left side drive transmission for a chain drive motorcycle. It's gonna cost us about a grand, but if it'll get us up to the speeds we want, it's definitely worth it.

Tadaaaaaaaa

Stage 2: The Next Step

The Next Step

Finding a Transmission

Last week ended the first quarter of school. We had a little celebration on Thursday because we got SK2 running, but now the party's over and it's time to focus on getting SK2 perfect and then moving on to SK2.Whoa (SK4). This week our goal is to find a transmission. We know we want a motorcycle transmission, but we don't really know anymore than that. So it's time to start researching and asking questions.

Learning about transmissions...

Mission Accomplished

Mission Accomplished

Everything's all hooked up!

This week we accomplished all of our goals regarding the charge controller and we even got the throttle mounted and hooked up. Basically, once the mechanical team gets the chain on, one of the front tires inflated, and we figure out what we're doing for the brakes, the car will be ready to roll! Then, SK4.

What a beauty...

Breaking Metal

Breaking Metal

With a Hammer.

Just a quick update before the end of the week post, we have everything mounted and hooked up for electrical that we need! Which is awesome! Right now, we're trying to get the throttle mounted. Only problem, we have to bend metal to get it to work. We tried to bend the metal using a hammer yesterday, and we broke it. Hopefully we can get this thing running before tomorrow.

The Charge Controller

The Charge Controller

Let's Finally Get This Thing Mounted

This week our goals are to:

• Mount the charge controller
• Hook up the charge controller to the batteries
• Possibly try to program the charge controller to get it to work
• Get the whole car running by next week
  
  

End of Week

End of Week

Pretty Much Two Out of Three

This week we completed our goal of making the panel for the switches to the motor and the solar panels. We also found basically everything we need to hook up the charge controller (the Outback) to the car. We've decided to cut out some things that felt extraneous, for example, we're not totally sure that we need the 80 amp breakers, but we left all of the good basic stuff like the fuses and all that. The only goal we didn't actually complete was that we didn't get the charge controller actually hooked up to the batteries. We'll hopefully get that hooked up next week and then we'll just keep rolling forward.

Goals for the Week

Goals for the Week

Making connections

This week we'd like to:

• Rewire the batteries correctly
•  Make a control panel for the batteries and motor
•  Find everything we need to connect the Outback
•  Connect the batteries to the Outback
  

Batteries

Batteries

Positive to positive, negative to negative, positive to negative

Today we've got the batteries all hooked up to each other so that the four are acting as two. We're gonna keep working on finding electrical parts and researching what's what. The car is looking good; the mechanical team has the rear wheel mounted. Pretty soon we'll have SK2 up and at 'em.

Batteries!

Progress

Progress

We Have a Steering Wheel

So far this week we have put a steering wheel on, finished drilling the holes for the charge controller, and gathered a few electrical pieces. Now it's time to find bolts to keep the charge controller on the car and figure out what these electrical pieces actually do. It's coming together pretty well but we're definitely nearing crunch time. It's time to get SK2 on its feet (or wheels) so we can start building SK2.Whoa/SK4 (I'm still not sure what the actually name of this thing is going to be). The mechanical team will hopefully be hooking up the steering wheel and mounting the tires soon and then it's really up to us over here in electrical to get everything hooked up and running. Hopefully we'll actually know what it is that we're doing. Fingers crossed.

The car with the little purple steering wheel in the front and all of our electrical bits in the back.

Working Harder

Working Harder

Just keep mounting...

This week we got the motor and the motor controller mounted. Right now we're working on getting rid of some badly riveted aluminum so we can figure out how to mount the charge controller. We also have the brakes pretty much set up so for that end we just have to wait for the mechanical team to get the rear wheel mounted. It's definitely getting there.

Motor Controller, Charge Controller and Jason's arm.

Mounting the Motor

Mounting the Motor

As Well as Other Things

Ok so on Monday, we mounted the motor on SK2. The rest of this week we're going to be working on mounting the motor controller as well as the charge controller. If we get that done, we'll keep moving forward and connect all of the wires and what not. Right now we're still working on getting SK2 running as a test bed. Once we figure out whether or not we can use what it is that we're testing we'll start building SK4/SK2.Whoa/whatever it is we've decided to call it.

Le Motor

Logistics

Logistics

My Job

These past few days we've been looking at the logistics of the trip to Texas. We know it's all the way at the end of July, but we just want to be safe; don't want to be running around like a chicken with it's head cut off come June. So far I've typed up a document with the approximate costs, dates, and a section for contact information once we figure out who's going. The costs are a bit difficult, though since it's so far in the future. Basically the biggest thing is figuring out transportation; do we want to take cars, a motor coach, or a plane? Right now, motor coach is looking like the best option. Some of us think we should take a boat. (Jason)

The Logistics Thus Far

Working Hard

Working Hard

An Adventure With Potential Sponsors

A Wheel.

This week we're working with mechanical in order to get the old SK2 frame up and running. We'll be using this as a test bed for SK2.Whoa (which is apparently what we're naming it). We just had a meeting on Tuesday with a bunch of potential partners and mentors and we're all feeling pretty awesome about it. The presentation was smooth and even though some of us were pretty much ready to have a panic attack (me), everything was generally pretty chill. We're more or less convinced that we impressed them. Which is kinda awesome. Hopefully they share our enthusiasm.

This Week

This Week

Getting Organized

This week we've been mostly working on getting everything together and figuring out what it is that we have. We've gathered 3 charge controllers, 2 motor controllers, a few working batteries, etc. We went ahead and sold somewhere around 1000 pounds worth of old, broken car batteries along with some old metal so that should bring in a decent amount of money as well as space in the room. Right now, we're figuring out how to use the charge controllers. Lots of reading. Next week we're going to try to set up a test bed in the back so we can make sure all of our equipment is working.

Charge Controller Manual. SO MUCH READING.

Designing

Designing

We're gonna fly!

So the design. It's awesome. Bullet-shaped to be aerodynamic, three wheels, detachable panels, pure awesomeness. We're building the chassis out of 1 inch thick conduit. We've got the panels up above the car to give us that little extra lift. Basically, we're flying. (Not really, though. But it will be pretty awesome.)

The design. Perfect piece of artwork. Not at all confusing.

Team Bios

Team Bios

Why did this take so long to figure out?

Today we spent maybe like half an hour trying to figure out how to write the team bios and get them to show up on the page. Don't laugh. We're engineers. Not bloggers. Tomorrow, we have no school. Friday, we'll hopefully be doing something other than blogging. Because we're really bad at blogging.

Jason Pretending to Blog

Day 1

Day 1: Background Image

Oh no that took us 20 minutes to find a background image. Well today's shot.

Electrical SK2

Electrical SK2

Getting Started

Aaaaand we're live! Hello world! This is the blog for the electrical portion of the Solar Knight 2. We are a team of students working together to build a solar car for South Plantation High School. We have chosen this project to make all other senior projects following this one to be inferior. As a whole group, there are 10 of us. This is the electrical portion. Surprise, surprise. As for this particular group of the solar car, we have two people. Jason Garvey and Emily Terwilliger. This is Emily speaking. Or writing. Whatever. We have already started gathering supplies for this solar car by taking apart Solar Knight 1. Batteries and motor controllers were removed on Friday. Today, the blog. Tomorrow, the world.