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.