Final Post

6/8/12

As the title suggests this is the final post on our blog. The solar sprint car was a pleasure to work on and a puzzle to figure out but in the end it turned out good (just not for the track we were going to race on). The project, presentation, and the report are done; we worked on them as hard as possible. Thank you for reading.

-JDN

Week 9 Post 1

6/3/12
This week was mostly centered around modifying and testing the car because the main body was done last week. The wheels were put on but they ended up being the stock wheels instead of the wheels that we printed out because the printed wheels won't be done for another couple of days. Other then this our overall design stayed the same as we originally planned and we spent most of our time testing different gear ratios and fixing the car when it broke. In hindsight we should have made the car sturdier so that it could withstand the strain of so much testing. We also were entered in the solar sprint car competition. This did not go as planned at all as after 3 hours and 45 minutes of waiting for the race a strong breeze lifted our car up and smashed it to pieces on the ground. Our car was finished and we had the foresight to take pictures of it before this happened.

 This is a side view of our finished car

Front view of the finished product

Broken car
-JDN

Week 8 post 1

5/28/12- This week was a very productive week. To start off we soldered the leads of the wires to the alligator clips and tested them to make sure that they worked. Next we created the compartment that will house the empty soda can and tested it to make sure that it would be able to keep the can contained in case of a roll-over accident. This back extension worked well and added very little weight to the car so we think that the design is will work well.

 Jeremiah diligently soldering the wires from the solar panel to the clips

Finished solar car body with soda can

Next class we plan on reattaching our motor and gears, putting on the wheels, and doing extensive testing in preparation for the race at the Franklin institute.

-JDN

Week 7 Post 1

5/21/2012- This week we've began constructing the car from the plans. So far, we have the motor/rear-axle assembly and the base support and solar panel fixed to the chassis.

Here we have the motor and gear assembly. This is attached to the underside of the chassis.

 This is the preparation of the base plate support for the solar panel. We had to sand the wood down at an angle.

The solar panel is attached to the chassis. It is anchored at the bottom with a nail and at the top supports by tape.

This week, we plan to accomplish:

1. Attach  wheels to the axles
2. Design and construct a container for the can.

-JDN

Week 6 Post 2

5/10/12- We have just registered for the race. It's on.

-JDN

Week 6 Post 1

5/10/12- This is going to be a busy week. We have begun construction of our car. So far, our base has been cut out and the front of the car meant for mounting the solar panel has also been cut out. Furthermore, our axle mounts have been constructed and will be mounted to the base when construction continues later this week.  Below are pictures of the base of the car of the team working on the car.

Every big project has to start somewhere, and this is the base of our project

Jeremiah and Derek are drilling a hole in the axle mounts for the axles

-JDN

Week 5 Post 1

We have come to two conclusions of the problems presented in the last post. By analyzing the equation for speed of the car, it is determined that the gear ratio of the car is inversely proportional to the speed of the car. As the gear ratio decreases, the speed increases. The smallest possible gear ratio will be achieved by attaching the largest possible gear to the motor and the smallest possible gear to the axel. Tests will be run with other gear ratios once the car is built, but that is our idea. Also, the mass of the wheels decrease speed. So, there will be two wheels in the back and one wheel in the front. Now that the chassis has been designed, the gear ratio has been determined, the electrical component have been modeled, and the materials have been gathered, there is only one step left to do now: to build.