Fitting the Array

The team has been working overtime this past week to get our new array ready. This has been one of our major projects for the past year and it's great to see it finally coming together. Late last week, the team began cutting and fitting Plascore ribs to the underside of the array. From Sunday through till the meeting on Wednesday, we worked tirelessly to adjust the pieces and glue them in place.



After the ribs were finally done, we had the fun task of mating the array to the lower body. This process began last Thursday, continued through till the weekend, and it will resume this week. It is a long, painful process, but the results will be well worth the extra time in the lab.



There are also a few smaller projects that have seen progress in the last week. Joe, a freshman that has taken interest in fabrication and driving, has been busy working on building a carbon fiber steering wheel for the car. Mitch, along with some help from other members, worked on our MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracker) box by essentially cutting it in half. With the new solar cells that we are going to install on the car, the system will only require 3 MPPT's, compared to the 6 that the old Gallium Arsenide array used. Friday afternoon, the machine shop hummed with the sound of progress. One of the CNC milling machines was busy carving away aluminum from our upper A-arms in order to make it lightweight. It's easy to say that this process is very exciting for both our design and mechanical teams.

The team will be busy working on the car during spring break, so be sure to follow along here on the blog and on our official Twitter account, SunseekerWMU.

Bronco Pride,
Joshua

Status Check

At last night's meeting, Dr. Engelmann went though a list of tasks that need to be completed in order for us to have a functioning car. We addressed issues and concerns about each task and made deadlines for each to be accomplished by. Many of the team members now have their own side project(s) to complete and everyone will be busy until the car is completed. As of now, the tentative date by which we wish to have the car running in a rayce worthy condition is the end of March, so time is slowly ticking away!

After the meeting, the team quickly moved into the build session. We began to cut and fit ribs for the array, worked on the new steering wheel, began designing a new brake pedal assembly, and rearranged our corner of the lab to make work easier. One of the tasks for rearranging was to move the old array out of our way. This was accomplished by hanging it from an I-beam. Its a little scary to walk under, but it definetly looks cools and gives us some much needed room to work!



Bronco Pride,
Joshua Allen

The New Array

Last week, several team members braved the winter storm to remove the array from its mold. After only a few minutes of working the part, it broke free and came out looking beautiful. Even without ribs, the new array piece is stronger than the array we built last year. Nick is in the final stages of creating a rib design that will add strength and rigidity to the piece so that it will be strong enough to support the new solar cells without risking damage to them.

Work on the lower body continues as we prepare to paint and mate the two parts of the shell. Other than that, this week was a little slower than most, but soon things will be in full swing as the design team starts spitting out plans for parts to be made and installed.


Bronco Pride,
Joshua