aramok

aramok

Monday, August 10, 2015

Phoenix Solar Racing

Phoenix Solar Racing Website - Note: I may or may-not endorse anything our site says :)

---->>>  CLICK  HERE  FOR  PICTURES  <<<----

This post is just a few words about my current job and life. Without this post, the future projects I post won’t make much sense. :)  My first semester At Oregon State University, I joined to the OSU Solar Vehicle Team. The team's solar car was “out of town” at the Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge . The next semester I tried to become more involved. When the car returned, I came to realize what a monumentally challenging and exciting team project solar car racing was! I took on any responsibility they would give me and began learning everything I could about solar racing.


I built a little Solar Sensor for the team. It was for detecting solar power(W/m^2) and XY sun angle, ahead of the solar car while it was on the road.  The box had an GPS to couple the solar measurements with position data. The solar sensor module itself was donated to the team as apart of Solar Mems sponsorship of the team. It was a huge pain to get working as it used RS-485, and did not follow the RS-485 standards very well. I really don’t recommend it unless you get it for free like we did. :(

Midway through the project, the Electrical Lead I was making it for stepped down. I offered to lead the electrical team and I was elected!

At the time, the returning car, “The Phoenix” was going to be put on a shelf, and an all new Vehicle built. Designs were for the body were finished and tested but ultimately the ending school year and lack of engineers on the team led the New Vehicle project to fall too far behind schedule.

Our deadline is the American Solar Challenge 2016 in July of that year and instead we decided to refurbish the ageing “Phoenix” vehicle. I am designing an all new electrical system for this Phoenix 2.0. It is my hope that this electrical system will also be used in any future vehicle the team makes. I am making sure there is plenty of documentation, flexibility and foresight to do so.

Some things Solar Racing dwells in:
  1. High Power Density Batteries
  2. Super High efficiency motors and controllers
  3. High efficiency Solar Cells and Maximum power point trackers
  4. Sensors for energy statistics and Computer number crunching
  5. Lightweight designs with carbon fiber, Aluminium and Titanium.
  6. Aerodynamics
I’ll make a post about our Phoenix 2.0 “Spec Sheet”

Some other things that have happened:
The Oregon State University Solar Vehicle Team was mysteriously let go by the Oregon State University: College Of Engineering. Our team is now called “Phoenix Solar Racing”. We lost our workshop space, ~10 grand annual sponsorship, legal support, Insurance support, and the nonprofit status that allows sponsors of our team to receive Tax Deductibility on their donations.

The new workshop is now the two car garage at the house I am living at. :)

The Mechanical Lead of our team dragged his feet for months and nobody objected when i took over as Mechanical lead. Now I share Mechanical Lead responsibilities with another teammate.

That's my full time Job, I get payed in the chance to do crazy mad hax with a team of crazy mad people!

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