Spartan Superway Update (4/25)

Last week, I helped the Small Scale Solar Team out by helping them clean/prep their solar panels. Before we went to clean the panels, we first took them outside to test them to see if they worked. We tested three panels which gave us 30V each. After that, we took them inside and started to prep them for cleaning. The solar panels had some thick adhesive on the back so we had to use some Goo Gone to get rid of it. We let the Goo Gone soak into the adhesive before we started scrapping it off. The adhesive was a lot stronger than we thought so it took a long time to clean up three panels. After that, the panels were nice and clean and ready to use. The solar panels have grease on them which is very hard to get off your hands.

Spartan Superway Update (4/18)

Since the semester began, my team and I have been working on the small scale track. We had faced many challenges throughout the fabrication of the track. The first challenge was that the welder in the SSDC doesn't output enough current and doesn't weld in AC mode. AC mode is required to weld Aluminum. In order to weld the material, I contacted Professor Muntz in the IS building and ask him if we could weld there. Professor Muntz welcomed us into his shop but the  only downside was that we could only work there on Mondays and Fridays for only three hours.

Over the past two months, I have been welding the sections of the track which proved to be very difficult because of the nature of aluminum. Aluminum takes a lot of current and heat in order for it to melt. I burned myself multiple times too because aluminum doesn't change colors when it has been welded like other material.

Thankfully all the sections of track have been welded and now my teammates are going to connect the sections together with screws. I have been helping the Small Scale Solar team with their project because they needed help welding some material. I will also help other teams if they need my help.

Week of 11/16

This week, my group and I met up and talked about the track. I found a video online that shows how to weld aluminum bars together relatively easily. The process looks like soldering but it requires a blow torch in order to heat the metal up. I think we do have a blow torch in the warehouse so if do use this method we can go right ahead and try it out. The only thing we will need is the aluminum "solder." This material is also cheap. You can get a pack of eight rods for only $13 which is a lot cheaper than paying some one to weld stuff for us.

Week of 11/1/15 Update

This week we met with our group and discussed ways to assemble the track. I had the idea of welding some of the sections together to avoid using so many screws the previous track had, which was a problem when transporting and operating the cart on the track. Sometimes the screws would get loose and snag the cart. Welding would get rid of these problems. The only problem is that I dont know how to weld so I will have to learn over winter break or find someone I know who does.

Presentation 2 Slides Link

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1p11Ptvp7UQiSgUJTpsIumvWTXO01YmQlgIvf_rGioY0/edit#slide=id.g713bbfb36_0_0

Weekly Update October 4

Since the last time I posted, I have been working with my team on our group presentation. My part was to talk about the current track and what issues it has. Working with the track first hand at the Electric Car Rally made this easy for me since I experienced all the problems the track has myself. This will make it easier for me to convey my points to the Superway Team. We have been meeting up with our group after class on Mondays and Wednesdays to work on the presentation. Working with people in person is better than doing a presentation online I think. 

I also looked at the files that Ernest was working on during the summer and found all the ideas/concepts he wanted to do in order to improve/expand the track. Some of his ideas are very good and some still require some thinking and need more brainstorming on how we can implement them. One idea is about implementing a U-turn on the track which is a very  difficult task since we are going to have multiple carts on the track and we don't want any collisions.

Work Summary 9/14-9/20

Last week, I helped get the track get ready for the 43rd Annual Silicon Valley Electric Vehicle Show along with Kenny Strickland, Kenneth Aganon, Marc Acoba, David Chen, Thomas Nguyen, and Michael Hurst. I went to the meeting that was held on Friday where we talked about the future of the project, with a gentleman named Bill James, and also disassembled the track for the first time. I thought that the track was going to be hard to disassemble but we had enough people to get it apart in a matter of minutes. We then packed the track into Kenny Strickland's car and fit all the pods and tools into my car. Then I went to the event at De Anza College the next morning where we all assembled the track and ran the pods.

Doing this event made me open my eyes to improvements that need to be made to the track/pod. The track needs to be made out less pieces and needs a better supporting system because the rods are hard to make the track level. The pod needs the most improvement. The main switching mechanism needs to be more sturdy. The piano wire that connects the servo to the guideways is not ideal and makes the pod fall off the track sometimes. Another thing is that some of the screws within the pod get loose but there is no way to get a tool in there to tighten them without disassembling the entire pod. We also need to cover all the circuit boards in a protective case as well. The biggest thing we found out is the lack of a fail safe is really bad. The pod fell off the track multiple times during the event which is not good. The event was really cool. We met a lot of people that were interested in what we are doing and even won an award for best Student Project.