New SIte!

Hey Everyone,

I have posted a link to one of the two new blogs. Please check them out. I will try to update them more frequently than I did with this one.

Hope you enjoy

Alex

Batteries

Our shipment of 600 battery cells is finally here! They were delivered yesterday morning and we are ready to start collecting data and putting the battery pack together. Our battery pack will consist of 520 Lithium-Polymer cells, giving us a total voltage 0f 148 volts.

UPDATE!

Unfortunately I've gotten a little behind on updating this blog, so here's what we've been up to for the last month because, yes we have still been hard at work. The lower part of the body is nearly complete. We added the second layer of carbon fiber and after some frustration, got the 1/2 inch honeycomb layed down. We then added the 1/4 inch honeycomb to the curved portions of the body. After letting the epoxy cure to the honeycomb we added the third layer of carbon fiber and let it cure. Once cured, we smoothed out the transition from the 1/2 inch to 1/4 inch honeycomb with and sanded layer of 1/4 honeycomb. At that point, we were ready for the final layer of carbon fiber. We came in Tuesday and got right to work prepping for the final layup. After impregnating them with epoxy, we layed down the final sheets of carbon fiber and applied the vaccum. We came in yesterday and revieled the final layer. It was the nice smooth layer that we had hoped for. We finished up yesterday by smoothing out the transitions even further with some bondo.

While all of that was going on, we continued to work on the steering wheel layups. after 2 thick layers of fiberglass to create the negative, we realized that the wood mold was not going to release from the epoxy, so we scraped it and decided to go a different route. We are working on machining a mold that the plastics lab will be able to create a plastic steering wheel from. this will hopefully give us a nice smooth steering wheel which will be easy to mount the controls to.

We were also able to get the design for the motor housings finished and sent out to be machined. Also, the spider gears that the stator will connect to were machined and delivered to us.

The Frame is set to be fabricated and welded next week, with suspension mounts to follow in the next weeks.

As for the electrical side of the car, well we have been busy there too. Our main fuses and contactors have arrived as well as the power point trackers. The cells for our battery pack should be arriving within the next couple days and there will be a lot of work to do when they do. The senior design teams have been hard at work finishing both the telemetry and LED boards. The schematics for the main power bus have been finished as well as the the all important CAN bus, which allows the different components of the car to talk to each other, and the CAN bus cables have been purchased.

I will put some photos up tomorrow, so keep checking.

Odds n' Ends

I added some links for you guys to check out if you haven't already. You can find them on the right hand side of the page.

As for work, well, it's spring break and we have not had the hands needed to complete the lay-up. Despite that, progress is still being made. We had two important deliveries last Thursday: the machined aluminum suspension parts, and the steel tubing for the frame. We were also given a brief glimpse of the new design of the rear suspension, nicknamed "the dragon" after some artistic interpretation from Tim. David came in on Tuesday and cut the tubing down to size so it can be bent, fitted, and welded. The mold for the new steering wheel has been finished and is ready for lay-up. Abe came in again, and with the proper parts, finished opening the motor for us.

Second layer

On Sunday we laid down the second layer of carbon fiber which we had precut on Saturday. We were planning on laying down the layer of honeycomb at the same time to help it bond to the carbon fiber but we had some difficulty keeping it in place so we decided to hold off on it. We vacuum bagged the second layer and left it to cure.

Honeycomb prep & Motor disasembaly

On Thursday we held a brief meeting discussing some of the tasks still to be done and a time line to finish them. David also talked some logistics with members of the Honors College. After the meeting we proceeded to cut and fit the layer of honeycomb to the mold to prepare it for the next lay-up. On Saturday we continued to fit and prep the honeycomb. We also precut the next layer of carbon fiber so that it would be ready for us when we came in on Sunday. To strengthen the body we are laying this layer of fiber on a 45 degree angle. Finally, Abe came in to to help us take apart one of the motors from the previous car, so we could figure out the spacings for the motor housings However, we soon realized that we did not have all of the parts necessary to take it apart, so we will have to do it sometime next week.

Unveiling the First Layer

Yesterday was our first chance to take a look at the cured carbon fiber. After displaying the old car for some local high schools we were able to take the vacuum bag off the car and peel away the batting and peel-ply to get a glimpse of the CF. Despite some minor defects, we were very pleased with the result.

Prep & Lay-up

On Thursday we finished the final preparations before starting the layups. We sanded the primer for the final time and waxed the mold to help the carbon fiber release from it. Over the weekend we finally got to put on the first layer of carbon fiber. After cutting the pieces to shape we mixed the epoxy and brushed it into the CF. We then formed it on the mold, covered it with peel-ply and batting, and sealed it all in a vacuum bag. Now it just has to cure.

Round 2

On Saturday, we came in and sanded down the bondo, that we had applied on Thursday, back to the shape of the body and prepped it for another round of primer. 3 more layers of primer were added to insure we could sand it back to a perfectly smooth surface for lay-ups. As for Tuesday, well we completed the final round of sanding before lay-ups.

Prime, Sand, & Bondo

Yesterday, Ian came in layed down the first four layers of primer (grey) for us so that the body would be ready for yet another roung of sanding today after the meeting. After the meeting was done, David and Ian started slaving over the poster sized list of step that still needed to be completed to finish the car on tie for the race. While they were doing that the rest of us began sanding down the primer. First we hit it with a round of 150 grit to get rid of the paint spackling, then with 220 to really smooth it out. Once that was done we cleaned it off and wiped it down to prep it for bondo. Once ready we filled any and all low spots with bondo to fill them in and make sure we were ready for the last few layers of primer.

Sand & Smooth

Today we were able to finish sanding the epoxy thanks to the large number of people that showed up. We started by sanding down any rough areas left from Saturday and leveling the areas where the epoxy had pooled. After that we did a quick once-over with a higher grit paper to help get rid of the "grain" left from the sand paper and to smooth the surface even further. With the sanding completed we were able to blow any remaining dust off the car and wiped it down with moist towels to insure that there will be no dust left on the body when it comes time to spray on the first layers of primer tomorrow.

Sanding

With the lab prepped and our paint both ready to go, we were able to start sanding the body mold yesterday. We spent about 2 hours on the first round of sanding the epoxy, by far the hardest part of the layup, well for your arms. Hopefully one more quick round of sanding on Tuesday and we will be ready to apply the first layers of primer.

Progress to Date

We have finally finishing prepping the lab for body work and are excited to be moving forward with the work. We picked up the foam body mold from Grand Rapids last Friday and it looks great. Since then we have applied two coats of epoxy, to stiffen it up, and a top layer of epoxy mixed with micro glass beads to help smooth it out for priming.

























As for the frame, we have purchased the necessary tubing and are waiting for it to arrive. Parts of the suspension are also being machined for us at this time. On Tuesday we took apart the motor and front suspension from the previous car for analysis and ideas for modifications on the new car.

We would like to send a thank you out to all of the companies who have donated their time and resources to helping us reach our goal.