June 16 through 20

This week was quite busy with a lot of little projects going on all at once. For our regenerative braking, we used super capacitors. At 2.4 volts, we used 20 of them to reach 48 volts. These needed to be soldered together in series in a configuration that would fit in the 'wind tunnel' we built to keep a few components cool during operation. We also have to make a lot of our cables by hand. You can see the 15 terminal plug that I wired. One of the most difficult soldering jobs I've ever done. Which doesn't compare to what Ivan does. The multiple circuits you see are logic boards that convert voltages and filter currents coming from our sensors and is a bridge between the remote and the motor controller. Constantly we're having to drill holes in the chassis to insure stability in the attached pieces. The corner brackets you see are not very reliable since they only restrict movement in two of three axis. So, if not anchored to the chassis with a semi-through hole it will continue to slide under high stress.

And here we have the remote control box. We looked through multiple storage bins to find the perfect box to house our components. It has 6 colored LEDs, a three point keyed switch to indicate directions forward and backwards and an off position to apply the air brakes, a two way switch which would turn speed mode on and off, a push button for the horn, a flip switch to change power sources from the capacitors and batteries, and the throttle joystick. The three LCD displays are used for speed, supercap voltage, and an auxiliary display.  

Below is one of the air brakes and the axle without the wheels. On the left side of the axle is the brake rotor. The air brake attaches with a mount on the steel plate.