Greased Lightning
A
hands approach to engineering is an experience that the Rensselaer Formula
Hybrid team wanted to bring to the forefront of the Navigating Rensselaer and
Beyond or NRB experience with the incoming freshman class of 2018. Collaborating
with the Douglas Mercer ’77
Laboratory for Student Exploration and Innovation for the electrical part
of the build, members of the hybrid team worked together with the freshman to
assemble and build a hybrid go-cart in one day. Complete with 205-cc Briggs and
Stratton combustion engine, Etek-RT Motor, 24-volt system with regeneration,
battery voltage monitoring circuit, and 2-axis accelerometer data logging; this project was quite an undertaking.
Members
from the hybrid team used their precious summers to both fix and modify the
cart in order to get it ready for the event. Some of that preparation is in our
previous post here.
In addition, collaboration with the Mercer Lab helped bring more electrical
design into the kart, with battery monitoring and data logging. Team members
put long hours into assembly and testing of the cart as well as taking all the
way down to a bare frame so the freshmen could rebuild it.
The Tear Down
The
day started out with normal operations and safety procedures, but after that
was finished the incoming students walked into our shop to find a fully
dismantled and go-cart. With extra pieces scattered around the workbenches the
students had to figure out how the cart went back together bolt by bolt.
Figuring
it Out
Coming
Together
Photo/The Polytechnic
Credits:
Newman Wu
In addition, some students that
expressed interest in the more electrical part of the build headed up to Mercer
Lab. In the lab, the members of the team introduced the new students to
microcontrollers, breadboards, basic circuit analysis and design, and working
with the awesome top of the line tools that the Mercer Lab provides for all
students to use.
Introduction
to the Lab
Fun
with Electronics!!!
Thinking about Resistance
First
Time Soldering
For the data logging, the hybrid
members and new students worked with an Arduino Nano, Accelerometer, and a data
logging shield to interface with a micro SD card to capture the forces at play.
To design and implement the battery monitoring circuit, hybrid members
explained a voltage divider and accompanying formulas so the new members could
design and implement the divider. The new students accomplished a divider that
pulled low amperage, outputted a voltage no higher than the Arduino could take,
and had relatively high resolution without previous knowledge beforehand.
Accompanying that was a buzzer to alert the driver during a run if an under or
over voltage situation occurred.
Learning
about Racecar
Learning
about Racecar pt.II
After taking a break from lunch,
the hybrid members introduced to the Mercer lab to the new students. There all
the students learned about how the department and Doug Mercer built the lab for
student projects and was free to use. After the presentation of the battery
monitoring and the data logging, one of the hybrid members; Eric Briggs, gave a
quick overview of internal combustion engines so all of the member could had a
better idea of how their cart, as well as our car works.
At the end of the day, the team
had not only put together most of the systems but also did it quickly and
efficiently, coming together and problem solving when something did not quite
fit. Later the hybrid members ran the go-cart in order to check for any safety
concerns that the build team did not accounted for. Although the cart was
supposed to run the next day, the team decided that the rain was not suitable
to run in. Re-scheduling to a later date, the cart performed exceptionally.
With
a bright sunny Saturday, the team joined again to run timed trials with the
cart. Running a pretty standard course the freshmen ripped apart the course (in
the best way possible). All in all it was a great experience for the incoming
students as well as for the formula hybrid team.
Preparing the Course
Preparing the Cart
Anticipation
Because Racecar
