|
Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School
Monthly Reports
Team Information:
Barry Wilson-Advisor
Kennedy High School
C/o Cougar Electric Co.
4545 Wenig Rd. NE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402
319-558-1595
http://www.cougarelectriccar.com
January Monthly Report-Car 30
Over the summer while electric car was sleeping the 30 car was hard at work. Yes while the rest of the program was enjoying their summers the 30 car team members were busy bees. Since the end of last season we designed the car, setup our jigs, bent the chassis, welded the whole car, and began testing a couple weeks after school has started. Details of this process will be presented in our main part of our documentation.
Last winter the entire electric car team went through the immense process of building two fiber glass bodies. One went to another car and one went to the 30 car. We spent some time trimming and fitting the body around our car. This month specifically, we completed the painting process, which included an extreme amount of sanding. Then we primed it, and we finally painted it over Christmas break.
Problems encountered during testing:
1. Center of gravity
2. Brakes
3. Pedals
4. Body fit problems
5. Motor efficiency problems
6. Switch durability
Our center of gravity problem was solved by slugging our ballast weight right over our front axle. We solved our motor efficiency by adjusting the brush leads on our motor. We still have to address most of our other problems.
This month we also started on our main documentation. We have an outline of what we are going to do for our documentation.
Goals for February: Get the bulk of our documentation complete.
February Monthly Report-Car 30
The 30 car team was busy writing documentation this month. We still have much to write for documentation. We also need to collect pictures during the building process. We were also busy preparing our teams third molded body.
However, unlike January, we spent some time fixing some annoying glitches on the car. One of the problems was that the tires were rubbing on the top of the fiberglass body. The tires were too wide, so we adjusted one of the eyebolts to be slightly wider.
Another glitch was that one of our brake calipers was rubbing against the brake rotor. To solve this we sanded down the brake pads until they no longer rubbed.
Goals for next month:
• Complete center of gravity calculations
• Complete documentation
• Solve all the remaining mechanical glitches that remain
• Complete more test runs
March Monthly Report-Car 30
This month:
This month in electric car we have been busy with race season approaching. The 30-car team has completed almost all of the writing for our documentation. Also since the time for racing is upon us we have began to work on the car. Most of our work has been maintenance with some troubleshooting from early testing sessions.
Goals for next month:
Next month we hope to complete all of our races in Nebraska. These races will help us gather valuable data that we can use in the championship race and the Iowa season. Also we hope to assemble our final documentation book. Finally we will address any problems we experience in our races and make small improvements to the car.
January Monthly Report-Car 40
The forty car team has been working on accomplishing the following goals:
• Build a car with the following criteria
1. Lighter car than any of the previous cars
2. Make the car design quicker and easier to assemble which may possibly allow for mass production of cars
3. Completion of the 40 car chassis within one month
4. Incorporating other knowledge from outside sources and including it into building a new car
5. Make the body of the car smoother by putting more time into the sanding process
6. Add new styles of steering and swing arm designs into the car that have the possibility of revolutionizing the way these components work
7. Place batteries in between legs to alter the performance of the car on various tracks
• Expand on knowledge
1. Learn more about batteries and search for batteries that have the potential of winning nationals
2. Work on documentation and include detailed information about differences made to the 40 car
3. Experiment with motors and the efficiency and potential of each motor and trying to learn how to run each motor to achieve maximum peak efficiency
4. Converse with another electric car team and discuss what their hopes and plans are.
What we have done:
In the previous few months, the forty car team has been focusing on building a new chassis. The design process is included in these months which have been very interesting in the fact that so many different concepts are being incorporated into the car that controversial views are beginning to develop in the company over the potential of the new car. As of right now most of the parts for the main chassis are made.
A number of changes have been added to this design that makes this car very different than our previous and current cars. A major change that may be made to the body is placing the mirrors inside the wheel fenders which in return will help the aerodynamics of the car allowing it to be more efficient. There is talk of adding a clear, permanent tail to the car to also increase aerodynamics and to protect the brake lights from any incidents that could occur. As of now, we have cut almost all the pieces for the car and all that is left to do is assemble the car by welding the parts and place the electrical and steering components inside the car.
February Monthly Report-Car 40
Accomplishments:
Chassis~ we started to work on building our chassis at the beginning of the month and are currently still working on completing it.
Body~ we are making our body out of fiberglass. It is a long and tedious process. We had to make sure that everything is all set up to make the mold. And that is what takes up the majority of the time. We have to make sure that we have all of the materials for the mold. The molding its self doesn’t take that long. It just takes us sometime to find enough people to help with the mold. Plus we need to find a time where we can do the mold and have enough time to air out the school, before school starts. Since the fumes get really strong.
Axel~ we had to redo the axel plates because we didn’t quite make them right so they didn’t fit the body. We make them now so they fit.
Documentation~ we have started on our documentation but we have a lot to go.
Problems:
Right now we are really starting to worry about time. We don’t seem to have enough time to get everything that we want done. It will be really difficult for us to be able to complete everything we need done by the time it needs to be done.
Solution:
We are going to have to take extra time out of our day and stay longer working on our cars. Plus we are going to have to see if there is another way to get more things done for the same amount of work.
Things we hope to accomplish this month:
We hope to get the chassis all done and ready to put into the body before the first race. We are also going to finish the frame and possible start painting it. Plus we hope to have the majority of the documentation done.
March Monthly Report-Car 40
Accomplishments:
We started making the solid axle that runs through the center of the car. We finished the body and got primer put on it, as well as a new windshield. To finish the windshield, we went to Advanced Tinting Solutions where they gave us leftover mirrored tint that they could no longer use. We have also been readying the old 40 car’s chassis to run in Hastings and in Lincoln. With the new 40 car chassis, we are almost finished, but not quite close enough to run it in Hastings and Lincoln. We are now finished with most of the new chassis, including the new swing arm, the new steering system, and the new LED style brake light system. We have also been working on design plans for an interior lighting design so that our drivers can see if there may be a problem inside.
Problems:
• Axle plates
• Time
• Mounting of the swing arm
• Placement of the axle assemble for easy exiting
Solutions:
• The idea of using separate axle plates was eliminated and we decided to use a 1.5” to connect the plates and it was then located under the legs for easy exiting
• We simply are running out of time and work has been done twelve hours a day, over the weekend and during the whole Spring Break time period
• The problem of mounting the swing arm was easy to solve by just placing a 1.5” long piece of solid aluminum on both sides of the 1”x2” bar
Plans for April:
• Finish up the forty car chassis and add the steering assemble and wiring it up
• Finish painting the car
• Test the possibilities of the new chassis and resolve any problems
January Monthly Report-Car 50
What we have accomplished:
• Everything for the frame is finished (that was just the skeleton now we have to put the “organs” of the car in)
• The car is now rolling and off the table.
Problems:
• We wanted to be finished by the end of December.
• We happen to be about four weeks behind.
• We are in need of more money.
Solving our problems:
• We started to spend more time outside of school working on the chassis.
• We encouraged our promotional team to raise more money.
• We are trying to keep everyone on task to help get things done faster.
What we are planning on doing:
• Getting the rest of the car put together so that it is able to run and is ready to pass inspection
• Making a fiberglass body for the car
• Keep on encouraging the promotion team to raise money
February Monthly Report-Car 50
Accomplishments:
Chassis~ we started to work on building our chassis at the beginning of the month and are currently still working on completing it.
Body~ we are making our body out of fiberglass. It is a long and tedious process. We had to make sure that everything is all set up to make the mold. And that is what takes up the majority of the time. We have to make sure that we have all of the materials for the mold. The molding its self doesn’t take that long. It just takes us sometime to find enough people to help with the mold. Plus we need to find a time where we can do the mold and have enough time to air out the school, before school starts. Since the fumes get really strong.
Axel~ we had to redo the axel plates because we didn’t quite make them right so they didn’t fit the body. We make them now so they fit.
Documentation~ we have started on our documentation but we have a lot to go.
Problems:
Right now we are really starting to worry about time. We don’t seem to have enough time to get everything that we want done. It will be really difficult for us to be able to complete everything we need done by the time it needs to be done.
Solution:
We are going to have to take extra time out of our day and stay longer working on our cars. Plus we are going to have to see if there is another way to get more things done for the same amount of work.
Things we hope to accomplish this month:
We hope to get the chassis all done and ready to put into the body before the first race. We are also going to finish the frame and possible start painting it. Plus we hope to have the majority of the documentation done.
March Monthly Report-Car 50
What we have accomplished:
• Finished getting car ready to run
• Ran it once in our school for a pep assembly
• Recruited a new driver so that we now have two drivers
Problems:
• We had to get the car to fit in the body as well as have the driver fit in the car and bodySolving our problems:
• We had to cut off the parts that weren’t right, fix them, and then finally re weld them.
What we are planning on doing:
• Finish the final reports
• Finish final accommodations to the rules such as the new leg restraint
• Get the car geared to race our first 2 races and do well in them
|
