Sorry for the lack of updates. I (Wei-Ren) have been busy with Jarod to fix more last minute problems but in the end we did manage to get all the electrical issues fixed and Mallory running smoothly. We finished in the end with 3149 miles per gallon (unofficial)!!!
Unfortunately, we cannot qualify as our car was also about 200 lbs more that the require weight limit because we overbuilt our car. If we were able to qualify we would be thousands of miles more mi/gal than the other urban challenge cars and 2nd overall to Purdue's vehicle. :( to that but we have certainly learned a lot for next year's car. Also unfortunate we didn't have members from last year to help us improve our car this year but fortunately we used double side duct tape to mount our Ga-As cells so we can reuse them for next year's urban challenge. We'll be getting some competition from Purdue in the urban concept next year and I am super excited if we were to come back next year with the same team to kick some butt.
Here is a recap of what happened at Shell Ecomarthon Houston 2010.
Thursday:
1. We found that our blocking diodes were wired backwards which was huge error on my (WR) part. Jarod and I fixed it and finish wiring up the array to the maximum power point trackers (MPPT). We also tried programing the remaining MPPTs we needed for the array. The Biel's MPPTs were a pain and we should get them fixed or replaced if we were to focus on the Shell Eco.
2. Friday
The course was opened for practice runs and I (WR) got out on the track with the batteries to get a few of the road and get a feel for the timing for the speed needed to get 10 laps and 3 10 seconds stops in 26 minutes.
At night, we finally manage to successfully reprogram 4 MPPTs out of the 8 we had. These MPPTs seriously need to be replaced or refurbished. It took way way too long to get that done and anyways they aren't all that efficient at the low voltage we were running Mallory at.
3. Saturday
We had a few good runs on the course, and had a better feel with the driving strategy. After the first heat, we tried tweaking the motor a little more and ran down the battery a little more from the full pack that we started. The next heat, we unfortunately drained our battery pack down to NIL as the weather was horrible so at night before we left charging up the batteries overnight.
Also, I popped the steering out from the steering rack and was fixed later by Sean.
4. Sunday
In the morning, the packs were only charged up 30% and was not sufficient during heat #4. The BPS shut us of as I tried limping back into the pits. We switched out our battery pack with our spare battery cells and were able to get up into heat #5 and heat #6. The weather was perfect for solar racing and we manage to pull of 3149 miles/ gallon (unofficial). Unfortunately, we can't qualify due to our weight.
Well that's a recap of what has happened. I'll update later with pictures and more notes.
