Team+LAG

﻿ L . A . G ﻿  Lillian, Austin, Grace   Eat﻿ Our Dust!!!



MARCH 29th-  So far we have created the body of our prototype electric car and are in the process of perfecting the instruments that make the electric car roll and creating a front wheel. We have not been able to make the car successfully maneuver across the floor of the Middle School, but will hopefully be able to attach the front wheel to the body and our car will be able to successfully move.  The main issue that we have run into so far, has been keeping the gear on the axle securely locked into the gear on the motor. To do so, we have had to experiment with different sizes of gears (initially the gear on the motor was smaller than the gear on the axle larger which did not work because it did not have enough force to push the larger gear on the axle. Once we changed this, it worked a lot better), also we had to investigate keeping the axle in place. After consulting with Tommy, we were able to glue beads onto the surface of the car on either side of the motor, and then glue a set of beads to the axle next to the stationary beads. This way, the beads attached to the axle rub up against the beads attached to the body of the car and stop the axle from shifting. After doing these two accommodations, the gear on the axle is locked into the gear on the motor.

 APRIL 1st-  Today we began to attach the front wheel to the car. We are using the same mechanism that we used to keep the axle to the back wheels in place (beads glued to the body of the car on either side of the wheel, and then beads glued onto the axle on either side of the wheel so that they rub and keep them in place). The front wheel is placed at the point of the triangle of our car, and will hopefully help the movement of the car! The next time that we work on the car, we will finish working on the front wheel and then hopefully be able to take it on a test run.

 APRIL 12th-  Today we finished attaching the front wheel and took the car to one of the hallways of the middle school to see if it worked. It did work and the speed was great but... it went slightly towards the left. We then sat down and looked at all the things on the car that could interfere with the car rolling in a straight line. After some contemplation, we figured out that the front wheel's axle was not glued down in a straight line. We re-glued the axle so that it was in a straight line by just LOOKing at it. Wow that was a terrible mistake!!!! We tested out the car again and this time, the car drove slightly towards the right. We realized that out our eyes actually are n.o.t. very reliable so we re-glued the axle with a RULER. This time it actually worked. Now, we have a working car and will be able to do some time trials next time we work on the car.



<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Our STRAIGHT front wheel axle! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> APRIL 15th- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Today we decided not to work on the car but researched the different angles for the Solar Charging Station. We figured out that we need to have our Solar Charging Station at a 70 degree angle to receive the maximum amount of light at the time of which our stations will be out soaking up the sun the day of the Electric Car Convention. The website we collected this data from is: http://solarelectricityhandbook.com/solar-angle-calculator.html

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> APRIL 18th- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Today Austin worked on the body of the Solar Charging Station while Grace and Lillian worked on the Time Trials and revising the car. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The first Time Trial went pretty well. Our car was able to move in a straight line for twenty feet in 5.6 seconds. The speed of the car was 3.6 ft/s. We wanted to improve the time of our car so we analyzed the materials used and the design of our car. We decided on changing the material that the body of the car is made out of. Our new car is going to be made out of T-Core because it is less fragile but does not weigh much. We are also going to surround the body of the car with pink duct tape. We are thinking about adding some weight to the car so that it will role faster. Next time we will consider different options for adding weight and will start designing the new car.



<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">APRIL 25th- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today Austin worked on our Solar Charging Station (photos will be posted later) while Grace and Lillian worked on various things with the electric car. We decided not to add any excess weight to our vehicle and to use basically the same outline as our other car. The few changes that we are going to make are: bigger wheels, this way the car will hopefully cover more distance in a less amount of time (also the traction is fabulous :P); and cut out the T-Core that is not used to hold things, like the motor, battery pack, wires, ect. on the body of the vehicle, hopefully this change will keep it light so that it will have a faster acceleration. Towards the end of class, we started to experiment with different sizes of gears on the motor and the back axle. We will continue to do this next class period so that we can optimize the speed of our car. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">APRIL 28th- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today Austin started to work on the last touches on our Solar Charging Station. We have created it so that we will be able to adjust the angle of the panel to receive the maximum amount of sunlight. While Austin was working on the charging station, Lillian worked on the body of the electric car. The new body has the correct measurements that are required to enter the vehicle into the competition. She also cut out the sections on the car where the axle gear and the front wheel are going to be located.



<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">MAY 3rd- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today Grace put duct tape on the vehicle to create a smooth surface... and it also looks better. Austin continued to work on the Solar Charging Station as Lillian worked on the electric car. We glued the back wheel axle on, using the same method that we used on the first prototype vehicle. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">MAY 4th- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today we solely worked on the car. We tried to attach the back wheels and axle using beads (like we did on our prototype). Lillian glued the axle to the body of the car with hot glue and attaching beads to keep the axle from moving so that the gear on the axle and the gear on the motor stay intermeshed. The beads would not stay stationary, though, but we ran out of time to redo it. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">CHANGES TO THE CAR & THE EFFECTS: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">﻿- Bigger wheels: more traction and more speed  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- The body of the car is longer: to meet the requirements  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- Duct tape covers the surface: more aerodynamic and it looks better  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- An on and off switch: easier to turn the car on and off  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- Gear on the motor is large and the gear on the axle is small: to generate more force  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- Nylon spacers: to keep the axle stationary     <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">MAY 5th-﻿  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today we redid the the back axle. The beads would not stay in place so we decided to use nylon spacers instead. It is very important for the axle to be stationary because if it is not, the axle will move which will make the gear on the axle move which will disconnect it from the gear on the motor. We glued the nylon spacers on the body of car, holding the axle to the car. We then glued another spacer onto the axle. This way the spacer glued to the axle will rub up against the spacer that is glued to the car so that it will prevent the axle from moving. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">MAY 4th- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today we mainly worked on the car. Austin glued on the screw hooks that will keep the car in line when in the race while Lillian placed the battery pack and the on and off switch on the vehicle. We decided to attach the black battery pack by Velcro (instead of glue) and tape the switch with red electric tape. Lillian accidentally short-curcited the batteries and it started to smoke. She freaked out and Austin came and saved the day. The car is okay! It ruined our battery pack though, so we had to get a new one and use a different kind of switch. While all of the chaos was taking place, Grace was peacefully working on the front cover of our binder for the competition and totaling the cost of the car.

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MAY 10th-Today Lillian worked on the Wiki Page while Austin glued on the front wheel and did a few time trials. The speed of our car has definitely improved since the last time trial that we did with the prototype car. The adjustments that we made to the design have proven to be helpful. Next time we will continue to do some time trials and make small adjustments to the vehicle. We will also continue to work on paper work (like the list of materials that we used ect.)