Full-Scale Solar Team

As for progress with the Solar Team, this week we discussed our budget and presented it to the Treasurer. The Solar Team talked to the Guideway Team to discuss interfacing models from both teams. Lastly, we worked towards finalizing a work space. The Solar Team will continue to work on the presentation that is will happen on 3/6.

This week Professor Furman brought a guest speaker to Jean to talk about his experience with personal rapid transit and how he has a code that can be downloaded onto a small scale model. This code allows for a 1-3 sec clearance between pod cars, he will be working with small scale to make this work. As for progress with the solar team we have continued to map out our plan for the semester, we are working on finalizing our design and have a survey out that is comparing the aesthetic design between last years design and ours. We hope to get some finalized feedback on our design and are running some final simulations for it. Once we have a solidified budget we can start determining what material we will build this out of as our current price estimates are of about 1400$.

Starting out the semester at the new facility, the Full-Scale Solar Team is working with other adjacent teams along with Dr. Furman and Mr. Swenson on finalizing our design in time for maker faire. For this to work, the team mapped out 3 important steps that we will be following in order to reach our goal Finalize a design that can be expedited to construction Work on securing solar mount to guideway amidst height constraints  Secure funding with Tynan of Wayside team to afford the construction  The team will continually look to push our design to be excellent along with fitting our design requirements. 2/4-2/8

As the semester is wrapping up, the Full-Scale Mounting team is finishing up their work while directing their energy to the Final Paper for ME 195a. The team will be finishing loose ends on several topics related to 1. Finalizing the velcro being used. 2. Cleaning up the Ansys simulation of the load 3. Condensing the final design down to a half model and flipping it opposite to have a East-West facing frame construction. 4. Cost Analysis and Bill Of Materials With these tasks in mind, the team is looking to be wrapped up for the semester after the paper. Time will be devoted over the break to brainstorm more ideas that have not been address yet. 12/3-12/7

Our main goal for this week was to focus mainly on our Presentation 3. We have fallen short on the last two presentations and worked diligently to provide a presentation that better represented our progress and work. We are still waiting on some FEA analysis of the canopy structure that will be done before the end of next week. We received great feedback from professor furman and will continue to get in contact with distributors for our parts as well as further improving our design for the solar canopy. Linked below is our presentation 3. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Rl9ypaE9Y41PU3vRsNXmqauOT6JUMySnPYeoClkVhCk/edit?usp=sharing

On the week of 11/14, The Full-Scale Solar Team is continuing work to provide an excellent solution to mounting and servicing solar panels from underneath the solar mount frame. Along with this, the team is also solving how to put the frame onto the guideway when construction of the frame is complete, as well as keeping the manufacturing of the frame as simple as possible, preferably avoiding custom parts to ensure a faster and cheaper production of these frames in the future. In summary the work for this week heading into Thanksgiving break will be as follows. 1. Each member will tackle a different solution for servicing the solar panels     - Jordan: Will test industrial velcro as a viable solution     - Patrick: Will test griping mechanism from the underside of the frame     - Francisco: Will test griping mechanism from the outside of the frame, just as a fall-back case to ensure that a design will be made Figure 1: Industrial Strength Velcro ...

On the week of 11/7, the Full-Scale Solar Team was able to develop the end goal for the solar canopy fixture on SolidWorks, shown below in Figure 1. Figure 1. Solar canopy mount. For the method of mounting the solar panels to the fixture the idea of using a clamp to secure the panels was chosen, as opposed to using an adhesive or industrial grade Velcro. This was chosen with the idea of having the least amount of error when assembling the solar canopy during installation. The decision of the specific clamp is still in discussion, but will look something like the one in Figure 2. Figure 2. Concept of clamp to secure panel to fixture To stay on track, a small-scale prototype will be developed to provide a hands-on feel. A 3D prototype will be printed in addition to an Ansys of the CAD model and cost for parts. Lastly, the Full-Scale Solar Team will analyze the comments from our adviser and create a list of what we are missing and/or need.