| |  | | | | |
The last two days have been hectic for the UNSW Solar Racing Team. Yesterday morning, during testing of our solar array, some problems with our maximum power point trackers developed. The trackers are used to regulate the output of the solar panels on our car to extract the maximum amount of power possible.
Despite the problems the team was out on the road again in the afternoon for more testing of the car to iron out a couple of minor bugs. The team drove out from our caravan park and up towards Port Augusta, before turning around after a couple of hours' driving.
Back at our accommodation and with a bit more array testing it became clear that more drastic measures were needed to overcome our problems. After some head-scratching and a lot of phone calls we came up with a few options.
Thanks go to Peter Pudney who was able to lend us two of the South Australian Solarcar Consortium's Brusa trackers from their car Ned, and to Byron Kennedy and Steve from Northern Territory University who stayed up all night modifying some of the team's older trackers so that they could handle our car's higher battery voltage.
Meanwhile it was a very late night for our team as members stayed up well into the early morning trying to diagnose and fix our array problems. Eventually everyone, including our inflatable mascot Willy, had to get some sleep.
Willy The Whale
Willy!
Mail Bag
If you have a question for the team, or would like to wish them well, write to our mail bag, care of Ask Willy. | | | |
