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Our departure from Sydney has been moved from the 6th to the 8th to allow time to fix some technical problems with our battery pack. On the afternoon of the 5th, the discovery was made during battery testing that the conductive tabs were acting more like small resistors and while we could operate the batteries with this problem, the heat generated is extremely unsafe.
"Why didn't you test the batteries earlier?' I hear you ask. The actual battery packs were finished several weeks ago, but battery testing software still had to be written and nothing appeared wrong with them after basic testing so no concerns were raised. Further to this, there is an issue that you do not want to test your batteries too much before a solar car race as each time you discharge and recharge a battery, it loses efficiency.
The fact that we are now leaving later has however had some postitive effects. We have had a chance to get our packing done a lot better, with shelves being constructed in the back of the support cars, and we have had a chance to purchase a few last minute items we would have otherwise probably left behind!
To make up lost time we will probably push through to Bourke in one day (rather than staying in Dubbo for the first night), but only time will tell, and the frequency of these web reports will be increasing after we depart tomorrow, so check back to see how we are going!
Willy The Whale
Willy!
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