Lighter Hubs for IVy Mk2
Sunswift Ivy Mk2 will be rolling on a set of new lightweight carbon fibre wheels for the upcoming World Solar Challenge. As these new wheels are geometrically different from the current ones, we worked on designing a new set of wheel hubs to fit the new wheels to the car. Design The design of our [...]
Tilt Sensor Upgrade
Since the start of the year, I’ve been working on the tilt sensor. Its purpose (as you are probably able to guess) is to measure the pitch and roll of Ivy mainly for use in roll down tests. These roll down tests are used to obtain a power vs speed curve for the car by [...]
GPS Barometer Progress
This next month we will be posting some personal reports from team members who will share the projects they are working on in the lead up to this Octobers World Solar Challenge. Today’s story is once again from the electrical team from one of our newer members, Rob. Over the past few months I have been working on [...]
Sunswift members report on Altium training
This week Tommy and I attended a 3-day training course run by Altium. As one of Sunswift’s sponsors, Altium provides our team with software licensing and periodic training sessions to assist us in our PCB design. We began our first day learning the basic layout of the software, the drawing tools and electrical tools. It [...]
In Memory of Michael Wheatley
In June one of Sunswift’s founding members, Michael Wheatley, died of unknown causes. Michael joined the team in 1995 as the fifth member and raced with Sunswift I in the 1996 World Solar Challenge. He went on to become the electrical team leader in the Sunswift II project, culminating in our 1999 Transcontinental attempt from [...]
Sunswift IVy Observer Node (SION)
Over the past year numerous students have undertaken thesis work as part of their degree to improve components within the solar car. Irving in the electrical team has been working at NICTA on the Sunswift IV Observer Node (SION) that will replace the old PLEB (Pocket Linux Embedded Box) in the telemetry system. The PLEB was [...]
