Drive by wire!
Driver controls are one of the critical components of any car. In a solar car, not only does there have to be a mechanical connection to the front wheels via a steering column, but also a connection to the drive train to control torque and velocity. There is no gas pedal in IVy, only a [...]
Testing & Training Update
During the last few weeks, on top of all the work going on at the workshop, we have been also been busy testing and characterising Ivy in preparation for the World Solar Challenge. We’ve been fortunate enough to get access to the Sydney International Regatta Centre, which has a beautifully flat stretch of road alongside [...]
FleetPartners: Official Fleet Provider of the UNSW Solar Racing Team
We would like to give a big thank you to our newest sponsor, FleetPartners, who are donating five vehicles, as well as fuel, to the team to use during the World Solar Challenge. Reliable fleet vehicles are critical for our safe passage through central Australia during the upcoming 2011 World Solar Challenge. We will be [...]
Thanks RS Components!
Last week, Simon and Sandeep from RS Components Australia arrived at our workshop with some invaluable equipment and components. This is the third year RS has supported our team, and we cannot thank them enough for this. Amongst a lot of goodies were: 2x Agilent USB capable multi-meters, a tap and die set, an awesome [...]
New Driver Display
Despite the complexity of most of Sunswift IVy’s electronics sometimes a simple change can make a significant difference. As a new member of the Sunswift team my first job was to create a new driver display to replace the older display which while still functional was designed to sit inside the steering wheel, a position that proved uncomfortable for [...]
Sunswift: There’s an App for That
Winning a race requires much more than a fast car– more often than not, winning a race comes down to logistics and effective communication amongst the team. Over the past month, we’ve been working on a mobile app that allows the team to receive real time information related to the car and communicate with one [...]
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 [...]
Carbon Update to Smokey Joe
Since our last carbon update things have been coming along extremely well with many hours dedicated to our composites work, plying our trade and improving all the time. To date we have produced 3 lower spats (fairings) and two upper spats and have another upper spat ready to be cooked tomorrow morning. The last few in [...]
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 [...]
