Tommy Heyser – Mechanical Team Leader
Tommy leads a team of student-mechanical engineers and oversees all mechanical projects on Sunswift IV, including: Maintenance of existing mechanical system, e.g. front and rear suspension, steering, wheels and hubs, and brakes; Design, manufacturing, and assembly of improved brakes system and new wheels and hubs, new steering column; and Liaise between suppliers, sponsors, and mechanical [...]
2011 World Solar Challenge
Sunswift raced IVy again in the 2011 World Solar Challenge. She was improved with a new wheel motor, completely new top-shell with new silicon array and improved brakes and electrical systems. IVy and the team placed 6th overall, just in front of our mates Aurora. The team also took out 1st place in the production [...]
Dar-winning
It has been an action-filled four days since we arrived in Darwin Monday night. Here are the highlights: As soon as we hit Darwin pavement we unloaded the solar car at Hidden Valley Raceway and met some of the other teams such as Stanford, CalSol from Berkeley, and ETS from Montreal. Besides acclimating to the [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Etienne Le Sueur – Electrical Team Leader
Etienne is currently leading the electrical sub-team, which works on all electrical aspects of the teams car. These include: Drive-train (Motor controller, motor, etc) Telemetry and sensors Battery and associated monitoring system Wireless telemetry communication Driver communication system Solar array and array optimisation Etienne recently completed his Masters at UNSW in Computer Science. His thesis [...]
