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 [...]
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 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 [...]
Our Cars
The University of New South Wales Solar Racing Team have raced many cars since they began in 1996. Below is a list of the four main cars we have produced over the years. Sunswift IV 2009 – present Ivy on the first day of racing in the 2009 WSC Background Ivy was built in [...]
Electrical team update: sweepers, testing and so much to do
It’s the end of semester, and a pretty good time to re-cap on some of the things we’ve been up to in the Electrical Team. There’s also so much for us to do over summer, and I hope this post will mark the start of regular updates on our progress. Irving has been busy finalising [...]
Race Day 1 – Sunday
Summary We started off without a hitch, so much so we decided to take a nap about 2 hours in just to give some of the other teams a fighting chance. In reality we stopped for a driver change and to fix up the telemetry data, which got knocked out. We managed to gain back [...]
Better Know a World Solar Challenge: The Fleet
We have 6 cars in the Sunswift fleet, who are all assigned to UHF channel 14. Their names and roles are as follows (and travel southbound in this order): Scout aka ‘The Gopher’ Scout is responsible for ‘scouting’ ahead of the fleet for road obstacles and potential overtaking manoeuvres. Scout also tends to floor it [...]
