Solar Freaks

Hello all,

The regulations for the 2011 challenge are currently being finalised and should be set to come out in late January. Head scrutineer Stan Woithe and myself have been working closely with Ian Gardner to simplify the rules and make several major changes which should hopefully make for an interesting competition in 2011.

Oh and for those of you that didn't know, the nationals will be held in Hobart this year.

Marc

Anything set in stone in regards to 2 lap races and max panel power?

Redlands,

Max panel power is being reduced to 10W. Any panel measuring more than this will be officially taped over by the scrutineers until it comes in under the 10W. On the flip side, there will be no lower power limit.

2 laps look to be staying, although there is a new ballasting formula which should now have the break-even distance at somewhere between the 1 and 2 laps for a good car (rather than at the end of the first lap). Where exactly this point is remains to be seen.

I could go on and list some of the other rule changes, but I think that I'll just leave those since the regulations should be ready for release in a couple of weeks anyway.

Marc

Hi All

miseli wrote:Any panel measuring more than this will be officially taped over by the scrutineers until it comes in under the 10W

I know panel power is a hard thing to alter, but is there a possibility that teams will attempt to cheat, exploiting the fact that it is somewhat easy to pull the tape off? I know this is hard with the Scorpio cells in particular as they are nominally 5.5W, but in the future would it be easier to just enforce the blanket rule of "no panels under 10W at all"?

Yes that's a future possibility.

One of the reasons why the masking rule was brought in is because we took into consideration how many schools invested in and are currently using the Scorpio panels, and the fact that some commercial 10w panels (ie solarex) are producing up to 13 watts.

As the schools slowly shift to lower powers in the future, i think there is a big chance we will phase masking out.

Hi Conitsiotis,

Conitsiotis wrote:I know panel power is a hard thing to alter, but is there a possibility that teams will attempt to cheat, exploiting the fact that it is somewhat easy to pull the tape off? I know this is hard with the Scorpio cells in particular as they are nominally 5.5W, but in the future would it be easier to just enforce the blanket rule of "no panels over 10W at all"?

Yes, it is aimed that things will eventually be replaced with a blanket rule in the future. How soon that will be will depend on how many panels measuring over 10W are still used in the next year or 2.
As Tony has mentioned, the masking rule is purely being brought in so those with high powered panels don't immediately have to go out and purchase a new one.

Yes, there is always going to be a small possibility that teams will attempt to cheat, but I don't know if it would be worth the risk. Deliberate tampering or removal of the tape would basically result in instant disqualification from the competition.
A close eye will be kept on all the panels that have had tape applied and photos of all of these will be taken during scrutineering to assist officials. If the committee for some reason feel that something isn't quite right, a panel can always be retested at any time during the event.
It would be far easier to cheat by setting up 2 panels that look identical but have different power outputs. The one with the lower power could then be used when going through scrutineering and the higher one for racing.
I wouldn't recommend for anyone to try it though. The scrutineers are awake up to most things these days and you could be in a little bit of trouble if you get caught doing something outside the spirit of the event.

Marc

Yaaay can't wait for the regulations to come out
We are eager to get started

Hello all,

At long last, here are the finalised car regulations for 2011.



A synopsis of the car specifications will no longer be published as a separate file but is instead included at the end of the second document. This has been done in order to try and get teams to read the full rules first rather than simply go over the brief summary and then miss key details.

Feel free to ask any questions relating to any of the content in the above files and either Ian Gardner, Tony or myself should be able to answer your query in this thread.

Marc

W.A.'s new solar model car challenge website! Hopefully some images and regulations go up soon!

http://www.seaaus.com.au/content/view/378/185/

Hello all,

I've noticed that most of the state websites have been a little slow in uploading the new 2011 car rules and only the Tas, national and solarfreaks sites currently have them available for download. I will send a reminder out to the various state coordinators.

In the meantime, for those that didn't know, the various state rules are basically the same as the nationals ones. Other than having modified committee contacts, a possible different competition-day racing format and a few other minor things, they are identical and so teams can run off the national regulations until their local version comes out.

It's also good to see that everyone fully understands this year's car rules as there haven't been any questions posted on here and I haven't received many emails.
Another document discussing the regulations in some further detail will be released shortly. This should explain why some of the rules are as they are for those that are interested.

Marc

Hello all,

The following document is an abbreviated version of Ian Gardner's design hints plus some details and photos of the car that won the 2009 Victorian event.



Ian has also sent me the 2011 version of his design hints and I will be going over and editing these in the next few days before getting them up on here.

Marc

Hi all,

It's taken a little while to go over the entire 2011 design hints but here they are.


Large parts of the document are relatively unchanged from 2010 but there are little changes and additions here and there as well as a few new sections.

Marc

Hi all,

How are everyone's cars coming along?

The following document has been put together with the aim of going over the car regulations in a little more detail. It consists of the 2011 car specifications with additional comments then given in blue after each section (except for those sections that are self explanatory and the meaning is obvious).


Marc

Hi all...
Kinda new to this page so would love some feedback and help/tips. Okay, so this year we are designing and making a solar car for the sunsprint comp this year and I am looking for some tips and tricks that can help us to improve our performance and time.