Solar Freaks

miseli wrote:All 32 entries will be sorted out well before the event and there will be no race-offs prior to the competition this year.

yeah that sounds like a good idea.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the field might contain a few more WA entries than usual because it is a long trip from the East and unless you recieve funding or sponsorship it might be difficult for teams to make the trip over.

For instance in 2008 we finished 4th in the WA competition but we couldn't go to Tasmania because we didn't have any money!

OK, I agree pressing a button is not that hard. But setting it at its max point is challenging for most. Redland, a tip, don't go adjusting your maximizer before every race this year. It damages the motor after a million times and adjusting it under pressure is not recommended. A shadow of some sort, including clouds may effect it. I would recommend you to set it before the competition as close to 100% and keep it like that. That's what I did with the Girrawheen cars. The only time you would adjust it is when the sunlight drops below 20-30%. In which the automax (black magic) will have issues with, due to tracking. So i would stick with the engelec or easymax unit or a box hill unit which no one in W.A. I'm expecting the sunlight at this years competition to range mainly between 40-80%. If its cloudy below 50%.

Have you seen Forrest Place recent? The track will be shifted towards one side maybe and therefore sunlight on the track may be an issue. It will be strictly race after race this year, I would expect.

5th year, I expect to see something very fast with your experience. Did you get the registration in on time? From what I have seen the competition will not be from Girrawheen this year but some new schools. This includes Winthrop, Carmel and maybe Newman. The main reason for this is due to the John's new module which are of high quality. There was a lot of different modules last year, this year I predict 70% of the panels will be made of Engelec modules.

I made a demo car, so if there is room on the scruntineering table, highly unlikely, then everyone can have a look at something different. I'll be using a 2233 4.5 volt motor so performance wise wont be as good as all the other cars. I'm planning on not using a maximizer so, if you still want to have a race, I would be more than keen to see how it compares. Given that you have more years experience, give me a chance =]

Am I correct in saying your car will be similar to last years car, which in a sense will be like Moorebank's car this year? I'm sure you will be able to make your car in a few hours since you have all the major components such as the wheels, guide, motor etc.

jhg wrote:OK, I agree pressing a button is not that hard. But setting it at its max point is challenging for most. Redland, a tip, don't go adjusting your maximizer before every race this year. It damages the motor after a million times and adjusting it under pressure is not recommended. A shadow of some sort, including clouds may effect it. I would recommend you to set it before the competition as close to 100% and keep it like that. That's what I did with the Girrawheen cars. The only time you would adjust it is when the sunlight drops below 20-30%. In which the automax (black magic) will have issues with, due to tracking. So i would stick with the engelec or easymax unit or a box hill unit which no one in W.A. I'm expecting the sunlight at this years competition to range mainly between 40-80%. If its cloudy below 50%.

Jun,

You can adjust your maximiser without stalling the motor. You just need to substitute the motor for a resistance instead. With the right set up you could potentially set up the electronics up seconds before every race without stressing out the motor.

It is true that setting up the electronics just the once would, in general, be good enough. The max power voltage doesn't vary a great deal with sunlight percentages between about 30% and 100%. Panel temperature will affect things though and so you would need to ensure that it is kept relatively constant.

Recent testing of the Automax unit has shown it to perform extremely well down to about 3 or 4% sun. Below this it begins to have a few problems, but at these sunlights cars won't run anyway.

Marc

I have posted the Automax performace data here: automax-performace-at-various-light-levels-t372.html#p2124

Marc, data shows it works well all the way down to 1.9% sunlight.

I would say 3% or 4% if comparing against the Box Hill unit.

jhg wrote:The only time you would adjust it is when the sunlight drops below 20-30%. In which the automax (black magic) will have issues with, due to tracking.

Why would the autotracker have issues in 30% sunlight?

jhg wrote:It will be strictly race after race this year, I would expect.

This is unreasonable I think. If you're not allowed to make any changes to your car between races what is the point of having the best of three? Nothing would change. I believe it says in the rules that you are allowed time to make modifications between races.

jhg wrote:Did you get the registration in on time?

Yes, registration has been sorted.

jhg wrote:I'm planning on not using a maximizer so, if you still want to have a race, I would be more than keen to see how it compares. Given that you have more years experience, give me a chance =]

We used to run without optimisers, it was hard work and fairly tricky but it worked well in overcast conditions. We came 3rd in 2007 on a cloudy day, had it been sunny we probably would have been smoked.

jhg wrote:Am I correct in saying your car will be similar to last years car, which in a sense will be like Moorebank's car this year? I'm sure you will be able to make your car in a few hours since you have all the major components such as the wheels, guide, motor etc.

True we have all the stuff so it hasn't taken long. The car is a bit different.

Are you a scrutineer this year?

Apologies, I only had a look at the updated results for the Automax just then... Best on the market for convenience!

Yes, I will be scrutineering this year, if not I'll be helping out with the seeding and car data. All the fine details will be sorted out in the next few days. I will post what has been passed during our scrutineers meeting in regards to regulations, seeding, race format (stopping procedures and two lap races for the quarter or semi finals). Should be interesting to see how cars go around the corner (3rd turn) since I will be suggesting stopping after the first corner and not at the end of the finishing line, like last year.

Marc, I agree with recommending using a resistor however it is not practical if students decide to adjust it before every race. I think everyone was waiting for Aquinas last year. No offense.

jhg wrote:I think everyone was waiting for Aquinas last year. No offense.

Don't they have the right alter the maximiser if they wish to do so - especially if the weather instantanously changes and/or the competition is neck to neck?. It'll only take 15sec max to actually reset the easymax.

jhg wrote:Marc, I agree with recommending using a resistor however it is not practical if students decide to adjust it before every race. I think everyone was waiting for Aquinas last year. No offense.

If you use the right setup, you can make it so that using a resistance takes no longer than stalling the motor.

Yea you can have a socket where you plug the resistor into. I think Ive seen this before on one of your cars Marc.

TonyB wrote:Yea you can have a socket where you plug the resistor into. I think Ive seen this before on one of your cars Marc.

Yep. The socket disconnects the motor and the current then runs through the resistor instead. That way, all you have to do just before the start of the race is plug in the resistor, press the button on the Easymax and, hey presto, the max power point is set.

In the low sunlights I don't think I'd bother, but in good sunlights, where several amps are running though the motor at stall, I would use one.

Yes Firefly, you are right. You are given 2 minutes so in that time you can do any modifications as long as it meets regulations. However the regulations allow the organizers to alter the format in any circumstances. i.e Like last years nationals - best out of 1 race. By placing your car on the track we would expect its ready to go.If it has gone through the scrutineers to get a weight check any act beyond that point can be deemed suspicious. But why would you do that, you can get disqualified instantly.

Yes you can have a socket. My car last year was able to do something similar. I could either change between the easy max or the engelec model. However it is somewhat harder in a confined space, especially with this years regulation where the maximizer can not be in the cargo space. Easily solved with longer wiring.

jhg wrote:However the regulations allow the organizers to alter the format in any circumstances. i.e Like last years nationals - best out of 1 race. By placing your car on the track we would expect its ready to go.If it has gone through the scrutineers to get a weight check any act beyond that point can be deemed suspicious. But why would you do that, you can get disqualified instantly.

Last year was more unfortunate if anything, sure the organisation of the event could have been better handled, but the weather can take most of that blame; for slowing the races down. Aquinas may choose to reset it before being called up, its really their choice, but like you said, they are given 2 minutes to have the right to modify. I doesn't have to be deem suspicious, i thought the winning car gets re-weighed again after the race (as it happen in melbourne)?

Hello all,

Since the UNSW Sunsprint news page hasn't been updated for quite some time, I was just having a quick look around on the UNSW site to see if there might have been a new replacement challenge page to link to from the Tas website. I couldn't really find an official one, but I did happen to stumble across a news article with a link to some 2010 Sunsprint photos and a list of the award winners.
I don't know how long the page has been there for but, for anyone that's interested, the link to it is below.

http://www.pv.unsw.edu.au/temp/sunsprint_2010_selected/

There's also a video clip there of the 2nd Sunsprint final race between Aether and Shift.

Marc