Testing for the Summer Road Trip

We're heading out on a summer road trip tomorrow for some open road testing and sponsor visits. After finals, the team has been working hard on final preparations to get the car fully operational.
Our approximate route is below.


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Unveiling!

On April 12 he MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team unveiled its 2011 World Solar Challenge Vehicle Chopper del Sol. The event was held in Lobby 10 and featured talks regarding the various systems of the car as well as new design features.

The event was a great success! Thank you to all the sponsors, MIT faculty, students, press, alumni, as well as family and friends who attended. Here are a couple more pictures courtesy of Ed Moriarty:

Check out our new homepage with Chopper del Sol! Thanks to James Granata for the awesome design.

Over the next couple weeks the team will be testing Chopper around Cambridge as well as during our team road trip to the midwest. Check back here for more updates throughout the summer!

New Platinum & Gold Sponsors

The MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team is proud to announce the addition of our newest Platinum Sponsor: Konica Minolta.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta), a leading provider of advanced imaging and networking technologies for the desktop to the print shop, announced they will be supporting MIT SEVT for the next two years as a Platinum Sponsor.

“Sponsoring the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team and their participation in the upcoming World Solar challenge supports our dedication to both innovation and the environment,” said Kevin Kern, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. “The team’s efforts demonstrate what can happen when two important initiatives come together, and as a Platinum Sponsor, this further demonstrates how stakeholders can count on Konica Minolta to continue encouraging advancements in environmental sustainability.”

We look forward to working with Konica Minolta in the future - they recently came by the shop at MIT to present the team with a check!


Also joining the MIT SEVT family as a Silver Sponsor is Lockheed Martin. We met our Lockheed contact at a career fair on campus that SEVT attended, and Lockheed was very interested in supporting the team. Recently, a group of Lockheed executives toured the shop to check out the car and our facility - they left very impressed and vowed to support the team in the future.

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Three New Bronze Sponsors

TDK-Lambda, Interface Inc, and Omega Engineering have become our newest Bronze sponsors with donations of parts for a motor dyno I am working on to test the efficiency of our motor and motor controller. We can use this data to make better strategy decisions during the race and to determine if a newer motor is worth the price. The dyno will also be open to other student projects as it provides a motor testing range which is not present in any other MIT lab.








TDK Lambda provided the team with a Genesys 3.3 kW power supply. They has sponsored us with smaller supplies in the past which fills most of our needs, but running the motor a full tilt needs a bit more juice.









Interface has donated a 20Nm torque transducer for measuring torque directly in the output shaft of the motor. This allows for an accurate measurement without other losses affecting the results.













Information is useless without an accurate way to collect it. This 24 bit USB data acquisition module will monitor 16 analog signals ranging from +_ .078V to +- 20V at a 1kHz aggregate sample rate. It also has 500V isolation for peace of mind when plugging in your expensive (from a student perspective) personal laptop!

HSMWorks Sponsors Team with Software

HSMWorks has donated their full CAM software for use by MIT vehicle teams in our N51 shop. The description of their software below is from their website http://www.hsmworks.com/.

HSMWorks is a fully integrated CAM for SolidWorks, which provides effective generation of high quality 2D, 3D and 3+2 milling toolpaths for high speed machining.

The HSMWorks interface is designed for SolidWorks users and machinists alike. If you know SolidWorks, getting to know HSMWorks will be easy and straight forward.

I first used HSMWorks in another MIT lab and was blown away by its ease of use and speed. It is a huge step up from Mastercam 9 which we previously used and is sure to significantly reduce the number of hours we spend prepping for machining. Another plus to HSMWorks is their incredible service. It was less then 24 hours between asking for the software and having the license keys in my inbox!

THANK YOU to the HSMWorks team.

I'm off to make some G-code sans profanity.

~Rachel

Wind Tunnel Testing

We're back from the wind tunnel! We headed up to Michigan over spring break to test the vehicle at the Ford Driveability Test Facility. During the tests, we validated all our CFD results, made small modifications and adjustments, and finally characterized the vehicle in a variety of situations. Here are a couple teasers of the vehicle; you'll have to wait until the unveiling on April 12 for the full view.

In addition to testing the body, we are continuing development of the electrical system. In the next couple of weeks, we will wire the full array and get the basic system up and running before the unveiling.

The vehicle unveiling will occur April 12th from 4-6pm in Lobby 13 on campus! Check our blog for more details as we get closer to that date. The unveiling will feature a formal presentation from the team as well, and is open to the general public.